The third PAW Patrol feature film, PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie, is in theaters nationwide this Friday Aug. 14. Always great catching up with director Cal Brunker and writer Bob Barlen, who share insights on the pups, dinosaurs, visuals, Backstreet Boys… and if the cinematic franchise will continue. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: Saw this at packed a screening on Saturday.  Families loved it. You’ve made a trilogy now! Congratulations.

Cal Brunker: Thank you so much. It’s been really fun after all these years working on it to have it out in the world and to see families enjoying it.

JM: Families will love this, and kids who have grown up with the series are now a little older, the new generation of kids, amazing. So Cal, focusing on dinosaurs. It’s something kids really, really love. When did you know, “Alright, this third film has to be about dinos”?

CB: I think when we were finishing up movie two, which was a superhero movie [“PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie”] we were thinking, “How do we possibly top ourselves?” And we locked onto the idea of dinosaurs, and we thought, “There we go. That’d do it.” Kids loving dinosaurs and puppy dogs, what could be better?

JM: There’s a lot in this movie. Bob, I think what you do with Marshall’s saga is so smart, it’s so compelling. There were kids at the screening who were saying, “Go Marshall! Go Marshall!” So, you really put him in these dangerous situations, and he’s so brave. Tell me about creating this arc for Marshall in “The Dino Movie”.

Bob Barlen: Well, when Cal and I were writing “PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie”, we wanted to focus on Marshall and sort of talk about his story. He’s known in the show and in the previous movies as the clumsy pup, and we wanted to dig into that a little bit deeper and also just sort of have him learn about the power of perseverance and tie that into the movie, which was a really fun thing to be able to do.

JM: There are so many terrific themes to this film that families will really embrace, and they will also embrace the visuals. Cal, these dinos are so massive. Did you know how big they were gonna be proportion-wise to the pups? How did you figure all that out?

CB: The movie that made me wanna be a movie director was “Jurassic Park”, when I saw that in theaters as a kid. And so once we figured out that we were gonna make a dinosaur movie, the first thing I said is, “I wanna try…” And obviously our dinosaurs are nice in this movie. They’re not scary. But I wanted to try and capture that sense of wonder that we saw. So we brought in dinosaur experts to help us with the bones and muscles and their movement, and to try and be as true as we possibly could to those amazing creatures and hopefully inspire the next generation of dinosaur lovers.

JM: That was in my notes. I go, “Jurassic Park must have served as an inspiration.” Not only because of dinosaurs, but there are certain shots and sequences in the movie, Bob, that really capture that feel.

BB: Absolutely. We wanted to make something that was big and cinematic — everything from the story that we’re telling and the visuals. We just wanted to make something that people can go to and families can go to to see in the theater. And for us with the PAW Patrol films, one of the most fun things is oftentimes it’s a kid’s first movie that they’re ever seeing in the theater, and they’re going with their family, or they’re going with their parents or their older brothers and sisters. And so we wanted to make something that was really big and exciting and worth going to the theater for.

JM: It absolutely is. So the Dino Island that the pups and Ryder end up on has this great new character, Cal, called Rex. And oftentimes in movies, when characters show up on deserted islands, they meet the kind of the old crusty guy, the veteran who’s been there. Rex is a pup. Rex is a pup just like the PAW Patrol gang. So that relatability factor is really smart there. Tell me about creating Rex as a new character.

CB: I think with Rex, we really wanted to find a character that was different than the core group of pups, but could still fit into the group. We cast a wonderful young actor named Hayden Chamberlain, who’s got this great kind of gravelly, almost surfery kind of voice, and we thought that was cool for a pup who’d been living on an island for all, all these years. It was a lot of fun to bring Rex in. He’s a dinosaur expert, and he’s kind of the pups’ guide to this new island.

JM: Yes. And over the course of the movie, Bob, we have themes of never giving up, perseverance, learning from your mistakes. Trying to convey that to four, five, six-year-olds in clear ways and in relatable ways, were there challenges of that for you?

BB: I think when we’re writing the films, what we’re trying to do from the theme standpoint is that’s really what anchors the entire story. And so for us, we’re always trying to do something that our youngest fans can understand, so we’re trying to keep it simple, but there is some complexity in there, and we really wanna find things that are universal. So whether or not you’re a kid or even an adult, these are things that everyone has to face and hopefully everyone can overcome.

JM: Absolutely. And adults will love hearing these voice actors in this movie. Snoop Dogg opens the movie, Cal, which put a smile on my face. You’ve got him. You’ve got Terry Crews, Jennifer Hudson, Bill Nye. The stars keep wanting to be in these movies ’cause I know a lot of them have families, and a lot of them love this franchise. How was it working with some of these big names?

CB: Oh, it was fantastic. And like you said, a lot of them love PAW Patrol or have somebody in their life who loves PAW Patrol. It’s so fun to see how eager they are to be part of the movie series. I also think some of them have watched the earlier movies and see that we keep trying to outdo ourselves and provide a great kind of family entertainment experience, and that’s something everyone wants to be a part of.

JM: Yes. So does the Backstreet Boys, Bob. My gosh, “Bottle Up” has been in my head now for four days, and it’s great. It’s terrific. How did you get them on board to do this catchy new song?

BB: Just like Cal said, they’ve got families, and some of them have kids that are kind of PAW age. It’s really fun for us to be able to collaborate with all sorts of artists, actors and musicians. One funny thing, when we were at the premiere, Cal and I and our families were sitting there, and the Backstreet Boys were sitting in the row in front of us. And when their song came on, you could see that they were excited to see it in the movie and everything, and they were bumping each other and filming the screen and doing all that. They’re excited, which makes us excited, and we’re just happy to be able to work with great artists.

JM: Wow. So many people are so jealous right now that you admitted that you got to sit right near the Backstreet Boys at a movie.

CB & BB: (laugh)

JM: That’s very cool. Cal, the action sequences in this film are fantastic. You keep raising the bar when it comes to the look of the animation and the look of the VFX. How much attention to detail and time went into some of these big, big moments?

CB: It’s great to hear you say. We really tried to push the action adventure side of the movie on this one. It’s way bigger than anything we’ve done before. We had an incredible, very large VFX team doing river floods and volcanoes going off and mudslides and all sorts of stuff. They really stepped up. We asked for the moon in the script, and they were able to deliver when it came to making these things happen. I’m really proud of the set pieces and the VFX in this movie.

JM: They’re really stellar. And, new survival suits as well, Bob, for the gang. So that’s always gotta be a lot of fun ’cause you’ve got vehicle modifications, you’ve got outfit modifications and amping things up with each movie.

BB: One of the things that is obviously part of the DNA of a PAW Patrol movie is the rescues. And so for us, it’s really fun to get to write ew gadgets for them to use, new things to experience, just to sort of make big fun things that we can show on screen and try and flex that creativity of always making something new happen and always making it as action-packed as we can.

JM: How about Rhubarb and Rubble, Cal? Some fun moments with them. Rubble had some great moments in the Christmas special as well that was on last year on CBS. Rhubarb is this new little dinosaur who is a lot of fun.

CB: Rhubarb and Marshall end-up teamed up in the movie. And our pitch was, “What if Marshall, who is a puppy dog, got a puppy dog?” And that’s really what Rhubarb is in the movie. He’s young and innocent and loves to play fetch, and we thought that’d be a fun dynamic to explore. And as far as Rubble’s concerned, you’re right. For both Bob and I, he’s our favorite character to write jokes for. So he gets all the funny lines in the movie. We helped out a little bit on the Christmas special too, and had a good time with that. We love Rubble. He’s near and dear to our hearts.

JM: A lot of great moments with Rubble and Marshall and Rhubarb in this. And Bob, I didn’t even know Humdinger was back in this, ’cause I try to avoid trailers, I try to avoid promotion, and Humdinger is back. And that whole storyline is very interesting, and also has themes of greed and themes of not overdoing it and knowing what something is worth in life. And you do a lot with that with the Humdinger storyline. I don’t want to give it all away, but how was it with Humdinger this time, figuring all that out?

BB: Well, you can’t keep a good villain down. And Humdinger is just so much fun to write. He’s big and broad and cartoony. We find he’s the perfect foil for the Pups because he’s gonna create these outrageous situations that then they need to come in and rescue. It was great to bring him back. Ron Pardo, the actor who plays him, is so funny. He embodies that role so well. It was great for us to be able to bring him back, but in a different way than he’s been in the show or in the other movies before. So just to be fresh and fun with that.

JM: So I can’t believe it’s been five years, I think almost to the day, since the first movie came out in theaters. And then we had the second one a few years ago, and now this one. So there are kids who are gonna go to this who weren’t even born when the first one came out, when we talked about the first one five years ago. How crazy is that for you, Cal?

CB: It’s fun to be part of something that is spanning across generations. And you talk to older kids, and they go, “Oh, I was crazy about PAW Patrol when I was growing up, and now my younger brother’s into it, or my sister’s into it.” That’s really fun to be part of something that is the experience of lots of kids over multiple generations.

JM: Bob, how about you? This legacy now and this film franchise that you have built, and not all animated movie franchises can go three films or beyond.

BB: I think it’s great. And just like you said, I have nieces and nephews who have been born since the movies came out. For us it’s fun for the youngest kids to see it as their first movie. And for the older kids, it’s almost in some cases their first experience with nostalgia. If they’re 9 or 10, they say, “Oh, I was a big PAW Patrol [fan]… I remember when I was a little kid and I went to see the PAW Patrol movie.” It’s a nine-year-old telling us that. So it’s really fun. Both Cal and I grew up loving movies. We still love movies, and it’s such a fun thing to do. Everyone getting a chance to become film fans is something that makes us really happy.

JM: Oh, yeah. Celebrate the theatrical experience. So where do we go from here? Do we go beyond? Are you allowed to say yet whether or not you’re going beyond this third one? I think this is gonna make a lot of money, and I think gonna do really well. What are you thinking at this point, Cal?

CB: Jackson, you know that we are sworn to secrecy on such things. But, I would say, PAW Patrol is always looking toward the future, so you never know what might be around the corner.

JM: Okay. Alright. Congratulations. And I hope we get to talk again soon. Maybe in a couple years. We’ll see what happens.

CB: Us too, us too.

BB: You know it!