In this high-flying mission, the pups gear up with jets to stop the Duke of Flappington and save Barkingburg.
Paw Patrol: Jet to the Rescue is a TV special released in 2020 that focuses on the pups’ quest to stop the Duke of Flappington and save Barkingburg. Throughout this TV movie, viewers see new vehicles the pups receive on their quest to help the Princess of Barkingburg. Though many fans find this TV special adventurous, this TV special is missing learning values, as with other episodes within the series.
Viewers see some representation of women in this TV special, as Skye, Everest, Sweetie, and the Princess of Barkingburg are given major roles. In fact, this TV movie is focused mainly on Skye, as she is an experienced pilot pup. Skye suffers from her fear of eagles, which is the main conflict in this TV movie. Compared to the other TV specials Mighty Pups and Ready Race Rescue, this TV special is focused on the female characters.
People discuss on social media that PAW Patrol is a popular children’s cartoon series, so many would think representation and diversity wouldn’t matter. But if we look closely at the characters introduced into the series, we see there is not much representation of a minority. What the series is currently lacking, especially in recent episodes, is diversity and the representation of racial groups among the human characters. The learning values, topics, and messages such as building a strong community and helping out in the community are slowly becoming ineffective on viewers because there is a lot of repeated content. There is concern that PAW Patrol has become just an entertaining show for kids, losing its educational value.
One major pattern that we often see in the series is many human characters are white men and white people. This is also seen in the theatrical movie. This reflects the stereotypes and sexism that are related to the topic of search and rescue being portrayed in the media. The topics of representation and diversity among people are topics that can be taught to young children, as both topics are relevant to the themes of search and rescue, teamwork, and community. Many episodes in the series take place outside of a school environment. What viewers need to learn is that community is about including everyone.
Overall, this PAW Patrol TV special is entertaining, like Mighty Pups and Ready Race Rescue, but lacks strong representation and diversity of a minority.
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