The promotional commercials have been running for a new Paw Patrol movie coming out Sept. 29 that many families are considering taking their young ones to. We have been toying with taking our 4-year-old for her first cinema experience. The lovable loyal dogs who protect the city from the zany kitten catastrophe crew have even piqued my interest at times.

But now, before even entering the theater, the lights are dimming on that idea with news of the Paw Patrol spin-off show Rubble and Crew being the latest children’s animated series to add what they dub a “non-binary” character into the program. 

Rubble and Crew follows the beloved bulldog Rubble as he and his family work to build a new town called Builder Cove. It debuted earlier this summer, but already, in an attempt to appear “inclusive,” the show has featured what they called a “non-binary person.” 

And of course, this news wasn’t shared through a press release about the decision to kowtow to the gender ideologues. It was only when the character’s creator, a gay-rights activist named Lindsay Amer, took to social media to brag about her role as a consultant for the show, cheerleading this new character named River. 

In an Instagram post, she wrote: “They brought me on to consult on the first nonbinary character — meet River!! — for the PAW Patrol universe and write their episode, talk about a bucket list item.

“I wanted to write a nonbinary character that was aspirational and incredibly cool, someone for the pups (and kids at home) to look up to.”

Aspirational? I don’t see children aspiring to be whitewashed and ill-defined. Definition is all we have when discerning the truth. 

And how do we as parents help children discern the truth in an era intent upon spreading falsehood? 

This is the real issue in this era of media manipulation. The new character River loves to ride a skateboard and take pictures. The character doesn’t come out articulating words like “non-binary” and touting transgenderism. Terms like these aren’t tangible to children, let alone most of the general public still grappling with the ever-growing LGBTQ acronym.

But this indoctrination is much more dangerous because it is more subtle than speech. River’s socks and shoes feature white, blue and pink stripes, the colors coopted by the transgender movement for their flag of choice. The consultant also pointed out that the voice of the character features a so-called “non-binary actor” named Cihang Ma. “They found an awesome non-binary actor to voice River and I’m so so happy about how it turned out.”

As a mother of a bubbling 4-year-old, it’s distressing to see how these plots are just woven in, with no warning.

Tierin-Rose Mandelburg, Anderlik Fellow in Culture & Media, video host and blogger for The Media Research Center, told the Register:

“The left’s attack in the Rubble and Crew episode was subtle with the transgender socks and the non-binary characters, yet has the potential to wreak havoc in families,” Mandelburg said. 

“Pushing ideologies like this is exactly what the left aims to do. Parents can no longer put on what looks like an innocent children’s cartoon and have faith that it will be appropriate, making it incredibly hard to discern and teach children to discern right from wrong,” she said.

She also called this move an “intentional effort by the left to subtly divide families and groom children, one concept at a time.”

I know I am not ready to explain the backward reality of gender ideology to my child, but John Bursch of Alliance Defending Freedom, the author of a new book, Loving God’s Children: The Church and Gender Ideology, says this is what needs to be done. Going back to his days arguing before the Supreme Court in the case that changed marriage in our country forever, he sees moves like this as a continual chipping away at our understanding of humanity.

“Hollywood is targeting our youngest children, trying to indoctrinate them with gender ideology before they’re old enough to process the implications,” Bursch told the Register. 

As Bursch indicates in his new book, he sees a direct line between this new transgender push with the fall of traditional marriage. 

“Those who push a gender ideology agenda were getting ready for Obergefell. As soon as the decision was released, they were ready to immediately pivot to the transgender issues,” Bursch said. 

“You may not remember, but back in 2015, within a week or two of the decision had come out, they were already putting Bruce Jenner on the cover of magazines and all the TV talk shows to talk about his transition to the ‘woman’ Caitlin Jenner. And already at that point, there was the TV show, ‘I Am Jazz,’ about the boy who was transitioning to a girl.”

“So the progressive movement which is trying to destroy the American family was immediately ready to take Obergefell as its launching pad for a push towards gender activism,” Bursch said.

“Two years ago, it was an episode of Blue’s Clues — a show for very young children — that featured a ‘Pride Parade’ that included a float with a young cartoon beaver who had tape over her chest from breast removals. Today, it is a Paw Patrol spin-off introducing a non-binary character written into the script by the non-binary creator of YouTube’s “Queer Kid Stuff” channel,” Bursch lamented. 

Yes, this latest character development isn’t the first in this ongoing onslaught to strip away the reality of our physical humanity. Amazon’s new Clifford series has a character with two moms. Time stood still for my husband and me when our young 3-year-old heard the young girl say goodnight to mom ... and mommy. Peppa Pig has also featured two moms awaiting the birth of their baby. 

All the more reason why parents must remain vigilant to this brainwashing, as Bursch told the Register: “Such developments make it all the more important for parents to monitor the entertainment their kids are consuming and to teach them the truth and beauty of God’s vision for the body.”

Paw Patrol seemed to be a safer zone. The original show itself, now in its 10th year, had steered clear of the warped arena — but the spin-off series made it only to the 16th episode before Rubble began playing with real rubbish. And now with the new movie coming to theatres this weekend — parents beware! 

Think long and hard before allowing your child to become a victim of yet another devious ploy to reinvent the reality of our bodies. These ideologues should know that nothing ever will take away from the richness of the theology of our bodies — and the beautiful metaphysical love we are called to — for a man and woman to unite as one and bring life into this world. This is the stuff of which not only fairytales, but dreams, are made. 

As St. John Paul so eloquently reminded us: 

The body, in fact, and only the body, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It has been created to transfer into the visible reality of the world, the mystery hidden from eternity in God, and thus to be a sign of it ...