--- name: "Cal Brunker" canonical: "https://film.one/person/cal-brunker" fi1m_id: "cal-brunker" imdb_id: "nm2117510" tmdb_id: 1098477 wikidata_id: "Q23553923" roles: ["Additional storyboarding","Director"] born: "16 November 1978" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_over: 1 updated: "2026-10-05T13:47:49.859074+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Cal Brunker ## Identity Cal Brunker - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/cal-brunker - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** cal-brunker - **IMDb ID:** nm2117510 - **TMDB ID:** 1098477 - **Wikidata ID:** Q23553923 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cal_Brunker, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q23553923, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2117510/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1098477 Additional storyboarding and director. Born 16 November 1978 in Canada. ## Details - **Work:** Additional storyboarding, Director - **Born:** 16 November 1978, Canada - **Active:** 2015–present - **Also known as:** Callan Brunker, קאל ברונקר - **Titles on Fi1m:** 2: 1 directing, 1 crew - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 61 (1), 2020s 43 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cal_Brunker, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q23553923, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2117510/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1098477 ## Streaming the US now - **Apple TV:** [*PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie*](https://film.one/film/paw-patrol-the-dino-movie.md) (43) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Cal Brunker > Cal Brunker's family animation has visual ambition and a clear sense of its young audience. His dinosaur outing for the pups is too short on wit to recommend beyond existing fans, despite some care with its characters. The dinosaurs in Brunker's 2026 *PAW Patrol* film offer brief diversion, but the pups have too little to do that is interesting in itself. The intended audience is clear, and familiarity is part of the appeal. We were disappointed by how little comic invention the action contains. The film keeps offering encouragement about perseverance when it needs a better joke or a more particular problem. Rex is treated with care, which makes the careless writing elsewhere harder to excuse. Brunker began in storyboarding and animation, a useful grounding for directing family films. His first cinema feature, *Escape from Planet Earth* (2013), was co-written with Bob Barlen, who remains his regular writing partner. He followed it with *The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature* (2017). He began directing the *PAW Patrol* films for cinemas in 2021. The 2023 film added superheroes before the 2026 film turned to dinosaurs. His storyboard experience is apparent in the attention to staging and animation detail. In the dinosaur film, though, visual ambition cannot compensate for the thin script he and Barlen have supplied. There is nothing inherently wrong with a rescue story whose shape a small child can recognise. The pleasure should come from the jokes along the way and from watching the characters work out what to do. Here, the creatures provide intermittent distraction while the writing does too little to make the familiar pattern worth repeating. The bluntness matters most when Brunker and Barlen move beyond encouragement into lessons about wrongdoing. The dinosaur film treats criminality too readily as a complete explanation of character, and its handling of nature and modern life is muddled. Neither subject requires a lecture, but both deserve the thought given to Rex. We would rather see this partnership spend more time inventing problems for the pups than explaining what children should learn from them. Households already devoted to the pups may be forgiving; we would look elsewhere for a family evening. ## Biography Cal Brunker is a Canadian animator, storyboard artist, screenwriter and film director. Born Callan Stuart Brunker on 16 November 1978 in Montreal, Quebec, he trained in animation at Sheridan College. He began his career working as a storyboard artist and animator on features including *Horton Hears a Who!* (2008), *Despicable Me* (2010) and *9* (2009). Brunker made his directorial debut with the short *Ninjamaica* (2009) before directing *Escape from Planet Earth* (2013). He has frequently collaborated with screenwriter Bob Barlen. Their joint credits include *The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature* (2017), *PAW Patrol: The Movie* (2021), *PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie* (2023) and *PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie* (2026), on which Brunker served as director, co-writer and story contributor. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, fr.wikipedia.org.* ## On Fi1m (2) ### Directed (1) - *PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie* (2026), Fi1m 43, Story, Screenplay, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/paw-patrol-the-dino-movie.md) ### Crew (1) — the average rests on these - *Minions* (2015), Fi1m 61, Additional Storyboarding — [page](https://film.one/film/minions.md) ## Complete filmography (20) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie* (2026), Director, Screenplay, Story — Fi1m 43, [page](https://film.one/film/paw-patrol-the-dino-movie.md) - *A Paw Patrol Christmas* (2025), Writer - *Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie* (2025), Thanks - *PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie* (2023), Story, Screenplay, Director - *The Inseparables* (2023), Screenplay - *PAW Patrol: The Movie* (2021), Director, Screenplay - *Bigfoot Family* (2020), Writer, Co-Executive Producer - *Cranston Academy: Monster Zone* (2020), Screenplay - *Arctic Dogs* (2019), Screenplay - *The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature* (2017), as Charming Chipmunk (voice) · Writer, Director - *The Son of Bigfoot* (2017), Co-Executive Producer, Writer - *Escape from Planet Earth* (2013), Director, Writer - *Despicable Me* (2010), Storyboard — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/despicable-me.md) - *Jonah Hex* (2010), Art Department Manager - *Spliced* (2009), series, Storyboard Artist - *9* (2009), Storyboard - *Horton Hears a Who!* (2008), Story Artist - *Kronk's New Groove* (2005), Animation - *Doctor Dolittle*, Writer - *Doctor Dolittle: King of the Wild*, Writer --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/cal-brunker