PAW Patrol



PAW Patrol is a Canadian animated television series created by Keith Chapman. It is produced by Spin Master Entertainment with animation provided by Guru Studio. In Canada, the series is primarily broadcast on TVOKids, which first ran previews of the show in August 2013. The series first aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on August 12, 2013.

The series focuses on a boy named Ryder who leads a pack of rescue dogs known as the PAW Patrol. They work together on missions to protect the shoreside community of Adventure Bay. Each dog has a specific set of skills based on a real-life profession. For example, Marshall has the abilities of a firefighter and Chase's responsibilities are similar to those of a police officer. They all reside in doghouses that can transform into customized vehicles when necessary. They are also equipped with backpacks called "pup packs" that contain tools.

Spin Master has developed the show into a media franchise and released an ongoing line of toys based on it. PAW Patrol toy sales have generated millions of dollars in revenue for the corporation and increased Spin Master's presence in the preschool toy market. Despite the commercial success of the show, critical reception has been mixed. Several critics have called attention to its unequal gender representation because the team of dogs is primarily male. The show, and its associated products, have received a variety of awards and nominations from associations such as the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Format
Each episode of PAW Patrol follows a similar pattern and features recurring themes. Episodes normally open with a scene depicting the dogs going about their everyday lives, often playing with dog toys or engaging in activities at the local playground. Ryder, a ten-year-old boy, is advised of a problem by receiving a call for help or by witnessing a situation himself. His most frequent caller is an accident-prone marine biologist named Cap'n Turbot, who knows much about Adventure Bay's wildlife. Ryder always alerts the dogs via their blinking pet tags. The team members report to their base, the Lookout, and enter its elevator. Marshall typically arrives last causing a humorous mishap that makes the other dogs laugh as the elevator rises. When they reach the top floor, they arrange themselves in a line. Chase announces that the team is ready for action as Ryder tells the pups what has happened. He chooses several members of the team, normally two first responders, to help solve whatever problem has emerged. They ride a slide down to their vehicles and complete their mission. When they have finished, Ryder says his catchphrase: "Whenever you're in trouble, just yelp for help!" and congratulates the dogs.

Production
According to Spin Master, the concept for PAW Patrol stemmed from a prototype for a transforming truck toy. After developing a relationship with Nickelodeon, Spin Master approached British television producer Keith Chapman to "invent a franchise" based on their model. The PAW Patrol plot was ultimately based on one of Chapman's ideas. The company hired toy designers to develop the format further; after the concept was in place, they began designing merchandise.

Nickelodeon first announced that it had picked up PAW Patrol at the 2013 Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. The series became Spin Master's first solely-owned intellectual property (IP) once it was released in August 2013.

Since it began production the show's animation has been provided by Guru Studio. In a 2016 interview with Maclean's Magazine, Guru president Frank Falcone stated that his studio's animators were originally suspicious of the show's "toyetic" concept. The series' rock-inspired original score was composed by the Ontario-based group Voodoo Highway Music & Post. The opening theme song, and the ending song used in each episode include vocals performed by Scott Simons.

With each season of the show, new supporting characters and themes are introduced in its episodes. In a May 2016 interview for the Toronto Star, Spin Master president Ben Gadbois stated that his company would continue to introduce additional characters and concepts to increase the franchise's longevity and to expand upon the success of tie-in merchandise. In August of the same year, Spin Master co-founder Ronnen Harary explained that these changes were intended to keep the show's content "fresh" and "relevant".

The first season aired from August 2013 to August 2014. The second season premiered in August 2014; in Canada, it concluded in September 2015 and in the United States, it concluded in December 2015. A third season premiered in November 2015. Spin Master has confirmed that fourth, fifth and sixth seasons are in development, with the fourth set for a 2017 release.

Merchandise
On May 18, 2014, Spin Master introduced a toy line based on the television series at Toys "R" Us locations across Canada. The line was not distributed to international markets until June 22 of the same year. Dion Vlachos, a representative from Nickelodeon, was in charge of the U.S. product launch.

PAW Patrol has since become one of Spin Master's most profitable brands. Analysts for the National Bank of Canada reported that toys and games based on the show accounted for approximately $245 million U.S. (or 25 per cent) of Spin Master's gross product sales for 2015. Spin Master chairman Anton Rabie noted in August 2016 that the "continuing strength" of PAW Patrol toys, in addition to new acquisitions and movie licenses, made up 40.5 per cent of the firm's second quarter revenue. Marketing manager Emma Eden said that the toys were responsible for increasing the company's presence in the preschool market. Throughout 2016, Spin Master's revenue grew more in this market than in any other toy category. PAW Patrol has been cited as the sole reason for this.

The NPD Group named PAW Patrol the top new toy brand of 2015 in the United Kingdom. The group also reported that it was the best-selling preschool license in France in the first quarter of 2015. Dave Brandon, the chief executive officer of Toys "R" Us, listed the PAW Patroller vehicle toy as one of the 2015 holiday season's "hottest" items. Argos the U.K. catalogue retailer included the PAW Patrol Air Patroller vehicle on its list of the toys it predicts will be bestsellers during the Christmas 2016 season.

Live events
In April 2016, a stage show titled PAW Patrol Live: Race to the Rescue was announced. It will tour Canada, the United States, Mexico and Australia. It debuted on October 29, 2016, at the Old National Events Plaza in Evansville, Indiana.

Mascots based on the PAW Patrol characters have appeared at events across Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. They joined an "Etch A Sketch Day" celebration at Spin Master's office in Toronto on July 26, 2016. The characters, along with replicas of the Lookout tower from the program, were included as part of the Nick Jr. Play Date Tour in autumn 2015. Marshall and Chase made appearances at shopping malls throughout Nottingham, Suffolk, and Somerset in the U.K. in the summer of 2016. Multiple meet-and-greet events attracted far more attendees than expected, with some reaching over 5,000 visitors. They appeared for the first time in Northern Ireland at Glenarm Castle on July 13, 2016. They are scheduled to appear regularly in a Nickelodeon-themed area of the Thurrock's Lakeside Shopping Centre located on the outskirts of London, England.

Unauthorized productions and events featuring the show's characters have attracted the attention of Viacom, the series' international distributor. In February 2016, several Greene King pubs in the U.K. scheduled breakfast events with costumed characters modelled after the pups. Viacom forced the chain to stop every event by threatening a lawsuit if they went ahead. There was some consumer backlash as a result, but the events were not held.

Release
The series has been sold to TV networks in over 160 countries. In Canada, the series is shown on TVOKids, Knowledge Kids, Télé-Québec and City Kids. In the United States, the series is aired on Nickelodeon and Nick Jr.

As required for Canadian programs aired on federally-funded networks, PAW Patrol has been dubbed in French for Quebec broadcasts and for its broadcast in France on TF1. Canal Panda airs a European Portuguese dub. A British English dub, which uses the same scripts as the Canadian version with minor changes, is shown on Channel 5 and Nick Jr. UK. Anione, JEI TV, and KBS have all broadcast the Korean-dubbed version. The show has been aired in the Icelandic language on Iceland's public broadcaster RÚV since 2015. The first two seasons were shown in Finnish on Yle TV2. The video on demand platform Le.com obtained broadcast rights for a Mandarin Chinese-dubbed version of PAW Patrol in April 2016.

In July 2016, film distribution company Notorious Pictures acquired the rights to an Italian theatrical release of the series. Six episodes of PAW Patrol are set to be screened as a package film in select Italian cinemas from December 22, 2016 until January 8 of the following year. Sabahat Khan, of Spin Master partner RBC Capital Markets, has stated that he "wouldn't be surprised by a [North American] feature film down the line."

Ratings
PAW Patrol has received consistently high ratings on Nickelodeon. Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman cited the series as a source of Nickelodeon's 2014 ratings growth. It ranked as the highest-rated, preschool TV program in the United States in November 2013 and held that position throughout the spring 2014 season. The spot was briefly overtaken by Team Umizoomi reruns in July 2016, but PAW Patrol reclaimed the title later the same month. Bloomberg L.P. described PAW Patrol as part of a "creative resurgence" that increased the Nick Jr. channel's viewership in 2016. At Nickelodeon's 2016 upfront presentation for future advertisers, Cyma Zarghami named PAW Patrol one of two preschool shows to have significantly helped boost ratings for the network (the other being Blaze and the Monster Machines).

In March 2015, two back-to-back premieres of the show ranked among the top twenty weekday showings (among total viewers) in Australia. In May 2015, it was reported that PAW Patrol broadcasts on TF1 had been viewed by 45 per cent of households in France with preschool-aged children.

Critical reception
Common Sense Media reviewer Emily Ashby gave the show a four-star rating, stating that "perhaps the show's best attribute is how it demonstrates the value of thoughtful problem-solving". Randy Miller of DVD Talk recommended the show, calling it "packed with all the harmless action and cornball jokes that kids...can't help but snicker at". Stuff.co.nz reviewer Pattie Pegler also wrote favourably of the series, but felt that some of the characters "seem rather arbitrary, like Rocky the Recycling Pup". The About Group's Carey Bryson gave the series a mixed review, criticizing its "formulaic" nature but affirming that the "show is not without funny moments".

A research study, commissioned by Sky in March 2016, reported that 16 per cent of surveyed British and Irish children named PAW Patrol as their favourite program.

Criticism has been directed toward the show's team of dogs, which only includes one main female. Cat Conway of Dan Abrams' The Mary Sue rhetorically asked, "the police pup, firefighting pup, builder pup, sea-rescue pup, and whatever the hell Rocky does are all coded male, because of course you couldn't have a female police dog, could you?" Brandy King of the Center on Media and Child Health "found the gender imbalance immediately noticeable" while watching the program. Today's Parent noted in April 2015 that PAW Patrol images appeared frequently on Twitter with the hashtag "#IncludeTheGirls".

Accolades
In 2014, the series' theme song was nominated for Outstanding Original Song – Main Title and Promo in the 41st Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. In 2016, the season two episode "Pups Save a Mer-Pup" was nominated for Best Animated Television/Broadcast Production for Preschool Children in the 43rd Annie Awards. As of 2017, PAW Patrol has received four Canadian Screen Award nominations, winning one of them in 2016.