Here's a post that's been in the back of my mind for a year now. I'm pushing it out today, in honour of my daughter watching the first feature length PAW Patrol movie all the way through.
If you only want the scientific mysteries, you're going to have to skip over a couple paragraphs now, where I discuss my history with the show.
PAW Patrol is a Canadian animated television series that came out in 2013. (PAW is supposedly an acronym for "Pups At Work", via a trademark.) If you are unaware, it features a world where people and pups (and some cats) co-exist as equals.
Thus it's perfectly normal to have a chat with a dog or see a stunt show put on by a cat.
The show's protagonists are the PAW Patrol, led by Ryder (10 yr old human), with Chase (police/spy pup), Marshall (fire/EMT pup), Skye (pilot pup), Rubble (construction pup), Rocky (recycle/repair pup) and Zuma (water pup).
Later seasons add Everest (ice pup), Tracker (jungle pup), Liberty (with the feature films), and a host of others, including some cats (the Cat Pack, Shade is best cat). Rubble even has his own spin-off show now.
I don't recall exactly when I first heard about the series, but my initial reaction was basically: "Papa Troll? Weird name for a show". Jump forward to Summer 2021, during the second year of the Pandemic, when PAW Patrol: The Movie came out.
My daughter had recently turned three, and Mom would read her books on a tablet, through a website she'd signed up for. It included Sesame Street stories and the like - and that summer it was also promoting the movie. Meaning there was a short book with a bio of each pup, also showing their vehicles.
My daughter was intrigued, and in September 2021 when the promotion was removed, I bought her a short paper book from a bookstore (based on a scene from the movie) as a replacement. And we also found short episodes online, learned her cousins were watching too, and... here we are now, almost three years later.
It probably helps that I was also hooked in by the series, once I saw it. Mostly because of the pup houses that transform into vehicles, it's so exceedingly clever. Also the vehicles can transform into larger Ultimate Rescue vehicles. And the Paw Patroller can become a submarine, and Sid's pirate ship can do that too, and... look, if you liked Transformers growing up, how can you not find this cool?
But there are definitely scientific questions that occur as you watch the show.
To be clear, I'm not talking about how Ryder is still 10 years old after a decade of the show (apply Simpsons logic), or how dogs simply seem to be an integral part of society and can speak fluent "insert dub language of choice", along with their vehicles that are made so that paws can steer them.
I'm talking about more subtle details. Things about this Parallel PAW Planet Development that are particularly mysterious, but only when you stop to think about them.
So, without further delay, here's the TOP 5 SCIENTIFIC MYSTERIES OF PAW PATROL, as chosen by me.
5) CHEMISTRY: GOLDEN RETRIEVER
This one is incredibly minor, but I wanted chemistry in here, and even though it's a single reference, it vaguely bothers me every time the episode plays.
Season Five featured Ultimate Rescue versions of the vehicles. Rocky's only such episode, "Pups and the Hidden Golden Bones" featured City Hall sinking because Mayor Humdinger smashed into the underground pillars that were holding it up.
Rocky manages a temporary fix, then says they should make new pillars. Using the solid gold bones down there, for a more permanent solution.
Wait. Gold is one of the softer metals. Very malleable, and easily shaped. We're not talking decorative columns here. Is gold really a good idea to use as a support pillar?
Most of the (limited) research I've done agrees: Gold is durable, has a high melting point (so maintains shape), does not degrade through oxidation, and is great for decorative touches. It can even retain heat within a structure when mixed with glass. It is NOT good for singlehandedly supporting a heavy building.
But maybe gold in the Paw Patrol universe behaves differently? We see gold on occasion, including one time with Uncle Otis doing his prospecting. A huge gold nugget as big as a person survives a steep roll down a hill... though it also has a small chip easily pickaxed off it at the end of the episode.
I don't know. Is there something they can do with gold and architecture that we cannot?
It's a mystery.
4) BIOLOGY: PLEAD THE FIFTH
We can certainly question why all the Pups can speak English (or dub language of choice). But a greater mystery for me is, how can some cast regulars also speak the languages of other species?
We can perhaps buy Rex, from Season 7, who speaks with dinosaurs. He grew up around them, never even meeting dogs until after encountering Ryder. We can similarly buy Coral, who speaks Merpup, as she lived with them for years. When you've no one else to talk to, you learn to communicate with whomever's around.
But Captain Turbot also speaks MerPup. This despite him only seeing them a couple of times in passing. Did he find old records, and is he that much of a linguist? Well, maybe. Since he also speaks alien. Yes, aliens appear in Season 2, and in Season 3's "Pups Save a Space Toy", Captain Turbot translates an alien message for Ryder. Yeah, that happened.
But then, we also learn that Marshall can speak squirrel, and other animal languages. How? And how many others can do this?
It's not like there aren't other languages on Earth for people to have devoted themselves to, as Tracker's first language seems to be Spanish. Why their focus on animals? Does it have anything to do with this world's ability for humans and pups to speak the same language?
Was it perhaps even a pup who managed to do all this linguistic research, to the point of elevating their society's animal understanding so high above our own? Is that why we can't do it?
And if certain humans and pups living in the PAW Patrol world are able to talk to other animals in a "Doctor Dolittle" sense, why doesn't it happen more often? (Or does it?) And why is it only the Pups (and some Cats in later seasons) who have spoken English back, and who have been integrated into society?
Related, if humans can talk to animals and be understood, why are many of these animals still treated like pets? (Companions likely becomes a better word, yet Mayor Goodway DOES call her chicken her pet.) Is it an individual thing, for certain animals? A species thing, for all of an animal type? The PAW movie even shows an Obedience School for dogs, is that like having a Reform School for humans?
What I'm getting at here is, who speaks with whom, and what IS the animal hierarchy? I have no sense for the overall linguistics, but I feel like there's a societal impact we're not seeing.
It's a mystery.
(Sidebar: The names of the pups themselves change in different languages, like Skye is Stella in French. Does this imply that a French version of the MerPup language exists, for instance? Different from the English one?)
3) BIOLOGY: ALL HANDS ON DECK
All humans in the PAW Patrol universe have three fingers, and a thumb. This is just their reality, and I wager the three finger thing likely helps with their engineering, helping to match human hands with a paw print.
But there ARE hands in the show with five fingers (aka four fingers and a thumb). Did you ever notice them?
First, the suits of armour in Barkingburg. You can get a good look at them in Season 4's "Royally Spooked" (when they're remote controlled and snapping their fingers), and see they have full five fingered hands.
Meaning, did humans formerly have five fingers back in medieval times, and that changed over the span of a few centuries? Is it instead that armour recreations are just that bad? Or were the suits designed by AI ("artificial intelligence")?
Second, the elves. Not the Tolkien type, the Santa type.
Yes, Santa is canon in the PAW Patrol universe, he's had three appearances over the years. In Season Seven, Percy the elf is a major character in one such episode, and he CLEARLY has all five fingers. We see it multiple times. (Santa only has the same number as humans, if you were wondering.)
It's not a mistake, as we also see some elves in the background of Season Ten's Christmas episode, and again, five fingered elves. This was a choice.
But then, what is the story here? Are the suits of armour in Barkingburg actually depicting really tall elves? Or was the armour itself MADE by elves, is that why there's an extra digit?
For that matter, how many humans know of the existence of another finger? Do they wonder about medieval times? Why is it these elves have five fingers, while everyone else does not?
It's a mystery.
2) PHYSICS: USE THE FORCE
The PAW Patrol Universe has impressive forcefield technology.
And I'm not talking about the magic forcefield power occasionally granted by the Super Meteor after Season Five, I mean actual Star Trek technology levels of forcefields exist. Namely, people have the ability to pass through a forcefield that can simultaneously keep water out.
It's like shuttlecraft leaving a launch bay for the vacuum of space.
This is most obvious in Season Nine, when they're visiting the MerPups more often. Their vehicles seem to blast out into the water, at speed, and yet the water doesn't flood the interior of the main Patroller vehicle.
Maybe there's some kind of airlock? But the "at speed" thing has me wondering.
Yet, let's go right back to Season Four. The Sub Patroller in the Sea Patroller's hanger bay is lowered down into the water through a hole in the floor. Except - isn't that part of the boat ALREADY under the water? Why isn't that water flooding up through the hole?
It can't be an airlock here, there's literally an arm that lowers the sub, and then retracts.
Or, if you're certain the water level was accurate to the outside of Ryder's ship, same episode, but Sid Swashbuckle's submarine. His lower hatch is opened by Chase, and all of the pirate's ill gotten pearls and other gains start spilling out. Yet no water ever enters his sub. When Chase has to jump into the sub to retrieve the shell, which didn't fall out, we see breathable air everywhere.
Mayor Humdinger has this technology too, in his sub, in Season Nine. He exits his sub, and his kittens don't drown.
This is pretty impressive selective forcefield technology! Yet it seems completely commonplace to them. And keeping liquid out but letting solids through? It should have a lot of uses in other places, like the medical field.
But we don't see those. We don't even know how they do it.
It's a mystery.
1) PHYSICS: SPACE IS WARPED AND TIME IS BENDABLE
Here is where we could absolutely question how some of Marshall's pratfalls work, given they can catapult him from town all the way to the lookout. We could also question how the patrol have the time to (for instance) take a call, get to the truck stop, have a briefing and deploy to the mountain, all in the time it takes a house on skis to only slide down about ten metres.
We could tackle those, but we won't.
Because if you didn't know that TARDIS technology was mystery number one, you really haven't seen the show.
The most common example of lots of things existing in a tiny space (other than perhaps the pup packs themselves) is Rocky's vehicle. It seems to hold any number of old odds and ends. Like, he can just pull a set of long skis out of there, no problem. In Season Seven's "Pups Save the Pupmobiles", tons of stuff is thrown out of it, including: a table, a long ladder, a barrel, and a kitchen sink (funny).
The next most common example of pocket dimensions is the various Patrollers. The Sea Patroller from Season Four (referenced above) somehow has enough space beneath, for not only the vehicle launcher and the Sub Patroller room, but also an entire set of wheels and axles that can extend to transform it into an amphibious vehicle.
Meanwhile, though the original 18-wheeler Paw Patroller had visible space in the back for the vehicles, the new upgrade in Season 8 does not. Instead, it has the vehicles come down from the ceiling. I'm sure there is no space up there, meaning they're either stored magically or being teleported in from elsewhere.
Actually, teleportation could explain a lot of this. But when some of the villains do it (like Codi Gizmody), it's presented as new technology.
Still, perhaps my favourite instance of things being bigger on the inside comes from the first PAW Patrol Movie. No, not the one that was in theatres, the FIRST one, the Mighty Pups made for TV Movie.
During that movie, the Lookout Tower gets zapped with meteor power and levitates off the ground. You can even see a divot in the ground where it once rested. Yet... we KNOW there's an entire sub-basement to this tower. Much larger than is pictured.
That's where Ryder stores his ATVs. That's where the vehicles go to be transformed into Ultimate Mode. In fact, at the end of that very movie itself, their elevator goes down to a large storage area where they place the meteor (in a funny send-up of Warehouse 13).
But when the Tower was removed, we saw none of that. Meaning the bottom of the Tower itself is just this pocket dimension of space where all the cool gear is kept. How did Ryder manage to acquire this technology? Where else does it exist in the PAW Patrol universe?
It's a mystery.
IN CLOSING
We have now seen how, in all spheres of science, the mythology of PAW Patrol has some underlying mysteries. There's the composition of gold, the linguistic and biological history of the civilization, and the technological marvels of forcefields and pocket dimensions.
Yes, I have put far too much thought into this, but the mind wanders when you're watching an episode for the nth time.
And as I said to start, now that my daughter decided to watch the first movie in full this weekend (we got it for her just over a year ago, but partway through a first viewing, she decided it was getting too scary)... who knows whether I mind find myself blogging about this stuff again. Would anyone read it?
Rubble and Crew certainly seem to have the capability to build structures in hours that should realistically take weeks, after all.
Either way, if you got this far, I do hope you enjoyed reading. Comment if you like (especially if you can solve the mysteries), and perhaps we'll see you again.