Exclusive: Cal Brunker on dinosaurs animation and the making of Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie

The PAW Patrol pups are heading into their biggest adventure yet, and this time, they’re going prehistoric. Paramount Pictures’ PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie takes the much-loved rescue team to an uncharted tropical island inhabited by dinosaurs, where they find themselves facing a threat far bigger than anything they’ve encountered before.

The film marks director Cal Brunker’s third outing with the PAW Patrol franchise and expands its world with a host of new prehistoric characters. After their ship is caught in a mysterious storm, the pups crash-land on the island and meet Rex, a pup who has spent years there and become an expert in all things dinosaur-related. Things take a dangerous turn when the pups’ old rival, Mayor Humdinger, begins mining the island for its natural resources, inadvertently triggering a dormant volcano and putting the entire island at risk.

At the heart of the film’s new world are the dinosaurs, and Brunker says creating them was as much about authenticity as it was about making them fit naturally into the animated universe.

“We all love dinosaurs. But animating dinosaurs is not easy! We wanted our dinosaurs to move in a way that felt authentic, believable, and realistic, pulling everyone even deeper inside the story. So, one of the coolest things about making this movie was talking to real dinosaur experts to learn exactly how the bones and muscles fit together.”

For Brunker, getting the dinosaurs right also meant preserving the sense of scale and majesty that makes these creatures so fascinating to audiences. He didn’t want them to feel overly cartoonish or disconnected from the world of PAW Patrol.

“It was important to me that we kept them majestic,” notes Brunker. “We wanted to capture the sense of wonder you get when you see dinosaurs and hopefully inspire a whole new generation of dinosaur fans.”

One of the film’s new additions is Rhubarb, a hatchling T-Rex who quickly becomes Marshall’s best friend. The character was designed to bring a different kind of charm to the film, with Brunker taking inspiration from the very pups at the centre of the franchise.

“Rhubarb is one of my favourite characters in the film,” Brunker shares. “When we set out to design Rhubarb, we were aiming to make the cutest dinosaur ever. He’s truly innocent and curious. We always thought of him as acting like a little puppy. We kept thinking, ‘What if Marshall, who is a puppy, got a puppy?’ And so Rhubarb has a lot of those little puppy mannerisms. He wants to play, and we see him shake his tail.”

The film also brings together a new ensemble of voices, with Jennifer Hudson, Terry Crews, Jameela Jamil, Fortune Feimster, Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, Meredith MacNeill and Bill Nye joining the returning cast. For Brunker, the mix of performers adds another layer to the film’s larger-than-life world.

“The best part of working with such a unique mix of performers is that you’ve got their distinct voices and different personalities playing off each other, and it brings the scenes to life,” he says.

Amid the dinosaur-sized action, Brunker also points to a quieter character moment as one of the film’s highlights: “We see how he joined the PAW Patrol and why Ryder calls him the pup that never gives up.”

Behind the colourful world and high-stakes rescues, however, lies an animation process that takes years and involves hundreds of artists. Brunker says the scale of making an animated film remains both demanding and rewarding.

“Making an animated movie is a ton of fun, but it’s also a ton of work that takes hundreds of artists many years,” he reflects. “We start with the script, then we move into the storyboard with hundreds and hundreds of little sketches that plan the shots and action. Then we record with the actors, and give those performances to the animators who bring the characters to life, before creating all these beautiful environments with gorgeous lighting, special effects, and sound effects. All of this becomes the movie you see on screen.”

Presented by Paramount Animation and Spin Master Entertainment, PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie is set to release in theatres in English and Hindi on August 21.