- Content: “Ready for Holiday Action”
| None | Light | Moderate | Heavy | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Language | ||||
| Violence | ||||
| Sex | ||||
| Nudity |
What You Need To Know:
With a strong moral worldview with light pagan elements, A PAW PATROL CHRISTMAS is an entertaining and fun special episode with catchy songs and puns, but skips the Christian part of the season, and brings important selflessness themes for children to learn about giving. MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for young children due to light cartoon violence and the implication that the true meaning of Christmas doesn’t include the Savior.
Content:
A strong moral worldview that teaches children to focus not on their own presents, but to see that giving is better than receiving. However, the episode contains light pagan elements, claiming that the true meaning of Christmas is to spend time with friends and family. While that is certainly part of the season, it is not the true meaning – which is to celebrate the birth of the savior, Jesus Christ. Outside of skirting the religious aspects of the season, it is otherwise a wholesome show for young children of any religion to see the good of the Christmas season: to realize that material wants should not be the focus and that nothing good will come from selfishness. A light romantic worldview as a character is obsessed with a coveted laser drill which creates a situation where he is easily tricked by the villain and almost ruins Santa’s delivery for all the children of the world. There is a scene where he physically must choose between saving Santa’s sleigh or his present. Santa encourages the character to follow his heart and make the right choice. In the end, everyone is happy, and the character commits a selfless act that reflects his heart. Overall, the characters take great care to make sure everyone is included and not ridiculed. When a character recognizes his mistakes, the group is quick to forgive and doesn’t admonish him. Same goes for the villain, even though Santa does tell him he is on the naughty list forever. In the end, he is just a little boy who made selfish choices, but doesn’t mean he isn’t also deserving of some love as well;
No foul language;
Light cartoon violence with: characters falling and jumping from high places, performing dangerous stunts in the air, and characters hang off a cliff;
No sex;
No nudity;
No alcohol use;
None; and,
The villain and his kitties often lie and deceive the main characters. His plot to steal all the Christmas presents is greedy and envious.
More Detail:
With a strong moral worldview with light pagan elements, A PAW PATROL CHRISTMAS is an entertaining and fun special episode with catchy songs, great animation, and funny puns, but skips the Christian aspects of the season, and brings important selflessness themes for children to learn about giving. MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for some light cartoonish violence and implying that the true meaning of Christmas doesn’t include the Savior’s birth.
The episode begins with all the beloved characters from the show celebrating the Christmas season with a song, sharing their excitement. Rubble narrates his letter to Santa, saying he’s been extra nice this year and begging for a laser drill.
Ryder gets a video call from Mayor Goodway. She is not calling for a problem; she is calling because she needs help getting the star on a very tall Christmas tree. The Paw Patrol, with their newly decorated vehicles, gear up, and everyone has a job. Sliding down into their cars, they arrive at the massive tree in the town center. It takes everyone’s help to get it up, including a helicopter. They light the tree successfully, and they know Santa will love it.
In a corner, Mayor Humdinger and his cats complain about Christmas and how he is always on the naughty list. Insisting he is not “naughty” as Santa says, he tears up a poster as the cats play with the pieces, and a cable holding the tree breaks. The Paw Patrol rushes to save it. Mayor Humdinger pulls the last cable, and the tree crashes down, catching fire. The puppies do their best to fix it quickly before Santa sees it.
Santa video calls Mayor Goodway. He explains that due to a cold, he won’t be able to make his Christmas trip around the world this year – meaning no presents. Mayor Goodway and most of the Paw Patrol agree that they will be ok without them. However, Rubble is horrified. Mayor Goodway insists that the true meaning of Christmas isn’t about presents but about being together with the people you love, and giving, not receiving. Rubble is so focused on not getting the laser drill that he doesn’t understand and believes that only the drill will make him happy.
When Mayor Humdinger overhears that Santa won’t be delivering presents this year, he decides this is his opportunity to steal all the presents from the North Pole. He tricks Rubble into coming to the North Pole with him and uses Rubble’s bulldozer to obtain his laser drill. Rubble dreams of all the things he will do with it.
The Paw Patrol doesn’t realize he’s missing until the next morning and tracks him using GPS on the way to the North Pole. On Humdinger’s plane, Rubble hears the sad story about Humdinger’s only happy Christmas memory.
When they arrive at the North Pole, Humdinger tricks Rubble again to stay back while he breaks into Santa’s workshop. The Paw Patrol arrives just in time. But will they be able to save all the presents?
In the end, Rubble must follow his heart and make the right choice to understand what giving truly means during Christmastime.
