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Hello, I'm Rob Minkoff,
director of <i>Stuart Little...</i>

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and sitting with me is
Henry Andersen, who is the...

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- Animation supervisor.
- Exactly.

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Hello, everyone.

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I suppose you're wondering
how <i>Stuart Little</i> made it to the screen.

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Well, of course,
it started with a book...

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written by the noted author
E.B. White...

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who also wrote <i>Charlotte's Web.</i>

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Which is a book, I think, most people,
or many people, are familiar with.

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He wrote <i>Stuart Little,</i>
actually, first...

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and it was written in 1945,
just after the war.

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Now, how it got made into a movie
is really, I guess...

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the question
that I'm going to answer.

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Columbia Pictures had been developing
the project as a script for many years.

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They'd gone through many writers...

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who'd written many drafts
of different stories of it.

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But it wasn't until Night Shyamalan
wrote a draft of the screenplay...

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which articulated the story
of the feature film...

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that we're seeing here...

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did they actually green-light
the picture...

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and decide to go ahead
with production.

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And at that point...

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I was hired as the director
of the film.

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Of course, my background
was animation.

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The last picture I had directed
was <i>The Lion King...</i>

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and in that picture, I was actually...
I worked as a co-director.

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In this picture, I was, you know...
I'm credited as the director.

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Although Henry here was a director
in many respects...

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working with the animators on the
performance of the digital characters.

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We had assembled
a team of animators.

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Those animators worked collectively
as a group, almost like an actor.

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So in creating Stuart, we put together
our team of animators...

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and then, under Rob's direction,
we basically performed...

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like the other actors in the movie.

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That's Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie,
who are playing Mr. and Mrs. Little.

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Very excited about adopting what
they think is gonna be a human child.

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What's the difference...

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between directing an animated film
and a live-action film?

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Of course, when you direct
an animated film...

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if you don't like the expression
on a character, you can erase...

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which...

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It doesn't work with human actors,
because, you know, it's...

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Because you can't erase
their eyebrows, basically.

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You could try, I suppose,
but I don't think they'd like it.

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No, they probably wouldn't.

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You know what's wonderful?

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What's wonderful...

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And Stuart's voice, of course,
was provided by Michael J. Fox...

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who is a fantastic actor
with great comic timing.

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Originally, the character was written
as a 9-year-old boy...

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and we thought, you know, maybe
we should have a child play the part.

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I think even Jonathan Lipnicki
was considered...

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to do the voice of Stuart
before we cast him as George.

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But I think Michael really brought
the right quality...

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you know,
to express this character...

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who had to be kind of
worldly wise on the one hand...

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but then innocent on the other...

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without actually becoming, you know,
too maudlin or treacly.

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So he really was able to bring
a great balance to the character...

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in giving him, you know,
kind of a warmth...

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and a wit and a sense of humour
and mischievousness...

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that really combined to create,
I think, you know, a rich personality.

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We were trying not only for a
ultra-realistic, very believable look...

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but we wanted his actions to be very
believable as well so the audience...

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By this point in the movie,
people have forgotten he's animated.

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They're just starting to enjoy
his performance...

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and think about his personality.

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And one of the things that we did
to help get started in the process...

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was hire an actor, Bill Irwin...

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who is a pantomimist and a clown.

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And he came in, actually,
and both Henry and I worked with him...

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and videotaped him going through
various scenes from the script...

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so he was physicalising
a performance of Stuart...

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to give a kind of a stepping-stone...

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to what would eventually be
Stuart's CGI performance.

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One of the great things about Bill too
is his, you know...

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Remember how he described it as like
eccentric dance?

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His eccentric dance style.

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And he did a little of that for us too.

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And even though Stuart doesn't do
much dancing in the film...

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There's a certain way of being light
on his feet that Bill's so great at...

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that, you know, we all studied it
as we were working on it.

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But animation in general is a very
choreographic, intensive art form.

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Because what you're trying to do
is convey attitude...

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and character and thought process
through the movement of the body.

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And so, what an animator goes through
in order to design that movement...

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and to convey that feeling
and that attitude...

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has to go through
what a dancer goes through...

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in terms of using, really,
his body to express these ideas.

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Absolutely. And it's also the same,
to a degree, as a musician.

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Because with a piece of animation
like Stuart...

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it's really about pose and timing.

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So you've got a nice, strong pose,
set a certain frame...

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and it's very syncopated.

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Now, there are other ways that people
can actually do these kinds of things.

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One of them is called motion capture.

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And what that is,
is it's a fairly complex technology...

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where you attach, I guess,
these sensors...

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to an actor or a dancer's body...

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which correspond to key points
on the digital character.

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And when the actor or dancer
moves...

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the corresponding point
on the CG character...

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will move in a kind of a one-to-one
relationship.

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And that's how some
of this work is done.

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But Stuart was handled in
a completely different process...

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where you can actually
create poses...

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much the same way that you would
do with a 3D animated picture...

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you know, like
a Ray Harryhausen movie.

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<i>King Kong</i> or, you know,
<i>Jason and the Argonauts.</i>

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You know, all those pictures were done,
where the sculptures were moved...

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you know, one frame at a time
and photographed.

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And the difference
in the CG world is that...

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you can actually manipulate
and alter...

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once you've recorded
those basic moves.

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It gives you an opportunity to refine
the performance in a way...

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that a traditional, like,
clay approach...

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or traditional three-dimensional
approach wouldn't allow you to do.

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Now Stuart's home.

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Exactly. He's checking out
some of his new relatives.

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Including his brother, George,
played by Jonathan Lipnicki.

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It's interesting because before
this movie, I actually got to...

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We all became familiar
with Jonathan...

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from his work in the movie
<i>Jerry McGuire...</i>

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- in which he was just so adorable.
- So darn cute.

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And we decided,
based on that performance...

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that we really wanted him
to play George.

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We were concerned
he was too young...

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because at the time we started
shooting, he was 7 years old.

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And what that means is,
is you can only use him...

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for four hours of the shooting day.

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So it's very difficult to actually
film with a child actor...

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because of the demands
that are placed on your schedule.

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He's just about to get
to meet up with Stuart here.

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This whole sequence,
the animators had a lot of fun doing...

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because it's so emotional.

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You know, Stuart's really excited
because he came home from...

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He's adopted,
he's home with the family.

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But he starts to get a little confused.

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And everybody had a great time
animating this.

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Yeah, this is Sean Mullen's...
Did all this work, the digital...

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All the drops
that flew off him before...

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there's effects throughout the movie.
Very subtle in most cases...

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but droplets of water,
different things with his clothing...

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all different effects that, again,
try to get Stuart solidly in the movie.

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Or did he seem
a little disappointed?

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Now, one of the things
you might notice is the design...

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of not only the house but costumes,
and of the actors, and the hairstyles.

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And all these things were to evoke
a kind of period feel in the film.

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Something that might have been
appropriate in the 1940s or '50s...

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around the time
the book was written.

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And this was to really set the world
of this film apart...

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from the world that we live in.

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Because one of the things
that occurred to me...

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when I started on the picture...

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and one of the, you know,
sort of directions...

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I wanted to take with the material,
was to make sure...

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that the world
that Stuart existed in...

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was a world that was recognisable
but different from our own.

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Because it seemed to me...

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if the film looked too much
like contemporary reality...

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something that was too recognisable
or too immediately recognisable...

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that it would be confusing
that the people didn't act disturbed...

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that he's talking,
because he's a mouse.

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Which is, you know...

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if you actually had a mouse walk
into your house and start talking...

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I don't think you'd be treating him
quite the way the Littles do.

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- Or anyone else in the film.
- No, not at all.

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This scene in which
Snowbell confronts Stuart...

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was actually created later
in the process.

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We'd shot the film and cut it together,
and decided that we needed a scene...

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to establish the comic relationship
between Snowbell and Stuart.

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So for this scene,
we hired two writers...

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Scott Alexander
and Larry Karaszewski...

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who had written <i>The People vs. Larry
Flynt, Ed Wood, Man on the Moon.</i>

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And they came in
and actually wrote this scene...

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one of the comic highlights,
I think, in the picture.

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And certainly gets the comedy
of Snowbell off to a roaring start.

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And it allowed
Stuart and Snowbell to get closer.

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Plus, Stuart got out of the bed.
In the other, he never got out.

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And this shot coming up right now,
I'm so glad we got to do this.

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Love when he chases him back.

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And you'll notice he trips
because his tail gets stretched.

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Snowbell actually steps on his tail...

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stretches it out,
and causes Stuart to fall.

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One of the things that's fun
about a project like this is...

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we're all so familiar with the conflict
between a cat and a mouse.

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We've seen that, obviously, with
Tom and Jerry and other characters.

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- Itchy and Scratchy come to mind.
- Natural antagonists.

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But I don't think
we've ever actually seen a real cat...

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and somewhat of a real mouse...

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having this kind of a fun,
you know, cartoon relationship.

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So this was actually...
The sequence coming up here...

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with the bathroom
and everything, was...

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as we were talking about,
was one of the first things shot...

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and one of the first
we started animation on.

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These shots here of Stuart coming out
and then going in the bathroom...

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were some of the first shots
we did of Stuart. And...

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It was also some of the first scenes
we shot in the live action.

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What's interesting about this is,
you have to imagine...

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when we shot this originally,
there was no Stuart.

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So everything was shot
as an empty frame.

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We had to imagine
Stuart's performance.

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So when he was walking up the ladder
or walking across the table...

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you know, the cameramen had
to follow an imaginary Stuart...

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because there was nothing there
to watch.

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We did have some little puppets
on the stage that we used...

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just to block out the action,
but then, as you're saying...

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the actors had to sort of imagine him.
And remember the laser?

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Yes, that's right.

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- Love the dot?
- Love the dot. Exactly.

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That was the technique we used,
a laser pointer called Synchromark...

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that was slaved
to the camera shutter speed...

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so you could actually point the laser
and the actors would be able to see it...

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but the camera
wouldn't photograph it...

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because when the camera shutter
was open, the laser would be off.

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That was great to get everybody to look
in the right place.

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Because one of the most important
things that you have to deal with...

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is the actors shooting the scene...

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are not shooting, or not doing
the scene with a real character...

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but they have to know
where to look...

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because if their eyes aren't
directly focused at the character...

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it really destroys the illusion.

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Originally, Stuart was meant
to be trapped in the refrigerator...

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but we decided a washing machine
might be a bit more perilous...

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obviously since it's going to be
filled with water.

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That's odd.

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We knew we wanted a moment...

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for Snowbell to actually come in
and see Stuart in the washing machine.

229
00:12:37,298 --> 00:12:40,843
Of course, the comic possibilities
were tremendous for this moment...

230
00:12:41,010 --> 00:12:43,263
but we couldn't come up
with the right line...

231
00:12:43,429 --> 00:12:45,098
for Snowbell to say to Stuart...

232
00:12:45,265 --> 00:12:49,018
so we turned to Ed Stone,
who had written <i>Happy, Texas...</i>

233
00:12:49,185 --> 00:12:54,732
and he came in and in minutes
he came up with this brilliant line.

234
00:12:54,899 --> 00:12:57,318
Why would I turn it off?

235
00:12:57,568 --> 00:12:59,904
It's my favourite show.

236
00:13:01,239 --> 00:13:04,033
Which was one of the funniest lines,
I think, in the movie.

237
00:13:04,200 --> 00:13:06,661
- You can't leave me!
- Talk to the butt.

238
00:13:06,828 --> 00:13:08,204
Snowbell, where are you going?

239
00:13:08,371 --> 00:13:10,873
I've gotta stare at traffic,
yawn, lick myself.

240
00:13:11,040 --> 00:13:12,625
Believe me, that could take hours.

241
00:13:12,792 --> 00:13:14,377
There's a shot coming up here...

242
00:13:14,544 --> 00:13:17,463
You know, when Geena's at the door,
right here...

243
00:13:17,630 --> 00:13:20,049
she says Stuart's having
the time of his life.

244
00:13:20,216 --> 00:13:22,218
This was one of the last shots
we did...

245
00:13:22,385 --> 00:13:25,555
because this one, right here,
wasn't...

246
00:13:25,722 --> 00:13:27,557
We just got the budget
so we could put it in.

247
00:13:27,724 --> 00:13:29,767
And it's one of the
best shots in the movie.

248
00:13:29,934 --> 00:13:32,729
It's so beautiful because
it was one of the last things...

249
00:13:32,895 --> 00:13:37,734
and everybody was completely
working at full capacity.

250
00:13:37,900 --> 00:13:41,738
And we had incredible effects
by Rob Bredow added to that shot.

251
00:13:41,904 --> 00:13:43,156
Stuart!

252
00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:49,495
In the original script,
there was a line that Stuart said.

253
00:13:49,662 --> 00:13:53,249
You know, he screamed,
"Mom, I'm trapped in the Maytag!"

254
00:13:53,416 --> 00:13:56,502
We tried to get the licence to use
a Maytag washer but we couldn't.

255
00:13:58,338 --> 00:14:02,800
So we ended up using a Frigidaire,
which I think is very important.

256
00:14:03,217 --> 00:14:05,595
Except that we modified it...

257
00:14:05,762 --> 00:14:07,347
because the glass...

258
00:14:07,513 --> 00:14:10,933
They have those new washing machines
which look like old washing machines.

259
00:14:11,100 --> 00:14:14,354
We wanted that because you could see
Stuart through the window of it.

260
00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:17,565
It's important to stage the scene
where Stuart can look out...

261
00:14:17,732 --> 00:14:21,235
and, you know, Ms. Little could
look in or Snowbell could look in.

262
00:14:21,736 --> 00:14:24,947
If it was a regular washing machine,
most machines are top-loading...

263
00:14:25,114 --> 00:14:28,993
and how would you stage something
with a top-loading washing machine?

264
00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:31,996
- You couldn't spill him onto the floor.
- Exactly.

265
00:14:32,163 --> 00:14:35,291
- So that last sequence had...
- Dabney Coleman.

266
00:14:35,458 --> 00:14:38,669
Yeah. And a couple of the few shots
that had puppets of Stuart.

267
00:14:38,878 --> 00:14:42,382
- There aren't too many animatronics.
- Animatronics, by Patrick Tatopoulos.

268
00:14:42,548 --> 00:14:46,386
Capital T. But, yeah, they weren't...

269
00:14:46,844 --> 00:14:48,846
We had hoped to do more
with animatronics...

270
00:14:49,013 --> 00:14:50,848
at the beginning of the project.

271
00:14:51,015 --> 00:14:55,144
One of the reasons is for,
you know, cost, because...

272
00:14:55,311 --> 00:14:58,856
It's expensive to build an animatronic.
There are so many moving parts...

273
00:14:59,023 --> 00:15:02,735
and they all have to be machined
for the one usage.

274
00:15:02,902 --> 00:15:04,737
You know, if you can actually...

275
00:15:04,904 --> 00:15:10,410
Every scene of the CGI Stuart
is so vastly expensive...

276
00:15:10,576 --> 00:15:14,747
- the more animatronic shots you get...
- We're not that expensive, are we?

277
00:15:14,914 --> 00:15:16,332
It's outrageously expensive.

278
00:15:17,041 --> 00:15:20,086
- And if I were you, I wouldn't pay it.
- That's right.

279
00:15:20,253 --> 00:15:21,879
- But look at what you get.
- Exactly.

280
00:15:22,046 --> 00:15:24,507
There's so much flexibility
with the CGI character.

281
00:15:24,674 --> 00:15:26,926
- That's the thing.
- The animatronic, ultimately...

282
00:15:27,093 --> 00:15:30,721
And particularly one that's so small,
is you have all these tiny parts...

283
00:15:30,888 --> 00:15:33,057
and so they don't move
very gracefully.

284
00:15:33,224 --> 00:15:38,688
And so we tended to wanna stay
as kind of as far away as you could...

285
00:15:38,855 --> 00:15:41,858
or else you could pretty much tell
that it was an animatronic.

286
00:15:44,360 --> 00:15:47,738
Stuart is a little embarrassed there
that he scurries about.

287
00:15:47,947 --> 00:15:50,032
This is Taylor Negron...

288
00:15:50,241 --> 00:15:53,619
who's a character actor
we hired to play the salesman.

289
00:15:53,786 --> 00:15:55,705
I mean, we only use one take...

290
00:15:55,872 --> 00:15:59,250
but remember some of his takes?
They were absolutely hilarious.

291
00:16:01,210 --> 00:16:02,587
- And here's Ben.
- Ben.

292
00:16:02,753 --> 00:16:06,382
I never asked you, did that name come
from anywhere particularly? Ben?

293
00:16:06,591 --> 00:16:09,927
- It must have been a play on Ken.
- Yes, that makes sense.

294
00:16:10,136 --> 00:16:12,680
It was in Night's script.
I think he invented the idea.

295
00:16:12,847 --> 00:16:13,890
The Ben doll.

296
00:16:14,056 --> 00:16:16,893
It was very important
in the first draft, as I recall.

297
00:16:17,059 --> 00:16:19,729
- Might have been his Uncle Ben.
- That's right.

298
00:16:20,396 --> 00:16:22,106
- Gentle Ben.
- Gentle Ben.

299
00:16:22,273 --> 00:16:24,817
I think I have just the thing.

300
00:16:27,737 --> 00:16:29,280
There they are.

301
00:16:33,743 --> 00:16:37,747
Speaking of Stuart's clothes,
one of the gags that we wanted to do...

302
00:16:37,914 --> 00:16:40,958
was to actually have Stuart appear
in various outfits.

303
00:16:41,125 --> 00:16:45,171
But it turned out
that to create an outfit in the CGI...

304
00:16:45,338 --> 00:16:48,508
you know, to create a digital outfit
for Stuart was like...

305
00:16:48,674 --> 00:16:52,345
$100,000, per outfit.

306
00:16:52,512 --> 00:16:55,097
So we couldn't afford it.

307
00:16:55,264 --> 00:16:58,309
So instead we just showed them
on the Ben dolls.

308
00:16:58,476 --> 00:17:00,186
- Right.
- Is that a boring excuse?

309
00:17:00,436 --> 00:17:03,773
No, that's not a boring excuse,
it's a practical excuse.

310
00:17:03,940 --> 00:17:05,691
But, you know,
the cost has come down.

311
00:17:05,858 --> 00:17:08,069
We've learned a lot doing the fabric.

312
00:17:08,236 --> 00:17:10,988
Since you brought up the clothes,
I wanted to say one thing.

313
00:17:11,155 --> 00:17:14,116
And that it is, you know,
the team that worked on it...

314
00:17:14,283 --> 00:17:17,078
headed up by Jim Berney
and Mike Travers...

315
00:17:17,245 --> 00:17:18,871
they, you know, it's...

316
00:17:19,038 --> 00:17:21,374
We've seen clothing
on digital characters before...

317
00:17:21,541 --> 00:17:24,085
but I don't think
with this degree of realism.

318
00:17:24,252 --> 00:17:26,087
And there's a lot of consideration...

319
00:17:26,254 --> 00:17:30,216
not only for the type of weave and
things like that, but for Stuart's scale.

320
00:17:30,383 --> 00:17:33,094
He's so small that
his clothing's gonna bend differently...

321
00:17:33,261 --> 00:17:35,012
than if he was 6 feet tall.

322
00:17:35,179 --> 00:17:38,891
So these guys worked very hard
on trying to...

323
00:17:39,058 --> 00:17:42,812
not only get the fabric to bend and
to have the right weave and things...

324
00:17:42,979 --> 00:17:46,691
but also to have a sense of the scale
we were trying to get in the animation.

325
00:17:46,857 --> 00:17:48,859
Now we have two
favourite little nephews.

326
00:17:49,026 --> 00:17:51,946
Here's the introduction
of the Little family...

327
00:17:52,154 --> 00:17:56,033
which is, of course, an important
element of the story, thematically...

328
00:17:56,200 --> 00:17:59,412
because the story really is about
how Stuart, who's a mouse...

329
00:17:59,579 --> 00:18:03,249
is trying to find his place
in this human family.

330
00:18:03,416 --> 00:18:04,667
Attention, everybody.

331
00:18:04,834 --> 00:18:07,878
And, really, when they meet him,
no one knows what to say.

332
00:18:08,045 --> 00:18:10,006
- Exactly.
- And Stuart, at this point...

333
00:18:10,172 --> 00:18:13,509
I mean, again, as the animation
supervisor on the film...

334
00:18:13,676 --> 00:18:16,012
I had to sort of think like Stuart
quite a bit.

335
00:18:16,178 --> 00:18:20,850
I mean, Rob's aware that I wrote
a pretty long bio of Stuart...

336
00:18:21,017 --> 00:18:22,518
before we started the film...

337
00:18:22,685 --> 00:18:25,354
so that I could get an idea
of who this character was.

338
00:18:25,521 --> 00:18:29,191
And it was based on the Stuart
character from the E.B. White book...

339
00:18:29,358 --> 00:18:32,236
as well as Night's script.

340
00:18:32,403 --> 00:18:35,531
And so you really have to be concerned
at all times...

341
00:18:35,698 --> 00:18:37,617
with doing the right thing
for Stuart.

342
00:18:37,783 --> 00:18:40,870
What's he really like as a personality
and what is he thinking?

343
00:18:41,037 --> 00:18:44,874
So when he meets the family here,
those first few scenes you saw...

344
00:18:45,041 --> 00:18:47,710
and throughout these scenes
as he's getting presents...

345
00:18:47,877 --> 00:18:50,212
you feel the sense that Stuart...

346
00:18:50,379 --> 00:18:54,425
What I was thinking he was feeling is,
this elation at being adopted...

347
00:18:54,592 --> 00:18:57,136
but he too is not completely
immune...

348
00:18:57,303 --> 00:18:59,847
to the sense of awkwardness
that's going on there.

349
00:19:00,014 --> 00:19:02,767
So even with
what he's having to say...

350
00:19:02,933 --> 00:19:05,645
he's still a little bit
unsure of himself.

351
00:19:05,811 --> 00:19:08,689
And I think Michael's performance
helped that too. Rob?

352
00:19:08,856 --> 00:19:10,775
Oh, yeah, definitely.

353
00:19:10,941 --> 00:19:13,653
You know, I have to also say...

354
00:19:13,819 --> 00:19:16,822
we've credited the influence
that Bill Irwin had on us...

355
00:19:16,989 --> 00:19:19,241
and Buster Keaton also
was a big influence...

356
00:19:19,408 --> 00:19:23,329
but Michael too. Michael's voice
drives a lot of what the character does.

357
00:19:23,496 --> 00:19:27,208
I mean, his pauses and his inflections,
and his feeling for the character.

358
00:19:27,375 --> 00:19:30,795
And he really was a great choice
of voice, I think, for this character...

359
00:19:30,961 --> 00:19:32,880
because he has a sophistication...

360
00:19:33,047 --> 00:19:36,592
but at the same time,
he's youthful and energetic.

361
00:19:36,759 --> 00:19:39,095
I'm sure you thought about that
when you cast him.

362
00:19:39,261 --> 00:19:43,432
Absolutely. One of
the most important things, I think...

363
00:19:43,599 --> 00:19:45,434
is the voice of the character...

364
00:19:45,601 --> 00:19:48,854
because the performance starts there
and you have to build on that.

365
00:19:49,021 --> 00:19:50,523
If you don't find the voice...

366
00:19:50,690 --> 00:19:53,150
one that's gonna inspire
a great performance...

367
00:19:53,317 --> 00:19:55,069
in animation or in movement...

368
00:19:55,236 --> 00:19:57,780
you know, you really won't have
a complete character.

369
00:19:57,947 --> 00:20:00,366
When you think
of great performances in animation...

370
00:20:00,533 --> 00:20:03,619
I think you definitely...
The voice goes hand in hand with it.

371
00:20:04,036 --> 00:20:05,955
And in the case with Stuart, for me...

372
00:20:06,122 --> 00:20:08,541
I felt like we definitely got a blend
of the two.

373
00:20:08,708 --> 00:20:12,545
Sometimes with an animated character,
the voice will overpower it a bit...

374
00:20:12,712 --> 00:20:15,506
you might see that actor
every time you hear the voice...

375
00:20:15,673 --> 00:20:17,967
even though the character
is animated.

376
00:20:18,134 --> 00:20:20,928
But I think with this one,
Michael is just a good blend...

377
00:20:21,095 --> 00:20:25,683
because his voice is characterful
and, you know, expressive...

378
00:20:25,850 --> 00:20:27,977
but at the same time,
it doesn't overpower.

379
00:20:28,144 --> 00:20:31,355
It sort of blends and
really becomes Stuart.

380
00:20:31,522 --> 00:20:32,565
Right.

381
00:20:32,732 --> 00:20:34,150
Yeah, what do you say, George?

382
00:20:34,316 --> 00:20:37,236
At first we weren't sure
whether we were gonna cast a child...

383
00:20:37,403 --> 00:20:40,740
because in the script,
he was described as a 9-year-old.

384
00:20:40,906 --> 00:20:44,160
We thought, well, if we actually got
a 9-year-old to play the part...

385
00:20:44,326 --> 00:20:47,830
would that be really appropriate
in terms of how to tell this story?

386
00:20:48,330 --> 00:20:51,917
And my feeling was, is I wanted to...

387
00:20:52,084 --> 00:20:54,336
I wanted Stuart, actually, to feel,
in a sense...

388
00:20:54,503 --> 00:20:56,172
like an older brother to George.

389
00:20:56,338 --> 00:20:58,048
Even though
he's physically smaller...

390
00:20:58,215 --> 00:21:00,676
I wanted the relationship to be
of an old...

391
00:21:00,843 --> 00:21:04,096
Of kind of a mentor,
you know, for George.

392
00:21:04,263 --> 00:21:06,432
That George was the one
that needed guidance...

393
00:21:06,599 --> 00:21:08,768
and Stuart was able
to actually help him...

394
00:21:08,934 --> 00:21:10,728
by giving him good advice.

395
00:21:10,895 --> 00:21:13,773
This also was...
Just back with animation for a second.

396
00:21:13,939 --> 00:21:15,983
This was one of the first things
we did.

397
00:21:16,150 --> 00:21:19,195
That's Todd Wilderman,
animated that shot.

398
00:21:19,361 --> 00:21:21,322
These were some of the first shots
we did.

399
00:21:21,489 --> 00:21:25,201
And it's really interesting how Stuart
really changed his physicality.

400
00:21:25,367 --> 00:21:28,204
Even though I actually thought
when we started this project...

401
00:21:28,370 --> 00:21:30,372
because it was
a digital character...

402
00:21:30,539 --> 00:21:34,001
and that it was physically
three-dimensional sculptures...

403
00:21:34,168 --> 00:21:38,172
that you'd make in the computer,
he would look consistent, the same.

404
00:21:38,339 --> 00:21:42,468
That was one thing you always had to
worry about in traditional animation...

405
00:21:42,635 --> 00:21:45,888
was how the drawing was gonna look
because different artists...

406
00:21:46,055 --> 00:21:47,890
just physically draw differently...

407
00:21:48,057 --> 00:21:50,684
and it's difficult to make
the drawings look the same.

408
00:21:50,851 --> 00:21:53,312
Well, with Stuart,
he'll have to look the same...

409
00:21:53,479 --> 00:21:55,439
because he's the same
in every shot.

410
00:21:55,606 --> 00:21:59,235
But it's amazing to me that,
depending on the animator...

411
00:21:59,401 --> 00:22:04,156
- he'll take on a different appearance.
- The animation and also the lighting.

412
00:22:04,323 --> 00:22:06,158
The lighting makes
a huge difference...

413
00:22:06,325 --> 00:22:10,204
because just like when
you're lighting an actor, it's...

414
00:22:10,371 --> 00:22:13,958
Stuart, you'll see throughout the movie,
even if he was just standing still...

415
00:22:14,124 --> 00:22:16,836
you would see a different mouse
in some lighting setups.

416
00:22:17,002 --> 00:22:18,629
Like, this one's kind of nice.

417
00:22:18,796 --> 00:22:22,967
Stuart actually looks the best to me
when he sort of gets a glancing light...

418
00:22:23,133 --> 00:22:27,096
because it brings out his brows
and a lot of the structure in his face...

419
00:22:27,263 --> 00:22:31,475
that when he's lit a little more flatly,
disappears because he's all white.

420
00:22:31,642 --> 00:22:34,854
It's like trying to light a golf ball
and be able to see the dimples.

421
00:22:35,312 --> 00:22:38,399
If the light doesn't hit at an angle,
it's really difficult to see.

422
00:22:38,566 --> 00:22:40,818
I think in some of the scenes...

423
00:22:40,985 --> 00:22:44,154
he's a bit flat because
we were having to match lighting...

424
00:22:44,321 --> 00:22:46,448
that was coming from
all over the place.

425
00:22:46,615 --> 00:22:50,744
The ones where it's kind of source light
coming from one side or the other...

426
00:22:50,911 --> 00:22:55,124
where there's a stronger source light,
he really looks great.

427
00:22:55,332 --> 00:22:58,127
And those shots we saw there
with the empty space sequence...

428
00:22:58,294 --> 00:23:00,629
those were some of the first
close-ups we did.

429
00:23:00,796 --> 00:23:04,300
I don't know if you remember that, Rob.
When he was looking over the knees?

430
00:23:04,466 --> 00:23:07,970
I'm so used to seeing this
with the fur and everything...

431
00:23:08,137 --> 00:23:11,724
but it was just astounding to see
those shots a year and a half ago.

432
00:23:11,891 --> 00:23:14,059
And to see those
first close-up expressions.

433
00:23:14,226 --> 00:23:18,147
I think, actually, Jason, the producer,
those were the shots he talked about...

434
00:23:18,314 --> 00:23:21,609
when he wasn't sure
how it was gonna actually look...

435
00:23:21,775 --> 00:23:24,904
and then when he saw those,
he was sort of able to relax and say:

436
00:23:25,070 --> 00:23:28,157
"Wow, you guys are gonna be able
to pull this off."

437
00:23:28,324 --> 00:23:30,910
Now, this scene is a great example
of the work...

438
00:23:31,076 --> 00:23:33,245
that was done
by the animal trainers...

439
00:23:33,412 --> 00:23:36,874
whose job it was to train the cats
and get them to do a performance.

440
00:23:37,041 --> 00:23:38,584
Because, just like Stuart...

441
00:23:38,751 --> 00:23:43,547
they had to appear to be thinking,
you know, talking characters.

442
00:23:43,714 --> 00:23:47,009
And when you think about what it takes
to get a cat to do this stuff...

443
00:23:47,176 --> 00:23:48,594
it's mind boggling...

444
00:23:48,761 --> 00:23:53,015
because cats are almost
impossible to train.

445
00:23:53,182 --> 00:23:56,060
And Boone Narr and his group...

446
00:23:57,853 --> 00:24:01,273
did just a marvellous job,
with this scene in particular.

447
00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:06,695
But this was a case of actually creating
a lot of this choreography...

448
00:24:06,862 --> 00:24:08,530
once we got into the kitchen.

449
00:24:08,697 --> 00:24:13,369
We had the set built and we discovered
using different levels of the kitchen...

450
00:24:13,535 --> 00:24:15,579
actually helped define
the performance...

451
00:24:15,746 --> 00:24:20,167
so that all these moments between
the characters came across clearly.

452
00:24:20,334 --> 00:24:23,671
If you have cats just standing
and staring at each other, talking...

453
00:24:23,837 --> 00:24:25,673
really, nothing happens.

454
00:24:25,839 --> 00:24:29,301
And, you know,
there's no impression of life...

455
00:24:29,468 --> 00:24:31,887
which you could get
with live actors...

456
00:24:32,054 --> 00:24:35,265
you know, doing a performance,
but not with cats.

457
00:24:35,808 --> 00:24:41,063
So all of this stuff, this movement,
you know, that was designed, really...

458
00:24:41,230 --> 00:24:46,026
to try to convey the different
emotional beats, was really critical.

459
00:24:46,193 --> 00:24:50,072
And then it just takes so much
painstaking attention to detail...

460
00:24:50,239 --> 00:24:52,950
to get these cats to try
take after take...

461
00:24:53,117 --> 00:24:55,744
to get these cats to do
what you want them to do.

462
00:24:55,911 --> 00:24:57,746
You fool the cats into doing it...

463
00:24:57,913 --> 00:25:00,541
because, you know, you can't...
They won't...

464
00:25:00,708 --> 00:25:03,335
You can't just ask a cat
to do something.

465
00:25:03,502 --> 00:25:06,630
You have to, you know,
you have to guide it or trick it.

466
00:25:06,797 --> 00:25:08,882
One of the techniques
that they had was...

467
00:25:09,049 --> 00:25:11,301
Which was interesting,
was similar to the actors'.

468
00:25:11,510 --> 00:25:14,430
We had was the laser pointer
for the cats to look at.

469
00:25:14,596 --> 00:25:17,433
So that in a scene,
some of these scenes...

470
00:25:17,599 --> 00:25:20,352
they would shine a light
on the door or on the floor...

471
00:25:20,519 --> 00:25:23,230
and get the cats to look at it and stop
and react to it.

472
00:25:23,397 --> 00:25:25,357
Other times
they would have a light wand...

473
00:25:25,524 --> 00:25:27,943
they turn on
and get the cat to pay attention.

474
00:25:28,110 --> 00:25:31,530
So here, like, the cat has to go
from looking one direction to another.

475
00:25:31,697 --> 00:25:34,825
It requires two trainers, generally,
to get the cat's performance...

476
00:25:34,992 --> 00:25:36,785
or get them to look back and forth.

477
00:25:36,952 --> 00:25:40,873
But all of these moments
which are expressing this kind of...

478
00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:43,292
vital personality...

479
00:25:43,459 --> 00:25:46,754
it's amazing even to me...

480
00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:49,256
even though I've seen it
every step of the way.

481
00:25:49,423 --> 00:25:53,010
When you look at it all together
and when the cutting is finished...

482
00:25:53,177 --> 00:25:56,805
and when all the bits and pieces
that you find are all put together...

483
00:25:56,972 --> 00:25:59,516
and you believe these cats
are thinking and talking.

484
00:26:00,017 --> 00:26:02,603
And he is talking to this mouse
that wasn't there.

485
00:26:02,770 --> 00:26:04,063
That's right. It's amazing.

486
00:26:04,229 --> 00:26:07,483
And I think we also should give
some credit to Tom...

487
00:26:07,649 --> 00:26:09,818
Tom Finan, the editor.
He did a fantastic job.

488
00:26:09,985 --> 00:26:12,196
Yeah, because he had to
sift through...

489
00:26:12,362 --> 00:26:16,283
however many tens of thousands
of feet to try to find things.

490
00:26:16,450 --> 00:26:19,495
Because, as you were saying,
the movements of the cats...

491
00:26:19,661 --> 00:26:23,499
to get them to synch up with dialogue
so it looked like they were acting...

492
00:26:23,665 --> 00:26:26,293
Tom had to go through
thousands of feet...

493
00:26:26,460 --> 00:26:30,923
and try to get bits of action that
had been shot, that would line up.

494
00:26:31,090 --> 00:26:34,134
Because the guys at Rhythm & Hues
doing the facial animation...

495
00:26:34,301 --> 00:26:37,846
one of the frustrations for them is
they can't move the whole head...

496
00:26:38,013 --> 00:26:39,848
and they can't move the torso...

497
00:26:40,015 --> 00:26:42,893
to get the acting
into the reading of dialogue.

498
00:26:43,060 --> 00:26:45,187
So they really relied
on Tom's choices.

499
00:26:45,354 --> 00:26:47,523
- And Centropolis'.
- And Centropolis, yes.

500
00:26:47,689 --> 00:26:49,191
Centropolis and Rhythm & Hues.

501
00:26:59,201 --> 00:27:02,746
No mice were injured in the production
of this motion picture.

502
00:27:03,247 --> 00:27:07,292
The other thing that you might notice
is that some of the cats are different.

503
00:27:07,459 --> 00:27:10,254
In this shot this is Rocky,
the crazy cat...

504
00:27:10,420 --> 00:27:13,048
who would go running, you know,
at the drop of a pin.

505
00:27:13,215 --> 00:27:14,383
There are other cats.

506
00:27:14,550 --> 00:27:17,719
Prince was the star cat,
who did all of the close-up work...

507
00:27:17,886 --> 00:27:20,389
where we had to get close
and see his expressions...

508
00:27:20,556 --> 00:27:24,893
because he just actually had
a more intense gaze and stare.

509
00:27:25,060 --> 00:27:27,813
So throughout the film,
there were several different cats...

510
00:27:27,980 --> 00:27:29,731
playing each one of the roles.

511
00:27:33,152 --> 00:27:35,404
Interesting how they had
different motivations.

512
00:27:35,571 --> 00:27:37,239
- Like, Prince was so calm.
- Yeah.

513
00:27:37,406 --> 00:27:41,743
He was very calm. He'd just sit there
for 15, 20 minutes if asked to.

514
00:27:41,910 --> 00:27:44,329
And so now Stuart's fallen
into the basement.

515
00:27:44,496 --> 00:27:47,291
He's met up with George again,
his old pal.

516
00:27:47,457 --> 00:27:50,836
This was actually the very last scene
that we shot...

517
00:27:51,003 --> 00:27:53,130
in principal photography.

518
00:27:53,338 --> 00:27:55,591
This was something we all dreaded.

519
00:27:55,757 --> 00:27:57,926
We didn't wanna go to the basement.

520
00:27:58,135 --> 00:28:01,096
- It was dark down there.
- It was really, really complicated.

521
00:28:01,263 --> 00:28:04,433
It was probably the most complicated
thing to shoot...

522
00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:07,269
because Jonathan,
who is 7 years old...

523
00:28:07,436 --> 00:28:11,356
had to play this whole scene
with so many dramatic turns in it...

524
00:28:11,523 --> 00:28:14,443
with a mouse
who wasn't ever there.

525
00:28:14,610 --> 00:28:18,739
And, you know, just the demands
that we had to place on him...

526
00:28:18,906 --> 00:28:21,742
were so incredible that we all...

527
00:28:21,909 --> 00:28:24,620
were just worried,
not only for him but for ourselves...

528
00:28:24,786 --> 00:28:29,041
about how long or how difficult
it would be to get some of these shots.

529
00:28:29,208 --> 00:28:32,127
Stuart was very concerned
about having to do this shot.

530
00:28:32,294 --> 00:28:34,296
- Absolutely.
- He was afraid of that train.

531
00:28:34,463 --> 00:28:37,674
But you know what?
Stuart does all his own stunts.

532
00:28:37,841 --> 00:28:40,928
Except those that Delio Tramontozzi
animated for him.

533
00:28:41,094 --> 00:28:44,806
I have to say we had one animator
who did most of the shots...

534
00:28:45,307 --> 00:28:49,186
where you'd say Stuart was doing
something death-defying, like climbing.

535
00:28:49,353 --> 00:28:51,438
- And he did them all?
- He did all of them.

536
00:28:51,605 --> 00:28:54,483
He sort of became
Stuart's stunt double.

537
00:28:54,650 --> 00:28:57,319
See now, this is Stuart's car.

538
00:28:57,486 --> 00:28:59,821
It's actually George's car
but it becomes Stuart's.

539
00:28:59,988 --> 00:29:03,533
But this was based on a scene
from the book...

540
00:29:03,700 --> 00:29:07,204
in which Stuart visits the dentist,
I believe.

541
00:29:07,371 --> 00:29:09,331
- Is it the dentist?
- Yeah. The dentist.

542
00:29:09,498 --> 00:29:14,503
- The dentist has a little car like this.
- That car could become invisible.

543
00:29:14,670 --> 00:29:18,173
The one difference between that car
and this car it could become invisible.

544
00:29:18,340 --> 00:29:22,844
But we really were inspired by the idea
of Stuart being able to travel...

545
00:29:23,053 --> 00:29:26,390
in these different, like,
you know, miniature things.

546
00:29:26,556 --> 00:29:28,558
Not only the car but the <i>Wasp.</i>

547
00:29:28,725 --> 00:29:31,311
At one time, early in the development
of the project...

548
00:29:31,478 --> 00:29:35,023
we were contemplating the idea
of a toy airplane.

549
00:29:35,190 --> 00:29:39,027
Of a kind of remote-controlled plane
that Stuart would fly over Manhattan.

550
00:29:39,194 --> 00:29:41,863
That was something
that we had wanted to do...

551
00:29:42,030 --> 00:29:45,033
and, ultimately,
we abandoned that idea.

552
00:29:45,242 --> 00:29:48,245
You know, with each of the animators,
there was a...

553
00:29:48,412 --> 00:29:52,666
I sort of worked with Rob. We'd cut
the movie, I'd look at the shots...

554
00:29:52,833 --> 00:29:57,963
and then I would cast the animators,
depending on which animator...

555
00:29:58,130 --> 00:30:00,716
I thought had the right sensibilities
for that shot.

556
00:30:00,882 --> 00:30:03,885
A lot of stuff we just went through
was done by Pepe Valencia...

557
00:30:04,052 --> 00:30:07,431
and had to be done
very, very carefully...

558
00:30:07,597 --> 00:30:12,728
very subtle, very, very subdued.
The acting in a lot of this...

559
00:30:12,894 --> 00:30:15,605
This one's very nice too.
This is Kelvin Lee's shot.

560
00:30:15,772 --> 00:30:17,232
And this next one coming up...

561
00:30:18,567 --> 00:30:22,654
can kind of go from being subdued
to being a little more enthusiastic.

562
00:30:22,821 --> 00:30:24,531
What do you say?

563
00:30:26,033 --> 00:30:27,409
Let's get started.

564
00:30:28,577 --> 00:30:30,162
You know...

565
00:30:30,412 --> 00:30:32,414
I'm not really sure I want a brother.

566
00:30:34,916 --> 00:30:36,251
Well, how about a friend?

567
00:30:37,461 --> 00:30:40,589
I guess I could always use a friend.

568
00:30:42,257 --> 00:30:43,592
- George?
- Yes, Dad?

569
00:30:43,759 --> 00:30:45,093
Have you seen Stuart?

570
00:30:45,260 --> 00:30:47,262
He's down here with me.

571
00:30:47,471 --> 00:30:48,805
What are you doing to him?

572
00:30:49,014 --> 00:30:51,641
This scene was Hugh Laurie's
very last scene.

573
00:30:52,100 --> 00:30:54,895
Just after we shot this scene,
he went back to London.

574
00:30:55,062 --> 00:30:58,565
That was actually an interesting thing.
Hugh Laurie is a British actor.

575
00:30:58,732 --> 00:31:00,692
And although he was playing
an American...

576
00:31:00,859 --> 00:31:03,236
he had to adopt an American accent
to do it.

577
00:31:03,403 --> 00:31:04,988
And in our first audition...

578
00:31:05,155 --> 00:31:07,449
I actually held the audition
over the telephone...

579
00:31:07,616 --> 00:31:10,535
because he was in London
and I was in the United States.

580
00:31:10,702 --> 00:31:14,915
And I needed to hear what
his American accent would be like...

581
00:31:15,082 --> 00:31:18,210
to know that it was gonna work
for the film.

582
00:31:18,377 --> 00:31:22,672
And it was something that he,
you know, focused himself on...

583
00:31:22,839 --> 00:31:27,511
and he did a remarkable,
remarkable job...

584
00:31:28,136 --> 00:31:29,846
nailing an American accent...

585
00:31:30,013 --> 00:31:32,974
which is not easy at all.
It's very difficult.

586
00:31:33,141 --> 00:31:36,895
A lot of British actors try to do it,
some more successful than others.

587
00:31:37,062 --> 00:31:39,022
But Hugh did a tremendous,
tremendous job.

588
00:31:39,189 --> 00:31:41,983
And then later on
when he came back in...

589
00:31:42,150 --> 00:31:44,611
once the film was shot
and was finished...

590
00:31:44,778 --> 00:31:46,738
he had to come in to do
some loop lines.

591
00:31:46,905 --> 00:31:49,658
And we set up a telephone session.

592
00:31:49,825 --> 00:31:54,121
It was an ISDN session where
he was in London and I was here...

593
00:31:54,287 --> 00:31:56,498
and we were going through
the ADR. loops...

594
00:31:56,665 --> 00:32:00,001
and because he was in London...

595
00:32:00,168 --> 00:32:03,380
he had a whole crew of British people
surrounding him...

596
00:32:03,547 --> 00:32:08,677
and his accent was just not as good
as what he did in production.

597
00:32:08,844 --> 00:32:12,722
Ultimately he flew to New York where
we went through the session again.

598
00:32:12,889 --> 00:32:16,101
And in those circumstances,
in that environment...

599
00:32:16,268 --> 00:32:19,062
it made it easier for him to focus
and concentrate...

600
00:32:19,229 --> 00:32:22,190
so that he could recapture
something...

601
00:32:22,357 --> 00:32:26,611
that he had actually done
almost a year before.

602
00:32:26,778 --> 00:32:29,114
So that was quite a challenge.

603
00:32:29,281 --> 00:32:32,367
And one of the compliments paid
to his performance was...

604
00:32:32,534 --> 00:32:35,245
that someone was sitting in dailies
one day and said:

605
00:32:35,412 --> 00:32:38,790
"Gee, I thought he was British."
I said, "Well, he is British."

606
00:32:38,957 --> 00:32:42,377
And they were amazed he did
such a credible American accent.

607
00:32:45,464 --> 00:32:48,592
That's a beautiful painting.
You're, like, right there.

608
00:32:51,386 --> 00:32:53,054
Pork chop lake.

609
00:32:54,723 --> 00:32:56,558
If you're listening
to the audio track...

610
00:32:56,725 --> 00:32:59,936
I guess you won't be listening to us.
But if you switch over...

611
00:33:00,103 --> 00:33:02,397
you'll be hearing Stan Freberg...

612
00:33:02,564 --> 00:33:05,066
who's doing the announcer
for the boat race.

613
00:33:05,233 --> 00:33:08,445
And Stan Freberg is famous
for doing many, many...

614
00:33:08,653 --> 00:33:12,407
Not only his own radio shows
and records...

615
00:33:12,574 --> 00:33:15,827
kind of and comedy records.
He's the original "Weird AI" Yankovic.

616
00:33:15,994 --> 00:33:19,706
But he did a lot of cartoon voices.
He did Pete Puma.

617
00:33:19,873 --> 00:33:22,417
He did the beaver
from <i>Lady and the Tramp.</i>

618
00:33:22,584 --> 00:33:25,754
He did the baby from
the three bears cartoons.

619
00:33:25,921 --> 00:33:29,132
One of my favourite series of cartoons
from Chuck Jones.

620
00:33:29,299 --> 00:33:31,134
He was doing that
the night we recorded.

621
00:33:31,301 --> 00:33:34,804
He can still do that voice very well.
It was pretty funny.

622
00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:38,558
But to be on the safe side,
I better check the hull for leaks.

623
00:33:38,725 --> 00:33:40,602
Whoop, there goes Stuart.

624
00:33:41,269 --> 00:33:42,354
Down the hatch.

625
00:33:42,521 --> 00:33:45,941
Now this scene also was shot
indoors, on Stage 30.

626
00:33:46,107 --> 00:33:48,235
And what we had to do was convert...

627
00:33:48,401 --> 00:33:52,781
what was originally built
as Esther Williams' swimming pool...

628
00:33:52,948 --> 00:33:57,035
and we turned it into the boat pond
in Central Park.

629
00:33:57,202 --> 00:34:00,121
But all of these shots were done
indoors on that sound stage...

630
00:34:00,288 --> 00:34:03,166
which made it very difficult
to light properly...

631
00:34:03,333 --> 00:34:06,795
so that it would look
believably outdoors...

632
00:34:06,962 --> 00:34:08,630
even though it was shot indoors.

633
00:34:08,797 --> 00:34:14,761
So there were huge banks of lights
in the top of the set.

634
00:34:15,679 --> 00:34:20,141
Coming up here is one of my favourite
sequences of Stuart...

635
00:34:20,308 --> 00:34:21,977
where he's carrying the remote.

636
00:34:22,143 --> 00:34:26,815
And this is one of the sequences
where we used a digital prop.

637
00:34:26,982 --> 00:34:29,776
This is a digital remote control,
as opposed to a real one.

638
00:34:29,943 --> 00:34:34,239
And most of the time,
to try to integrate...

639
00:34:34,406 --> 00:34:36,491
a CG character
into a live-action world...

640
00:34:36,658 --> 00:34:39,911
you try to have that character
interact with the environment.

641
00:34:40,078 --> 00:34:42,414
Whether it means bumping it or...
See those pebbles?

642
00:34:42,581 --> 00:34:44,583
That was another effects animation.

643
00:34:44,749 --> 00:34:47,502
There are little pebbles skittering
as Stuart runs around.

644
00:34:47,669 --> 00:34:49,546
They try to include those things...

645
00:34:49,713 --> 00:34:52,799
just to really solidly put
the character in the scene.

646
00:34:52,966 --> 00:34:56,303
Most of the time that stuff
isn't gonna draw attention to itself...

647
00:34:56,469 --> 00:34:58,263
but it's picked up by the audience.

648
00:34:58,430 --> 00:35:01,766
You can see the reflection also.
Stuart's reflection in the remote.

649
00:35:01,933 --> 00:35:04,185
There went some more rocks.
Saw those going there.

650
00:35:04,352 --> 00:35:06,104
And Eric Armstrong
did most of these.

651
00:35:06,271 --> 00:35:08,481
Remember that?
He did that whole sequence, Eric.

652
00:35:08,648 --> 00:35:11,443
I know how worried
you are about losing, believe me.

653
00:35:11,610 --> 00:35:14,321
But you know what we say?
The thing that really matters...

654
00:35:14,487 --> 00:35:16,197
This scene is very interesting.

655
00:35:16,364 --> 00:35:20,201
The history of this scene,
George and Mr. Little talking.

656
00:35:20,702 --> 00:35:22,996
When we blocked the scene...

657
00:35:23,204 --> 00:35:27,542
we did not have a scene written
in the script that existed in that spot.

658
00:35:27,709 --> 00:35:30,211
And as we blocked the scene,
it was obvious to me...

659
00:35:30,378 --> 00:35:33,298
that there was an important moment
of storytelling...

660
00:35:33,465 --> 00:35:38,136
that was necessary for that moment
between George and his dad.

661
00:35:38,303 --> 00:35:42,057
The night before we shot the scene,
I jotted down some ideas...

662
00:35:42,265 --> 00:35:45,310
and then the following morning,
before we shot the scene...

663
00:35:45,477 --> 00:35:48,647
I called Lowell Ganz...

664
00:35:48,813 --> 00:35:52,484
who was one of the writers
who was doing work on the script.

665
00:35:52,651 --> 00:35:55,362
And I said, "You gotta help me."
This was his day off.

666
00:35:55,528 --> 00:35:57,906
I said, "Please, I'm supposed
to shoot this scene...

667
00:35:58,073 --> 00:36:01,743
and I have this idea
but it really needs a writer's polish."

668
00:36:01,910 --> 00:36:06,081
So I was literally on the phone with him
as we were going through the scene...

669
00:36:06,247 --> 00:36:10,126
and he was giving me lines and stuff
and I was taking dictation...

670
00:36:10,293 --> 00:36:12,253
and about half an hour later...

671
00:36:12,420 --> 00:36:16,091
I ran onto the set
with the scene for the actors to do.

672
00:36:16,257 --> 00:36:20,095
And it became a very important scene
in the storytelling...

673
00:36:20,261 --> 00:36:24,432
because it's where Mr. Little gives
George the advice to never give up...

674
00:36:24,599 --> 00:36:28,728
which is kind of a critical
thematic element through the story.

675
00:36:28,895 --> 00:36:31,731
And it's something
that Stuart actually embodies.

676
00:36:31,898 --> 00:36:35,276
Well, that's the thing.
It was really great how it worked out...

677
00:36:35,443 --> 00:36:38,405
because he's saying that
at the same time that Stuart is...

678
00:36:38,571 --> 00:36:40,281
never stopping trying.

679
00:36:40,448 --> 00:36:43,410
Exactly. He's struggling with
the remote but he doesn't give up.

680
00:36:43,576 --> 00:36:45,120
- Till it gets crushed.
- Right.

681
00:36:45,286 --> 00:36:47,580
So, what does that say about
Hugh's moral lesson?

682
00:36:47,747 --> 00:36:50,959
- The point is, the remote gets crushed.
- That's right.

683
00:36:51,126 --> 00:36:53,002
And Stuart doesn't give up...

684
00:36:53,169 --> 00:36:57,799
and the next beat of the scene
is that he ends up...

685
00:36:57,966 --> 00:37:00,510
- on the boat.
- Exactly. He really doesn't stop.

686
00:37:00,677 --> 00:37:03,179
He doesn't give up.
He's a plucky mouse.

687
00:37:03,346 --> 00:37:06,057
He absolutely is.
That's Stuart's character.

688
00:37:07,350 --> 00:37:09,144
He really doesn't see his limitations.

689
00:37:09,310 --> 00:37:12,564
I have to say, even though the script
mentions him as a mouse...

690
00:37:12,731 --> 00:37:15,942
for me, Stuart the character,
I never thought of him as a mouse.

691
00:37:16,109 --> 00:37:20,655
He's a character who happens to have
some of the characteristics of a mouse.

692
00:37:20,822 --> 00:37:24,159
- He looks somewhat like a mouse.
- Somewhat. Just like George said.

693
00:37:25,326 --> 00:37:27,996
All of this material on this side
of the bridge...

694
00:37:28,163 --> 00:37:32,167
was shot indoors on
Stage 30 at Columbia.

695
00:37:33,418 --> 00:37:35,378
But once they get out
beyond the bridge...

696
00:37:35,545 --> 00:37:40,759
they're in the larger pond,
where, really, the race takes place.

697
00:37:40,925 --> 00:37:44,262
And all of that material was shot
in the tank.

698
00:37:44,429 --> 00:37:46,765
It's an outdoor tank
at Paramount Pictures.

699
00:37:46,931 --> 00:37:49,809
- Most of the year is a parking lot.
- Normally a parking lot.

700
00:37:49,976 --> 00:37:52,979
But they got rid of all the cars
and filled it with water.

701
00:37:53,146 --> 00:37:55,982
And then they turned it
into the boat pond.

702
00:37:56,149 --> 00:37:57,734
Some of the boats, interestingly...

703
00:37:57,901 --> 00:38:02,030
We actually had to design
each one of these ships.

704
00:38:02,197 --> 00:38:06,534
Give them all names.
And one of the things that we did was...

705
00:38:06,701 --> 00:38:11,915
create over-scaled ships
so we could get some of the shots...

706
00:38:12,081 --> 00:38:15,001
that you're seeing here.
If the boats were too small...

707
00:38:15,168 --> 00:38:18,296
you couldn't get close enough
to the ships with the camera...

708
00:38:18,463 --> 00:38:20,548
and the depth of field
would be a problem.

709
00:38:20,715 --> 00:38:24,761
So some of the boats are actually
twice as big as the regular boats.

710
00:38:24,928 --> 00:38:28,640
Then all of them are being pulled
along tracks...

711
00:38:29,432 --> 00:38:31,392
you know,
so that you could do a shot...

712
00:38:31,559 --> 00:38:35,730
and the choreography would be
established by the tracks.

713
00:38:35,897 --> 00:38:38,358
And then if you needed
to redo the take...

714
00:38:38,525 --> 00:38:41,402
you'd actually be able to pull
the boats backward...

715
00:38:41,569 --> 00:38:44,155
back to their original position
and then rerun it.

716
00:38:44,322 --> 00:38:47,325
As opposed to doing it all
with just free remote-control boats...

717
00:38:47,492 --> 00:38:51,996
which would be almost impossible
to repeat any kind of action.

718
00:38:57,752 --> 00:39:00,088
The photography of those boats...

719
00:39:01,005 --> 00:39:03,424
the plates,
all the boats were match-moved...

720
00:39:03,591 --> 00:39:05,844
where there's a computer version
of the boat...

721
00:39:06,010 --> 00:39:08,429
which is lined up
with the live-action version.

722
00:39:08,596 --> 00:39:12,600
I love this shot where he gulps.
You can see the blowing fur on there.

723
00:39:12,767 --> 00:39:14,978
That's very nice.
And his clothing blowing.

724
00:39:15,144 --> 00:39:16,729
All that's match-moved...

725
00:39:16,896 --> 00:39:20,732
and then Stuart is put into the boat
and tracked with the shot.

726
00:39:20,733 --> 00:39:23,695
- What is he doing?
- I think he's hiking out.

727
00:39:24,571 --> 00:39:27,532
I like shots like this.
There he goes. He brings himself up.

728
00:39:27,699 --> 00:39:29,784
In a lot of the close-ups
in the boat race...

729
00:39:29,951 --> 00:39:33,621
you will see the blowing fur
and blowing clothing...

730
00:39:33,788 --> 00:39:36,791
as well as the animation...

731
00:39:36,958 --> 00:39:39,919
the normal animation
that we did on the clothing.

732
00:39:40,086 --> 00:39:42,505
This was another scene
that was inspired by the book.

733
00:39:42,922 --> 00:39:46,509
There's a very important scene
where Stuart sails the <i>Wasp...</i>

734
00:39:46,676 --> 00:39:49,804
although the <i>Wasp</i> in the book
is owned by...

735
00:39:49,971 --> 00:39:51,472
By the doctor?

736
00:39:51,639 --> 00:39:54,851
I think so. I think it is. Yeah, it is.

737
00:39:55,018 --> 00:39:57,478
- But we decided to try...
- That's how he meets him.

738
00:39:57,645 --> 00:39:59,397
Meets him in the park with the boat.

739
00:39:59,564 --> 00:40:03,484
He sails the boat to victory, the doctor
brings him back, gives him the car.

740
00:40:04,277 --> 00:40:07,030
So we knew we wanted to use that...

741
00:40:07,196 --> 00:40:09,824
because it's a very important
set piece in the book.

742
00:40:09,991 --> 00:40:13,786
And it's something people who have
read the book remember distinctly.

743
00:40:13,953 --> 00:40:18,666
And yet we incorporated that
into our story about the family.

744
00:40:18,833 --> 00:40:21,377
So, of course,
we gave the <i>Wasp</i> to George.

745
00:40:22,003 --> 00:40:23,922
And here you'll get to see
Stuart's teeth.

746
00:40:24,088 --> 00:40:28,009
Because he has a real
set of human-modelled...

747
00:40:28,176 --> 00:40:29,344
Human teeth.

748
00:40:29,510 --> 00:40:34,349
Actually, one of the executives
at Sony Pictures Imageworks...

749
00:40:34,515 --> 00:40:37,352
provided Stuart's dental work.

750
00:40:37,518 --> 00:40:40,396
- That would be Barry. Barry Weiss.
- Barry Weiss.

751
00:40:40,855 --> 00:40:42,607
Something's wrong.

752
00:40:42,774 --> 00:40:45,360
So, meanwhile,
Stuart's struggling with the boat.

753
00:40:45,526 --> 00:40:49,530
We're about to see... I think this one
was kind of our tribute...

754
00:40:49,697 --> 00:40:53,284
to Douglas Fairbanks here,
when he slides down the sail.

755
00:40:53,451 --> 00:40:57,205
Sort of like <i>The Thief of Bagdad.</i>

756
00:41:05,296 --> 00:41:06,422
Yeah!

757
00:41:07,507 --> 00:41:08,925
Yeah!

758
00:41:13,888 --> 00:41:18,142
Of course, the Manhattan skyline is
a matte painting that was added later.

759
00:41:18,309 --> 00:41:21,104
So all those shots...
Many of the shots done on the bridge...

760
00:41:21,270 --> 00:41:25,400
facing the crowd on the bridge,
were done against a blue screen.

761
00:41:26,609 --> 00:41:31,781
Now here we're about to the point
where one of the shots that we had...

762
00:41:31,948 --> 00:41:35,243
That we cut from the movie.
We went directly here to the trophy.

763
00:41:35,410 --> 00:41:37,328
- Remember the...?
- Exactly.

764
00:41:37,495 --> 00:41:39,789
- But then it made its way back in.
- Right.

765
00:41:39,956 --> 00:41:42,375
- But I think it was a good decision.
- Yeah.

766
00:41:42,542 --> 00:41:45,670
The family is actually made up
of a bunch of great character actors.

767
00:41:45,837 --> 00:41:47,463
I wanted to point some of them out.

768
00:41:49,257 --> 00:41:51,092
Besides Geena Davis
and Hugh Laurie...

769
00:41:51,259 --> 00:41:54,679
we have Harold Gould, you'll notice,
with the white hair.

770
00:41:54,846 --> 00:41:57,140
Next to him is Allyce Beasley.

771
00:41:57,306 --> 00:41:58,891
That's Jeffrey Jones...

772
00:41:59,058 --> 00:42:02,270
who you'll recognise from <i>Beetlejuice</i>
and <i>Ferris Bueller's Day Off.</i>

773
00:42:02,437 --> 00:42:05,023
<i>- Amadeus</i> too.
- And <i>Amadeus.</i> Exactly.

774
00:42:05,189 --> 00:42:08,526
And Connie Ray's in the background.

775
00:42:08,693 --> 00:42:11,487
That's Patrick O'Brien
with the camera.

776
00:42:11,654 --> 00:42:13,865
- Brian Doyle-Murray.
- Brian is on the left.

777
00:42:14,032 --> 00:42:16,701
Brian Doyle being the brother
of Bill Murray.

778
00:42:17,243 --> 00:42:20,371
This is the happiest moment
of my life.

779
00:42:20,955 --> 00:42:23,791
And they really made a wonderful,
sort of quirky family...

780
00:42:23,958 --> 00:42:26,961
which is the quality we were trying
to convey for the Littles.

781
00:42:27,128 --> 00:42:31,215
We thought, "What kind of family would
want to adopt a mouse as a child?"

782
00:42:31,382 --> 00:42:33,968
We needed to come up with
some eccentric characters...

783
00:42:34,135 --> 00:42:35,803
to make that believable.

784
00:42:35,970 --> 00:42:39,932
And just when Stuart is at the pinnacle
of his happiness...

785
00:42:40,099 --> 00:42:43,519
- The rug is pulled out from under him.
- Fate rings his doorbell.

786
00:42:44,979 --> 00:42:48,399
In the form of two little mice played
by Bruno Kirby and Jennifer Tilly.

787
00:42:48,566 --> 00:42:51,486
- Bruno being the short one.
- Wonderfully played, I might add.

788
00:42:51,652 --> 00:42:55,323
Jennifer, actually,
when we were modelling the mouse...

789
00:42:55,490 --> 00:42:57,325
the Camille Stout mouse...

790
00:42:57,492 --> 00:43:00,495
we actually made some modifications
to the model...

791
00:43:00,661 --> 00:43:04,165
to make it look a little bit more
like Jennifer.

792
00:43:04,332 --> 00:43:07,335
Took one of her headshots
and sort of made some modifications...

793
00:43:07,502 --> 00:43:10,046
You see that peanut?
They spent a great deal of time...

794
00:43:10,213 --> 00:43:13,591
trying to make that digital peanut
look like a real peanut.

795
00:43:13,758 --> 00:43:16,552
With little particles breaking off
when he bit it.

796
00:43:18,596 --> 00:43:21,474
And this was a...
When we got into doing this section...

797
00:43:21,641 --> 00:43:24,352
I think for the animators,
this was a lot of fun.

798
00:43:24,519 --> 00:43:27,355
Pretty much all the animators wanted
to do the Stouts...

799
00:43:27,522 --> 00:43:30,525
because they loved the voices,
they gave a lot of character.

800
00:43:30,691 --> 00:43:33,569
And also, it was great having
two characters to react.

801
00:43:33,736 --> 00:43:35,863
See how she puts her arm up on him
and reacts?

802
00:43:36,030 --> 00:43:38,825
It's really great to have two or more
characters in a shot...

803
00:43:38,991 --> 00:43:41,119
so you can get them to play off
one another.

804
00:43:41,285 --> 00:43:42,787
You can touch one another.

805
00:43:42,954 --> 00:43:46,666
They can help direct your eye
where you're supposed to be looking.

806
00:43:46,833 --> 00:43:50,378
One can move and the other one can
kind of stop, go back and forth.

807
00:43:50,545 --> 00:43:54,382
And through this whole thing
we wanted Reginald Stout...

808
00:43:54,549 --> 00:43:57,135
to just keep eating peanuts.
That's his theme.

809
00:43:57,301 --> 00:43:59,720
One thing about
how this scene was created...

810
00:43:59,887 --> 00:44:02,306
when we shot this scene
on the set...

811
00:44:02,473 --> 00:44:07,562
Jim Doughan, who actually appears
in the film as Detective Allen...

812
00:44:07,812 --> 00:44:09,438
You'll see them later in the film.

813
00:44:09,605 --> 00:44:11,816
And he's one of the voices of the cats,
Lucky.

814
00:44:11,983 --> 00:44:14,902
He was reading all
of Stuart's dialogue on the set.

815
00:44:15,069 --> 00:44:17,989
That was his original job.

816
00:44:18,156 --> 00:44:21,701
When we went through the scenes with
the actors, he'd read lines off camera.

817
00:44:21,868 --> 00:44:23,995
He did the same for the Stouts
in this scene.

818
00:44:24,328 --> 00:44:29,250
And he got a barrel full
of ice cream cones...

819
00:44:29,417 --> 00:44:32,003
that he was using to make
the sound of the peanuts.

820
00:44:32,170 --> 00:44:35,047
As he would deliver the lines,
he was chomping on the cones...

821
00:44:35,214 --> 00:44:37,008
and making a pig of himself.

822
00:44:37,175 --> 00:44:40,011
And that's what Geena and Hugh
are reacting to...

823
00:44:40,178 --> 00:44:44,932
to give all those great, wonderful
reactions to Mr. Stout eating peanuts.

824
00:44:45,099 --> 00:44:48,603
And this shot here was one of the most
difficult shots in the movie...

825
00:44:48,769 --> 00:44:52,523
coming up when the Stouts
are gonna come in and join Stuart.

826
00:44:52,690 --> 00:44:54,108
Because the...

827
00:44:54,275 --> 00:44:58,196
Not only are there three characters
in the shot and each one of them was...

828
00:44:58,529 --> 00:45:01,365
a fairly heavy character
on the computer to deal with...

829
00:45:01,908 --> 00:45:03,701
but also it's a really long shot.

830
00:45:03,868 --> 00:45:06,037
It's one of the longer shots
in the movie.

831
00:45:06,579 --> 00:45:07,997
- Here it comes now.
- This shot?

832
00:45:08,164 --> 00:45:09,498
Yeah, this one right here.

833
00:45:09,665 --> 00:45:15,421
And again, I'm sure you, you know,
had to do a lot of this on <i>Lion King...</i>

834
00:45:15,588 --> 00:45:18,591
but the choreography of a scene
like this is really important.

835
00:45:18,758 --> 00:45:21,928
When a character is talking and
when another character is talking...

836
00:45:22,094 --> 00:45:25,056
we're directing the audience
where to look.

837
00:45:25,348 --> 00:45:28,351
So I think that one...
I was very happy with that shot.

838
00:45:28,517 --> 00:45:30,436
Hey, taxi!

839
00:45:31,604 --> 00:45:33,981
What's a mouse have to do
to get a cab in this city?

840
00:45:34,148 --> 00:45:36,108
And now we're outside.

841
00:45:36,525 --> 00:45:39,654
This is another really nice shot.
The weight of the bag.

842
00:45:39,820 --> 00:45:43,407
Yeah. And the reflection
in the water of Stuart.

843
00:45:43,574 --> 00:45:47,119
But everything. I think the lighting
in this particular scene...

844
00:45:47,286 --> 00:45:49,705
the way it was photographed,
is very successful...

845
00:45:49,872 --> 00:45:52,500
in conveying the mood
and the atmosphere for this...

846
00:45:52,667 --> 00:45:55,544
very critical, emotional scene
in the movie.

847
00:45:55,753 --> 00:45:59,006
And it helps bring out the contours
in Stuart and in the Stouts.

848
00:45:59,173 --> 00:46:02,510
Because when they are, you know,
those light colours, it's really hard.

849
00:46:04,637 --> 00:46:06,514
The shot where
she's gonna pick him up...

850
00:46:06,681 --> 00:46:09,100
this is all another big tracking job.

851
00:46:09,267 --> 00:46:12,520
Just speaking technical for a minute,
to track Stuart into the hand...

852
00:46:12,687 --> 00:46:15,481
and to get him to feel
like he's truly in the hand...

853
00:46:15,648 --> 00:46:17,566
and she kissed him,
a lot of lining up.

854
00:46:17,733 --> 00:46:19,986
But in that shot,
what's interesting is that...

855
00:46:20,152 --> 00:46:24,991
Stuart was added but the actual bag,
the suitcase was physically there.

856
00:46:25,157 --> 00:46:27,493
That was a prop that was built
for Hugh to pick up.

857
00:46:27,660 --> 00:46:29,495
Like this one coming up
as he goes down.

858
00:46:29,662 --> 00:46:32,790
- This is a long shot too.
- The bag is real but Stuart is not.

859
00:46:32,957 --> 00:46:36,961
See how Stuart keeps trying
to look at Mom? This is one that was...

860
00:46:37,128 --> 00:46:39,380
There's one thing at the end
of this animation.

861
00:46:39,547 --> 00:46:43,551
It's not really that noticeable,
but something we added last minute.

862
00:46:43,718 --> 00:46:46,554
Watch how he will...
Dave Mullins animated this shot.

863
00:46:46,721 --> 00:46:49,557
Watch how he'll put his hands
on the bag...

864
00:46:49,724 --> 00:46:52,393
and he looks down
and just lets it... drop off.

865
00:46:52,560 --> 00:46:55,980
It just says everything.
He's so crestfallen and heartbroken.

866
00:47:00,943 --> 00:47:02,611
Boy, that looks heavy.

867
00:47:02,778 --> 00:47:04,030
See, they just fit.

868
00:47:04,196 --> 00:47:05,364
Camille?

869
00:47:05,531 --> 00:47:07,783
The other kind of liberty
we were taking...

870
00:47:07,950 --> 00:47:11,329
was this whole notion
that Mr. Stout hails a cab.

871
00:47:11,495 --> 00:47:16,417
How do mice travel in Manhattan?
I guess they travel like everybody else.

872
00:47:16,584 --> 00:47:20,504
It's funny
because the whole world they live in...

873
00:47:20,671 --> 00:47:23,341
is just where talking animals
are just a part of life.

874
00:47:23,507 --> 00:47:26,093
I mean, no one seems
to really bat an eye.

875
00:47:26,260 --> 00:47:29,180
If a mouse comes and sits down
at a diner for a cup of coffee...

876
00:47:29,347 --> 00:47:31,766
- they bring it to him.
- Exactly.

877
00:47:31,932 --> 00:47:33,517
But you're not.

878
00:47:34,143 --> 00:47:36,020
She is.

879
00:47:38,939 --> 00:47:40,191
Stuart!

880
00:47:42,651 --> 00:47:44,278
Here comes George with the car.

881
00:47:44,820 --> 00:47:46,072
George?

882
00:47:46,238 --> 00:47:49,742
See that little animation in the back
between Reggie and Camille?

883
00:47:49,909 --> 00:47:54,747
We sort of play... It's very subtle.
We played that like, "The jig is up."

884
00:47:54,914 --> 00:47:57,583
Only after you've seen the film...

885
00:47:57,750 --> 00:48:01,921
do you recognise that the Stouts
are not really Stuart's parents.

886
00:48:02,088 --> 00:48:04,799
And there's a whole reality
that has to be played...

887
00:48:04,965 --> 00:48:08,386
about what they're thinking
as all this stuff is going on.

888
00:48:08,552 --> 00:48:10,888
Just like Stuart...

889
00:48:11,055 --> 00:48:13,849
the animators had to understand
who the Stouts were...

890
00:48:14,016 --> 00:48:16,811
a little bit about their background
and their motivation.

891
00:48:16,977 --> 00:48:19,271
In fact, we sort of played it...

892
00:48:19,438 --> 00:48:22,441
that Camille really did want to have
a child and she couldn't.

893
00:48:22,608 --> 00:48:25,528
- So this was her opportunity.
- One of my favourite shots.

894
00:48:25,694 --> 00:48:27,988
- I kept making Henry redo it.
- He did, he did.

895
00:48:28,155 --> 00:48:30,074
Initially, we were doing
a waving thing.

896
00:48:30,241 --> 00:48:33,702
And Rob kept saying,
"No, put the hand up. Just leave it up."

897
00:48:33,869 --> 00:48:37,331
- And you were right.
- That's a thing about performance...

898
00:48:37,498 --> 00:48:40,292
in this medium, is that...

899
00:48:40,459 --> 00:48:43,504
the tendency to overdo things
is common among animators.

900
00:48:43,671 --> 00:48:46,215
I think they get excited
they can move things around.

901
00:48:46,382 --> 00:48:49,176
- Certainly, I'm not guilty of that.
- No, no, no. Never.

902
00:48:49,343 --> 00:48:53,389
But that's always... The temptation is
to do as much as possible.

903
00:48:53,556 --> 00:48:57,726
Is to make everything moving
at the same time.

904
00:48:57,893 --> 00:49:04,442
I think the difference between
the better-quality animation...

905
00:49:04,608 --> 00:49:06,902
is that there's a simplicity to it.

906
00:49:07,069 --> 00:49:10,698
That there's a directness
and a simplicity.

907
00:49:10,865 --> 00:49:15,411
That's what Henry and I talked about
when we were starting on the project.

908
00:49:15,578 --> 00:49:18,456
To try to make sure that
the sensibility of the performance...

909
00:49:18,622 --> 00:49:22,668
- was really in line with that.
- I think the animators, by and large...

910
00:49:22,835 --> 00:49:26,213
I mean, we did have some
experienced animators on our crew.

911
00:49:26,380 --> 00:49:31,093
We also had a lot of young animators
who hadn't been doing this for long.

912
00:49:31,260 --> 00:49:34,555
And I think that being able to focus
on one character...

913
00:49:34,722 --> 00:49:37,475
for this many shots...

914
00:49:37,641 --> 00:49:41,228
I think all of us learned a lot.
And they certainly learned.

915
00:49:41,395 --> 00:49:44,231
By the time we got to the end
of the film...

916
00:49:44,398 --> 00:49:45,733
I think we were...

917
00:49:45,900 --> 00:49:48,569
We'd like to have gone back
and redone a few shots.

918
00:49:48,736 --> 00:49:50,738
The bridge shot,
the Brooklyn Bridge shot...

919
00:49:50,905 --> 00:49:54,658
was actually one of the few things
that was shot on location.

920
00:49:54,825 --> 00:49:58,162
So that was actually shot
in New York.

921
00:49:58,329 --> 00:50:02,208
The first shot being, you know,
achieved on a helicopter.

922
00:50:02,374 --> 00:50:05,628
And then the other ones done
actually on the bridge.

923
00:50:05,794 --> 00:50:10,132
Which if you haven't been
to Manhattan, there's a walkway...

924
00:50:10,299 --> 00:50:12,510
a pedestrian walkway
in the bridge...

925
00:50:12,676 --> 00:50:15,930
which is where we ended up
putting the car.

926
00:50:16,096 --> 00:50:19,266
This shot coming up,
I like very much as well...

927
00:50:19,433 --> 00:50:21,852
because the lighting on this...

928
00:50:22,019 --> 00:50:25,856
also gave really nice form
to the characters.

929
00:50:26,023 --> 00:50:28,567
The light coming from up there
and the interaction...

930
00:50:28,734 --> 00:50:33,656
That's all CG. CG suitcase,
CG cloth on the bed.

931
00:50:33,822 --> 00:50:36,742
If you look in the background,
you'll notice a baseball card...

932
00:50:36,909 --> 00:50:38,285
and it's Willie Mays.

933
00:50:38,452 --> 00:50:42,122
- Was that from your collection?
- No, but I grew up in the Bay Area.

934
00:50:42,289 --> 00:50:45,084
So the San Francisco Giants were
important in my youth...

935
00:50:45,251 --> 00:50:49,296
and Willie Mays was,
you know, a hero.

936
00:50:50,422 --> 00:50:52,800
I think Stuart might be more
of a Yankees fan.

937
00:50:52,967 --> 00:50:54,677
Possibly.

938
00:50:55,803 --> 00:50:57,471
There he is.

939
00:51:01,809 --> 00:51:05,396
Now, this was where the
"have breakfast" sequence used to be.

940
00:51:05,563 --> 00:51:07,731
Yes, the "have breakfast" sequence.

941
00:51:07,898 --> 00:51:10,192
There was a whole scene
where Stuart...

942
00:51:10,359 --> 00:51:12,486
was sitting at the table
with the Stouts...

943
00:51:12,653 --> 00:51:15,489
where they we talking to him about
what they were gonna do.

944
00:51:15,656 --> 00:51:19,201
Later on, Stuart was interested to find
out more about his mouse family...

945
00:51:19,368 --> 00:51:21,078
and Mr. Stout suggested...

946
00:51:21,245 --> 00:51:24,331
they go to an Italian restaurant
and forage through a dumpster.

947
00:51:24,498 --> 00:51:26,917
Which didn't make it in the final cut.

948
00:51:27,084 --> 00:51:29,753
He also told Stuart,
"Never trust them."

949
00:51:29,920 --> 00:51:32,548
- "Never trust family."
- Yeah. "Family. Never trust them."

950
00:51:32,756 --> 00:51:36,302
But first, how are things going?

951
00:51:36,468 --> 00:51:39,138
- Oh, it's been difficult.
- Difficult?

952
00:51:39,305 --> 00:51:40,347
No, very difficult.

953
00:51:40,514 --> 00:51:43,183
This is one where there's
some good editing on Snowbell.

954
00:51:43,350 --> 00:51:46,145
So that Snowbell appears
to be hearing what's going on here.

955
00:51:46,312 --> 00:51:49,023
The interesting challenge
about the movie in general was...

956
00:51:49,189 --> 00:51:50,608
how to treat the cats.

957
00:51:51,025 --> 00:51:53,694
Because Stuart can talk
to the people...

958
00:51:53,861 --> 00:51:57,906
but you'll notice
that the cats never talk to the people.

959
00:51:58,073 --> 00:52:01,785
The logic there,
which is sort of a logical illogic...

960
00:52:01,952 --> 00:52:06,206
is that the cats, being real cats,
act as pets in the family.

961
00:52:06,373 --> 00:52:10,127
And that they could talk with Stuart,
Stuart could talk with them...

962
00:52:10,294 --> 00:52:12,713
but Stuart was the only one
who talked to humans.

963
00:52:12,880 --> 00:52:15,215
At first, when we were talking
about this idea...

964
00:52:15,382 --> 00:52:18,719
everybody was a bit nervous about
how that would come across...

965
00:52:18,886 --> 00:52:21,055
and whether people would
question it.

966
00:52:21,555 --> 00:52:24,350
And what we found is
once we established that rule...

967
00:52:24,516 --> 00:52:25,976
that pattern of behaviour...

968
00:52:26,143 --> 00:52:28,228
that people just didn't even
recognise it.

969
00:52:28,395 --> 00:52:30,314
People don't even notice it.

970
00:52:30,481 --> 00:52:31,815
Two-for-one sale.

971
00:52:31,982 --> 00:52:33,484
That's a very heavy soup.

972
00:52:33,651 --> 00:52:36,236
That, of course, is Julia Sweeney...

973
00:52:36,403 --> 00:52:39,740
who you might remember from on
<i>Saturday Night Live,</i> who played...

974
00:52:39,907 --> 00:52:42,993
One of her most familiar characters
is Pat...

975
00:52:43,160 --> 00:52:45,746
the gender-confused character.

976
00:52:45,913 --> 00:52:48,123
But they've been gone for years.

977
00:52:48,290 --> 00:52:49,917
Years?

978
00:52:50,417 --> 00:52:54,463
And coming up is the one place where
we kind of bent the rule a little bit...

979
00:52:54,630 --> 00:52:59,093
because you'll hear a vocal
performance by Nathan Lane...

980
00:52:59,259 --> 00:53:01,011
who plays Snowbell...

981
00:53:01,178 --> 00:53:04,932
in that shot where he reacts to the
fact they're gonna call in the police.

982
00:53:05,432 --> 00:53:08,602
Dear, we have to take this up
with the police.

983
00:53:09,687 --> 00:53:12,606
So in this scene,
the police detectives arrive.

984
00:53:12,773 --> 00:53:17,152
And you'll see that's Jim Doughan
getting out of the car.

985
00:53:17,319 --> 00:53:21,865
And with Jim is Jon Polito,
who's a great character actor.

986
00:53:22,032 --> 00:53:23,492
I'm Detective Sherman.

987
00:53:23,659 --> 00:53:25,786
- Allen and Sherman. Allen Sherman.
- Exactly.

988
00:53:25,953 --> 00:53:29,790
Detective Sherman and Detective Allen,
which is a tribute to Allan Sherman.

989
00:53:31,792 --> 00:53:34,294
Slightly obtuse reference.

990
00:53:34,461 --> 00:53:38,132
I don't think we've talked about
Steve Zahn yet, who's just amazing.

991
00:53:38,298 --> 00:53:43,137
Oh, yeah, Steve Zahn, who is just
an incredible, incredible comic actor...

992
00:53:43,303 --> 00:53:45,305
did the voice of Monty.

993
00:53:45,472 --> 00:53:50,185
The voice of Smokey is done
by Chazz Palminteri...

994
00:53:50,352 --> 00:53:53,647
who I'm sure you're familiar with.
He plays a lot of gangsters.

995
00:53:53,939 --> 00:53:56,817
That was the quality that we wanted
to convey with Smokey...

996
00:53:56,984 --> 00:53:58,986
who's the leader
of the underworld cats.

997
00:53:59,153 --> 00:54:02,740
And Nathan Lane. Nathan, of course,
playing the part of Snowbell...

998
00:54:02,906 --> 00:54:04,783
and playing it quite brilliantly.

999
00:54:04,950 --> 00:54:09,496
And Monty, who is kind of Snowbell's
goofball sidekick.

1000
00:54:09,663 --> 00:54:12,416
The cat who played Monty...

1001
00:54:12,583 --> 00:54:15,335
those particular markings,
I think, were...

1002
00:54:15,502 --> 00:54:18,088
Really worked well
with the animation.

1003
00:54:18,255 --> 00:54:22,009
He has probably one of the more
expressive faces.

1004
00:54:22,176 --> 00:54:25,179
I think when the guys
at R&H and Centropolis...

1005
00:54:25,345 --> 00:54:29,141
shifted the area around the eyes,
they really got a lot of acting out of it.

1006
00:54:29,308 --> 00:54:31,435
The natural fur colours
around the face...

1007
00:54:31,602 --> 00:54:34,480
really lent themselves very well
to animation.

1008
00:54:34,646 --> 00:54:38,609
And since both studios were using
virtually the same technique...

1009
00:54:38,776 --> 00:54:41,111
which is that they were...

1010
00:54:41,278 --> 00:54:44,364
What's called match-moving.
Taking a computer-generated object...

1011
00:54:44,531 --> 00:54:49,369
and then matching the movement
of a live-action object...

1012
00:54:49,536 --> 00:54:52,039
or, in this case,
live-action character, the cat...

1013
00:54:52,206 --> 00:54:56,502
and they match it up and
they actually replace the cat's face...

1014
00:54:56,668 --> 00:55:00,422
with a computer-generated face.
They add the fur and the texturing...

1015
00:55:00,589 --> 00:55:03,509
and that allows them to do
all the subtle animation you see.

1016
00:55:03,675 --> 00:55:06,512
And that was something that, again...

1017
00:55:06,678 --> 00:55:08,889
was a technique perfected
in the movie <i>Babe.</i>

1018
00:55:09,932 --> 00:55:14,102
Rhythm & Hues, who did
quite a bit of work on this movie...

1019
00:55:14,269 --> 00:55:16,897
did all of the work, I think,
on both <i>Babes.</i>

1020
00:55:17,064 --> 00:55:18,899
They did.

1021
00:55:19,066 --> 00:55:21,693
<i>Babe</i> and <i>Babe: Pig in the City.</i>

1022
00:55:21,860 --> 00:55:23,987
And, yeah, they did that.

1023
00:55:24,154 --> 00:55:26,740
And a project I worked on
over there...

1024
00:55:26,907 --> 00:55:28,951
was the first few
polar bear commercials.

1025
00:55:29,117 --> 00:55:31,912
And we used a lot of that
same technique to do the face.

1026
00:55:32,079 --> 00:55:34,206
It's a very similar type of face.

1027
00:55:34,414 --> 00:55:37,876
But, again, when you do that,
what you're doing, really...

1028
00:55:38,043 --> 00:55:43,423
is cutting together the dialogue
that you've recorded in...

1029
00:55:43,590 --> 00:55:45,717
On a studio. On a studio?

1030
00:55:45,884 --> 00:55:48,303
You don't record on a studio,
you record in a studio.

1031
00:55:48,470 --> 00:55:50,848
- You could be on the studio.
- I guess.

1032
00:55:51,014 --> 00:55:53,767
So once you've actually recorded
the dialogue...

1033
00:55:53,934 --> 00:55:57,020
And normally you record
the actors separately...

1034
00:55:57,187 --> 00:56:00,566
so that they'll come in in a separate
session and do the dialogue.

1035
00:56:00,732 --> 00:56:03,777
You get all those bits and pieces
together, all the dialogue...

1036
00:56:03,944 --> 00:56:08,073
and then you select the different bits
of takes from the cat's performance.

1037
00:56:08,240 --> 00:56:12,619
And then once you've finished
all that, then you turn it over...

1038
00:56:12,786 --> 00:56:15,455
to either Rhythm & Hues
or Centropolis...

1039
00:56:15,622 --> 00:56:19,418
take the cat's performance
or the cat's physical acting...

1040
00:56:19,585 --> 00:56:22,337
and then do a facial replacement...

1041
00:56:22,629 --> 00:56:25,966
so that they're manipulating
the eyes and the mouth...

1042
00:56:26,133 --> 00:56:30,512
and trying to, you know,
make it believable.

1043
00:56:30,679 --> 00:56:33,974
I think Bruno and Jennifer were
the only ones we recorded together.

1044
00:56:34,141 --> 00:56:36,685
There were sessions
we were able to get them together...

1045
00:56:36,852 --> 00:56:40,397
which was great to establish, again,
a rapport between those two.

1046
00:56:40,564 --> 00:56:43,025
As husband and wife,
they had to have a kind of...

1047
00:56:43,191 --> 00:56:45,944
you know, intuitive aspect
to each other to know...

1048
00:56:46,111 --> 00:56:48,447
what each other
were gonna say and do.

1049
00:56:48,614 --> 00:56:52,284
I love this exchange that's just about
to occur between Mr. and Mrs. Stout.

1050
00:56:52,451 --> 00:56:54,494
Mrs. Stout's had a costume change,
you see.

1051
00:56:54,661 --> 00:56:56,747
She's no longer wearing her coat.

1052
00:56:56,914 --> 00:56:58,624
That's gotta hurt.

1053
00:56:58,790 --> 00:57:02,210
That was really fun to animate.

1054
00:57:02,377 --> 00:57:05,714
See that little Bill Irwin-inspired walk?
See how he lifted his foot up?

1055
00:57:05,881 --> 00:57:09,259
Did a lot of that Bill Irwin,
Buster Keaton kind of stuff.

1056
00:57:09,426 --> 00:57:13,430
Lifting his feet up and landing
on his heels as he walks forward.

1057
00:57:13,639 --> 00:57:15,015
When we were all so happy?

1058
00:57:15,182 --> 00:57:16,558
- Yes!
- Yes!

1059
00:57:16,725 --> 00:57:20,354
And one of the shots coming up here
in a minute was very challenging.

1060
00:57:20,520 --> 00:57:23,482
You can see Mr. Stout's arms
are really, really short.

1061
00:57:23,649 --> 00:57:27,277
In fact, without scaling them up
in some shots like we did...

1062
00:57:27,444 --> 00:57:30,614
he can't cross his hands in front
of him. His arms are too short.

1063
00:57:30,781 --> 00:57:32,574
But look what
he's supposed to do here.

1064
00:57:32,741 --> 00:57:35,202
Rob, you wanted to have him
grab him around the face?

1065
00:57:35,369 --> 00:57:37,329
- Right.
- Which we really couldn't do.

1066
00:57:37,496 --> 00:57:40,832
I remember when we came up
with the idea of doing it...

1067
00:57:40,999 --> 00:57:44,211
as this kind of an
over-the-shoulder shot from Stuart...

1068
00:57:44,378 --> 00:57:47,506
so that it appears that Mr. Stout
is grabbing Stuart's lapels...

1069
00:57:47,673 --> 00:57:49,383
when in fact he can't reach them.

1070
00:57:49,549 --> 00:57:52,052
But it works. And I love this.

1071
00:57:52,219 --> 00:57:54,805
That was all done at Imageworks,
that pullback there.

1072
00:57:54,972 --> 00:57:57,057
That was originally
a locked-off plate.

1073
00:57:57,224 --> 00:57:59,977
And we were able to get
that whole sort of...

1074
00:58:00,143 --> 00:58:03,063
start on Mr. Stout and pull back
as Mrs. Stout comes in.

1075
00:58:03,230 --> 00:58:05,899
Bye, fake father!
Goodbye, fake mother!

1076
00:58:06,066 --> 00:58:07,442
There he goes, off in the car.

1077
00:58:07,609 --> 00:58:11,530
Again, a CG Stuart match-moved
into the car...

1078
00:58:11,697 --> 00:58:14,074
so that he could wave...

1079
00:58:15,409 --> 00:58:17,536
and act.

1080
00:58:21,456 --> 00:58:24,126
- George.
- Well, I think we have to...

1081
00:58:24,292 --> 00:58:26,253
- Tell him.
- Yeah.

1082
00:58:26,586 --> 00:58:29,423
Now, in this scene,
the Littles have come back...

1083
00:58:29,631 --> 00:58:32,217
and they're going to break
the news to George...

1084
00:58:32,384 --> 00:58:36,513
that the police have, you know,
told them that it seems hopeless...

1085
00:58:36,680 --> 00:58:39,099
that they'll ever find Stuart.

1086
00:58:39,266 --> 00:58:41,810
And the family is, meanwhile...

1087
00:58:41,977 --> 00:58:45,105
carrying through on the theme
of never giving up.

1088
00:58:45,272 --> 00:58:48,942
They've rallied around the idea
of making these posters...

1089
00:58:49,109 --> 00:58:54,197
to put up all over the city
to see if they can locate Stuart.

1090
00:58:54,364 --> 00:58:58,410
And, again, this was an element,
a thematic idea...

1091
00:58:58,577 --> 00:59:04,624
that was incorporated fairly late
in the process of making this movie.

1092
00:59:04,791 --> 00:59:07,085
This wasn't a scene
in the original script...

1093
00:59:07,252 --> 00:59:09,463
but as we were going
into production...

1094
00:59:10,088 --> 00:59:13,800
a lot of work was continuing...

1095
00:59:13,967 --> 00:59:16,636
you know,
and continued to be done...

1096
00:59:16,803 --> 00:59:18,930
in terms of adding extra scenes
and ideas...

1097
00:59:19,097 --> 00:59:21,141
that would flesh out
the end of the movie.

1098
00:59:21,308 --> 00:59:22,476
It dovetailed so well...

1099
00:59:22,642 --> 00:59:25,395
taking the photograph of Stuart
and cutting it out...

1100
00:59:25,562 --> 00:59:29,316
so that later that gives Snowbell
just that little bit of ammunition...

1101
00:59:29,483 --> 00:59:31,651
which he uses against Stuart.

1102
00:59:32,444 --> 00:59:36,198
I love this shot
because it really takes, I mean...

1103
00:59:36,364 --> 00:59:39,367
Rob and I both have roots
in 2D animation...

1104
00:59:39,534 --> 00:59:42,829
and this sort of is the only shot
in the movie that's sort of...

1105
00:59:42,996 --> 00:59:46,666
You know, it feels like an old-fashioned
kind of shot.

1106
00:59:46,833 --> 00:59:48,627
Hey, moron!

1107
00:59:48,794 --> 00:59:51,338
But it was also done
just to find some variation...

1108
00:59:51,505 --> 00:59:54,174
in the approach to visualising
the story.

1109
00:59:54,341 --> 00:59:56,384
Because if you did everything
the same way...

1110
00:59:56,551 --> 00:59:58,512
with the cats particularly...

1111
00:59:58,678 --> 01:00:01,431
it, you know, might get a bit dull.

1112
01:00:02,557 --> 01:00:05,268
That was the real Times Square.

1113
01:00:05,644 --> 01:00:07,521
Nice shot.
That is another location shot.

1114
01:00:07,687 --> 01:00:09,773
- That was done on location.
- John Dykstra.

1115
01:00:09,940 --> 01:00:12,442
You'll notice in the background
there's a billboard...

1116
01:00:12,609 --> 01:00:14,694
for <i>The Lion King</i> stage play.

1117
01:00:14,861 --> 01:00:16,196
I hadn't seen that.

1118
01:00:20,283 --> 01:00:24,037
But this of course was the shot
that was created in the...

1119
01:00:24,204 --> 01:00:25,705
I love this.

1120
01:00:25,914 --> 01:00:29,584
You were talking earlier about
the shot on the doorstep.

1121
01:00:29,751 --> 01:00:31,837
This one also has
great mood lighting.

1122
01:00:32,003 --> 01:00:33,964
And, again, all these are...

1123
01:00:34,131 --> 01:00:36,341
Most of these shots through here...

1124
01:00:36,508 --> 01:00:41,304
- I think this one might have been...
- This one is an animatronic Stuart.

1125
01:00:41,471 --> 01:00:44,391
The first couple you saw there
were CG Stuarts.

1126
01:00:44,558 --> 01:00:46,351
And then here, this one is just great.

1127
01:00:46,518 --> 01:00:49,312
I mean, the lighting
on this whole sequence is terrific.

1128
01:00:49,563 --> 01:00:52,983
And you see the reflections
on the car...

1129
01:00:53,150 --> 01:00:58,405
are done with an interesting
process called...

1130
01:00:58,572 --> 01:01:00,323
- Ray tracing.
- Ray tracing.

1131
01:01:00,490 --> 01:01:02,409
And what that means is that...

1132
01:01:02,576 --> 01:01:07,122
through a complex
mathematical formula...

1133
01:01:07,706 --> 01:01:11,585
they're able to project the light
that would literally hit Stuart...

1134
01:01:11,751 --> 01:01:14,754
and bounce off the car.
So you'll see in the reflection...

1135
01:01:14,921 --> 01:01:18,508
that it's actually Stuart's back and
his side being reflected in the car...

1136
01:01:18,675 --> 01:01:21,970
which are angles that you're not
physically seeing on Stuart.

1137
01:01:22,137 --> 01:01:25,515
They're the true reflection of what
would be there if Stuart were there.

1138
01:01:25,682 --> 01:01:29,060
And those are the only
ray-traced shots in the movie.

1139
01:01:29,227 --> 01:01:30,520
What's your hurry, Murray?

1140
01:01:30,687 --> 01:01:32,147
Yeah, where you going, Murray...?

1141
01:01:32,314 --> 01:01:35,859
There's Red, who is a new cat
character played by David Alan Grier...

1142
01:01:36,026 --> 01:01:39,112
who you might know from
<i>In Living Color</i> or <i>Jumanji.</i>

1143
01:01:39,279 --> 01:01:40,697
Lucky, Red, get him. Come on!

1144
01:01:41,448 --> 01:01:44,367
And now we're off and running
on our chase.

1145
01:01:45,118 --> 01:01:47,913
In these shots here,
this one was a digital shot.

1146
01:01:48,079 --> 01:01:52,459
We tried to have Stuart react
to the things that he bumped into...

1147
01:01:52,626 --> 01:01:54,961
so he wasn't just locked
to the car.

1148
01:01:56,463 --> 01:01:58,882
It was great
that we got to add a shot here too...

1149
01:01:59,049 --> 01:02:01,343
which was this finger-pointing shot
coming up.

1150
01:02:01,509 --> 01:02:03,637
Actually, he's trying
to start the car here.

1151
01:02:03,803 --> 01:02:07,974
That really helped heighten
the excitement.

1152
01:02:11,728 --> 01:02:13,939
- Pretty exciting.
- Yes, exactly.

1153
01:02:14,105 --> 01:02:16,316
Well, we wanted to capitalise
on the idea...

1154
01:02:16,483 --> 01:02:18,985
that Stuart could be driving
in a high-speed chase.

1155
01:02:19,152 --> 01:02:22,030
You know, it seemed like a fantasy
wish-fulfilment thing.

1156
01:02:22,197 --> 01:02:26,076
If you owned a little car like this,
you'd imagine being able to do it.

1157
01:02:26,243 --> 01:02:29,496
And we wanted to convey
a sense of danger with the cats...

1158
01:02:29,663 --> 01:02:33,500
because, generally, cats are
fairly benign, you know, creatures.

1159
01:02:33,667 --> 01:02:36,211
- Generally.
- Unless you're four inches tall.

1160
01:02:36,378 --> 01:02:38,672
And look somewhat like a mouse...

1161
01:02:38,838 --> 01:02:42,550
in which case, cats spell danger.

1162
01:02:43,051 --> 01:02:46,054
There's our stuntman shot,
arms and legs wiggling.

1163
01:02:46,221 --> 01:02:48,098
A great splash
from the effects team...

1164
01:02:48,723 --> 01:02:51,017
sort of matching Stuart
into the shot.

1165
01:02:52,727 --> 01:02:57,315
So here we turn to doing a lot more,
quite a bit more with the wet fur.

1166
01:02:57,482 --> 01:02:59,192
This is probably the most extensive.

1167
01:02:59,359 --> 01:03:01,403
We had some earlier
in the washing machine...

1168
01:03:01,569 --> 01:03:04,364
but this is wet fur
combined with effects.

1169
01:03:04,531 --> 01:03:07,575
There's lots of drips coming off Stuart
when he shakes his head...

1170
01:03:07,742 --> 01:03:09,536
coming up here.

1171
01:03:10,161 --> 01:03:13,164
There it is. And all the drops flew off.

1172
01:03:13,331 --> 01:03:16,626
He's dripping through this whole thing.
There's a close-up coming up...

1173
01:03:16,793 --> 01:03:20,880
and of all this fur is clumped.
These are individual hairs...

1174
01:03:21,089 --> 01:03:23,717
that are controlled
by what we call control hairs...

1175
01:03:23,883 --> 01:03:27,304
and they're all clumped together
and appear wet.

1176
01:03:27,470 --> 01:03:30,390
And some of these shots were done...

1177
01:03:30,557 --> 01:03:33,727
with an actual
three-dimensional suitcase...

1178
01:03:34,936 --> 01:03:39,733
that was shot and then match-moved
for Stuart to be riding on top of.

1179
01:03:39,899 --> 01:03:43,445
Here we are with family. Jeffrey Jones,
Connie Ray and Patrick O'Brien...

1180
01:03:43,611 --> 01:03:47,574
- playing members of the Little family.
- The ads on the taxi cabs were fun too.

1181
01:03:47,741 --> 01:03:50,744
Brian Doyle-Murray, Allyce Beasley
and Harold Gould...

1182
01:03:50,910 --> 01:03:53,538
who you'd know from <i>The Sting</i>
many years ago.

1183
01:03:53,705 --> 01:03:55,498
Favourite film of mine.

1184
01:03:55,665 --> 01:03:58,918
And Estelle Getty,
who was one of the Golden Girls.

1185
01:03:59,961 --> 01:04:01,254
Where do I go?

1186
01:04:01,421 --> 01:04:03,965
You come with us.
We're gonna circle the park.

1187
01:04:05,300 --> 01:04:07,969
Now, again, this whole throughline
of the story...

1188
01:04:08,136 --> 01:04:10,347
where the family's going out
to do posters...

1189
01:04:10,930 --> 01:04:12,766
came fairly late in the production.

1190
01:04:12,932 --> 01:04:16,519
And, in fact, many of these scenes
were written...

1191
01:04:16,686 --> 01:04:19,189
while we were actually
shooting the movie.

1192
01:04:19,356 --> 01:04:22,817
So I remember having many late nights
in the trailer after shooting...

1193
01:04:22,984 --> 01:04:25,653
talking with the writers
and the actors...

1194
01:04:25,820 --> 01:04:27,697
about what these scenes would be.

1195
01:04:27,864 --> 01:04:30,825
And, in fact,
it was Hugh Laurie's contribution...

1196
01:04:30,992 --> 01:04:33,286
a very important
story contribution...

1197
01:04:33,453 --> 01:04:35,580
that becomes important
in this next scene...

1198
01:04:35,747 --> 01:04:39,125
when Stuart comes home
and then Snowbell...

1199
01:04:39,292 --> 01:04:42,587
you know, fools him into thinking
that the Littles don't love him.

1200
01:04:42,754 --> 01:04:46,049
That little hatch door there
was a real one.

1201
01:04:46,216 --> 01:04:49,636
Mom, Dad, George!

1202
01:04:50,261 --> 01:04:54,641
Now, this scene, again,
this actual scene was shot, I think...

1203
01:04:54,808 --> 01:04:57,769
at the very end
of principal photography.

1204
01:04:57,936 --> 01:05:01,398
And the original cinematographer,
Guillermo Navarro...

1205
01:05:01,564 --> 01:05:03,316
who did a wonderful job...

1206
01:05:03,483 --> 01:05:06,194
couldn't shoot this because
of a conflict in his schedule.

1207
01:05:06,361 --> 01:05:10,365
And so we brought in another DP
named Matt Leonetti...

1208
01:05:10,532 --> 01:05:13,827
who came in to shoot this and,
of course, he had the challenge...

1209
01:05:13,993 --> 01:05:16,746
of matching the style
and the lighting...

1210
01:05:16,913 --> 01:05:20,375
that Guillermo had established
through the rest of the picture.

1211
01:05:21,042 --> 01:05:26,214
But, again, all these shots were done
with, you know, the real cat, obviously.

1212
01:05:26,381 --> 01:05:29,759
He wasn't acting with a real mouse.
The real mouse had to be added later.

1213
01:05:29,926 --> 01:05:34,514
So there was a tremendous amount of,
you know, imagination...

1214
01:05:34,681 --> 01:05:39,769
that went into shooting this scene
because Stuart wasn't there.

1215
01:05:39,936 --> 01:05:42,313
Little camera moves like that
had to be created...

1216
01:05:42,480 --> 01:05:45,608
for a character
that would be brought in later.

1217
01:05:45,775 --> 01:05:47,193
Look up there.

1218
01:05:47,360 --> 01:05:50,572
And the other thing is, again,
the choreographing of a scene.

1219
01:05:50,738 --> 01:05:54,534
It was very important to keep
the characters moving.

1220
01:05:54,701 --> 01:05:58,204
So you'll notice in the scene,
Snowbell starts on the highest step...

1221
01:05:58,371 --> 01:06:00,582
and he walks down and jumps
to the floor...

1222
01:06:00,748 --> 01:06:03,001
and ultimately gets up
onto the table...

1223
01:06:03,168 --> 01:06:06,296
where this very critical story beat
takes place.

1224
01:06:06,463 --> 01:06:09,799
Nice bit of acting here.
We don't see what Stuart's seeing yet.

1225
01:06:09,966 --> 01:06:12,510
And Todd Pilger animated that shot.

1226
01:06:12,677 --> 01:06:13,720
That's just...

1227
01:06:13,887 --> 01:06:16,181
I think it's great
that you see on his face...

1228
01:06:16,347 --> 01:06:20,560
that there's concern and alarm
before you actually see what's there.

1229
01:06:20,727 --> 01:06:24,063
And then here's where Snowbell
really starts to lay it on.

1230
01:06:25,273 --> 01:06:27,066
He's so darn evil.

1231
01:06:28,151 --> 01:06:30,528
But this is one of the
most successful scenes...

1232
01:06:30,695 --> 01:06:34,824
in terms of performance, I think,
from both the cat and from Stuart.

1233
01:06:34,991 --> 01:06:39,746
And, you know, the fact that audiences
so completely accept...

1234
01:06:39,913 --> 01:06:42,373
who these characters are
and what's going on...

1235
01:06:42,540 --> 01:06:45,418
that you really identify, you know,
with Stuart...

1236
01:06:45,627 --> 01:06:50,757
and completely understand,
you know, his emotional state.

1237
01:06:50,924 --> 01:06:53,051
And it makes it very affecting.

1238
01:06:53,218 --> 01:06:57,931
And here he just goes, again,
from being so emotionally high...

1239
01:06:58,097 --> 01:06:59,599
He's made it back home.

1240
01:06:59,766 --> 01:07:02,936
He doesn't realise he missed the cab,
but he's made it back home.

1241
01:07:03,102 --> 01:07:04,979
And then he gets
this devastating news...

1242
01:07:05,146 --> 01:07:06,940
with evidence, he thinks.

1243
01:07:07,106 --> 01:07:10,777
And then here we're about to see
possibly a digital first? I don't know.

1244
01:07:10,944 --> 01:07:14,989
Not too many crying digital characters
have been done.

1245
01:07:15,740 --> 01:07:18,117
I think it's interesting
to point out is that...

1246
01:07:18,284 --> 01:07:21,496
there are three critical scenes
that take place on that table...

1247
01:07:21,663 --> 01:07:24,707
the photograph table, which
represents all the family members.

1248
01:07:24,874 --> 01:07:28,461
The scene when Stuart comes home
and is introduced to the family.

1249
01:07:28,628 --> 01:07:32,090
The scene when Gina and Hugh
tell him that they want...

1250
01:07:32,257 --> 01:07:33,967
you know, what's best for him...

1251
01:07:34,133 --> 01:07:37,220
which is to go with the Stouts,
who they think are his parents.

1252
01:07:37,387 --> 01:07:41,015
And then when he comes home and
sees his picture having been cut out...

1253
01:07:41,182 --> 01:07:44,936
and Snowbell tells him that
the Littles don't love him anymore.

1254
01:07:45,812 --> 01:07:48,815
And that was a classic
blue-screen shot here, I think.

1255
01:07:48,982 --> 01:07:53,820
Again, this fit the style of the picture,
which is an older 1940s, 1950s...

1256
01:07:53,987 --> 01:07:57,031
style of moviemaking.
Something we were trying to convey...

1257
01:07:57,198 --> 01:08:00,618
in the, you know, just the approach,
stylistically, to the picture.

1258
01:08:00,785 --> 01:08:02,245
This one I also like very much.

1259
01:08:02,412 --> 01:08:06,958
I think this is a really successful,
little sad walk going away.

1260
01:08:07,125 --> 01:08:08,376
And he sort of goes around.

1261
01:08:08,543 --> 01:08:10,420
There was manipulation
on those leaves...

1262
01:08:10,587 --> 01:08:13,172
so that it appeared
that he stepped on them.

1263
01:08:13,339 --> 01:08:15,341
I think Bill Diaz animated this shot.

1264
01:08:15,508 --> 01:08:18,803
The other challenge was that
when we shot this, Stuart wasn't there.

1265
01:08:18,970 --> 01:08:21,681
And the focus was actually too far
in front of Stuart...

1266
01:08:21,848 --> 01:08:27,395
and we had to really work hard
to get it to look like this.

1267
01:08:27,562 --> 01:08:29,772
Camera fades,
or the scene fades to black...

1268
01:08:29,939 --> 01:08:31,941
which is a classic end
to a second act.

1269
01:08:32,108 --> 01:08:34,527
And this begins the third act.

1270
01:08:35,111 --> 01:08:36,863
George waiting...

1271
01:08:38,197 --> 01:08:40,325
hopefully by the phone.

1272
01:08:41,242 --> 01:08:44,871
This was a scene that was written
by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel.

1273
01:08:45,038 --> 01:08:49,917
Again, they were both working
on the script, doing polishes...

1274
01:08:50,084 --> 01:08:53,463
because Night,
who had written the original draft...

1275
01:08:53,630 --> 01:08:56,883
which got the movie green-lit,
had actually been called away.

1276
01:08:57,050 --> 01:08:59,385
He couldn't continue to work
on the film.

1277
01:08:59,552 --> 01:09:01,471
He sold the script
for <i>The Sixth Sense...</i>

1278
01:09:01,638 --> 01:09:04,057
which he was about to go
into preproduction on...

1279
01:09:04,223 --> 01:09:06,643
early in the process for us.
So we lost Night...

1280
01:09:06,809 --> 01:09:11,022
and then had to bring in other writers
to continue working on the story...

1281
01:09:11,189 --> 01:09:13,024
and on the characters
and the scenes.

1282
01:09:13,191 --> 01:09:16,277
Come on! I think we're getting closer.
I can smell him.

1283
01:09:16,444 --> 01:09:17,904
Sorry, Smokey, that was me.

1284
01:09:18,905 --> 01:09:20,948
- And this is just some of...
- The cats?

1285
01:09:21,115 --> 01:09:22,742
Yeah.

1286
01:09:22,909 --> 01:09:25,411
Speaking of fast cats,
now, it's interesting...

1287
01:09:25,578 --> 01:09:28,247
because most of the shots
of the cats...

1288
01:09:28,414 --> 01:09:30,583
were shot at 30 frames
per second...

1289
01:09:30,750 --> 01:09:32,960
because the cats tend to move
so quickly.

1290
01:09:33,127 --> 01:09:36,673
So we, in fact, just subtly
slowed down their speed...

1291
01:09:36,839 --> 01:09:38,716
and this is an example of that.

1292
01:09:38,883 --> 01:09:42,679
Although, at the very beginning
of the sequence...

1293
01:09:42,845 --> 01:09:46,557
when the cats were running past,
those were at 24 frames a second...

1294
01:09:46,724 --> 01:09:50,103
which is what makes them appear
to be moving so fast.

1295
01:09:53,272 --> 01:09:56,818
And here, this was a tremendously
challenging scene to do...

1296
01:09:56,984 --> 01:09:59,320
because it was all cats and Stuart.

1297
01:09:59,487 --> 01:10:01,989
And so we had to choreograph
all of this action...

1298
01:10:02,949 --> 01:10:05,118
around this and on this tree...

1299
01:10:05,284 --> 01:10:09,914
to convey the dynamics and
the dramatics of the storytelling.

1300
01:10:10,081 --> 01:10:13,167
You got to get out of here.
This is Central Park. It's dark out.

1301
01:10:13,334 --> 01:10:15,128
There are hungry cats all over.

1302
01:10:15,294 --> 01:10:17,463
- Where are you?
- It's your pal, Monty.

1303
01:10:17,630 --> 01:10:19,132
What's he doing here?

1304
01:10:19,298 --> 01:10:21,634
- He'll hear you.
- Why shouldn't he hear me?

1305
01:10:23,636 --> 01:10:26,305
Snowbell! Buddy!
What are you doing up there?

1306
01:10:26,472 --> 01:10:29,142
Oh, no. Perfect.

1307
01:10:29,642 --> 01:10:32,145
Hey, you found him. Attaboy!

1308
01:10:32,311 --> 01:10:34,480
Hey, everybody! Over here!

1309
01:10:34,647 --> 01:10:36,733
The interesting thing story-wise
is that...

1310
01:10:36,899 --> 01:10:40,027
Snowbell, who has hated Stuart
all along...

1311
01:10:40,194 --> 01:10:45,241
is confronted with the circumstance
of being responsible for his death...

1312
01:10:45,408 --> 01:10:47,118
which is, you know, the murder...

1313
01:10:47,285 --> 01:10:50,288
which is a bit too much
for Snowbell to take.

1314
01:10:50,455 --> 01:10:53,875
And what we discover about Snowbell
is that he has a heart.

1315
01:10:54,041 --> 01:10:56,335
He's not really about killing Stuart...

1316
01:10:56,502 --> 01:10:59,839
so much as he is about
he doesn't want him in the family.

1317
01:11:00,006 --> 01:11:03,509
He doesn't want him to have a position
in the family above his.

1318
01:11:03,885 --> 01:11:08,681
So, of course, his jealousy leads him,
you know, to this...

1319
01:11:08,848 --> 01:11:12,685
you know, to Smokey
and putting this whole plan in motion.

1320
01:11:12,852 --> 01:11:14,604
When he's confronted with the idea...

1321
01:11:14,771 --> 01:11:19,692
of actually physically throwing Stuart
to the other cats...

1322
01:11:19,859 --> 01:11:22,695
Of course, you know what cats do
with mice. They eat them.

1323
01:11:22,862 --> 01:11:25,406
It's sort of too much
for Snowbell to take...

1324
01:11:25,573 --> 01:11:27,950
and so he has
a huge change of heart here...

1325
01:11:28,117 --> 01:11:30,870
where he attempts to rescue Stuart.

1326
01:11:31,746 --> 01:11:35,416
The other cats at this point think
he just wants to eat him all himself...

1327
01:11:35,583 --> 01:11:37,502
which is pretty funny.

1328
01:11:37,794 --> 01:11:40,463
And all this material,
we actually built the tree...

1329
01:11:40,630 --> 01:11:42,882
in two giant pieces...

1330
01:11:43,049 --> 01:11:47,386
because we couldn't really put
the cats up so high...

1331
01:11:47,553 --> 01:11:51,140
because we had to have a huge
number of trainers up around the tree.

1332
01:11:51,307 --> 01:11:55,061
So when we shot some of these scenes,
when there are cats up in the tree...

1333
01:11:55,228 --> 01:11:57,230
we'd have them surrounded
by trainers...

1334
01:11:57,396 --> 01:12:02,568
who were all harnessed to
safety rigs to keep them up in the air.

1335
01:12:02,735 --> 01:12:04,403
And it was just so challenging...

1336
01:12:04,570 --> 01:12:07,114
to get the cats to do
what we needed them to do.

1337
01:12:07,281 --> 01:12:10,117
Particularly this scene
where we needed Snowbell to react...

1338
01:12:10,284 --> 01:12:11,994
as if Stuart's hugging his leg...

1339
01:12:12,161 --> 01:12:16,999
and do this sort of sidelong glance,
this Jack Benny take.

1340
01:12:17,166 --> 01:12:19,585
And the way we got the cat
to do it was...

1341
01:12:19,752 --> 01:12:23,130
they would take the light stick
to get the cat's attention...

1342
01:12:23,297 --> 01:12:25,842
and then move it
and then they turned the light off.

1343
01:12:26,008 --> 01:12:30,054
And we actually hit upon that idea
as we were shooting the scene.

1344
01:12:30,221 --> 01:12:33,599
The other thing is, when we shot
a lot of this material up in the tree...

1345
01:12:33,766 --> 01:12:35,977
because of the nature
of getting these takes...

1346
01:12:36,143 --> 01:12:39,647
we would just literally shoot
an entire magazine of film...

1347
01:12:39,814 --> 01:12:41,732
to do one take.

1348
01:12:41,899 --> 01:12:45,111
So we'd set up the camera and shoot
and go through this action...

1349
01:12:45,278 --> 01:12:47,238
and I'd be yelling at the trainers:

1350
01:12:47,405 --> 01:12:50,283
"Get the cat to look left!
Get him to look up! Look down!"

1351
01:12:50,449 --> 01:12:53,786
Until we could get enough moments
of expression and attitude...

1352
01:12:53,953 --> 01:12:56,956
that would convey these moments
so you'd believe these cats...

1353
01:12:57,123 --> 01:12:59,333
were really doing these things.

1354
01:12:59,500 --> 01:13:02,044
That scene of Monty,
where he laughs...

1355
01:13:02,211 --> 01:13:05,298
was something we came up with
on the spur of the moment...

1356
01:13:05,464 --> 01:13:08,384
because we couldn't get him
to do just this head bob...

1357
01:13:08,551 --> 01:13:11,137
necessary to make him look
like he was laughing.

1358
01:13:11,304 --> 01:13:14,473
So I had actually seen at one time
in the rehearsals...

1359
01:13:14,640 --> 01:13:18,144
the trainer feed the cat,
and when this particular cat ate...

1360
01:13:18,311 --> 01:13:21,647
he did this weird jerky head move
which looked like he was laughing.

1361
01:13:21,814 --> 01:13:24,400
When we were doing the shot,
I said, "Feed the cat!"

1362
01:13:24,567 --> 01:13:27,111
They did it and the cat looked like
he was laughing.

1363
01:13:27,278 --> 01:13:30,156
- Maybe "family" is too strong a word.
- Scratch them both.

1364
01:13:30,323 --> 01:13:34,785
One of the most critical things about
successfully achieving this illusion...

1365
01:13:34,952 --> 01:13:38,581
where a character is believably,
you know, acting...

1366
01:13:38,748 --> 01:13:42,001
and moving in an environment,
a live-action environment...

1367
01:13:42,168 --> 01:13:45,296
is how the character interacts
with physical objects.

1368
01:13:45,463 --> 01:13:48,507
So you'll notice as Stuart
is swinging through...

1369
01:13:48,674 --> 01:13:51,010
Across the branch,
holding onto the collar...

1370
01:13:51,177 --> 01:13:54,513
that the leaves are moving,
that the collar is moving.

1371
01:13:54,680 --> 01:13:57,183
Some of the shots of the collar
are of a real collar...

1372
01:13:57,350 --> 01:13:59,143
that was puppeted on the set.

1373
01:13:59,310 --> 01:14:03,022
And a couple of the shots of the collar
were created as a CGI element.

1374
01:14:03,189 --> 01:14:06,233
- So it's a digital collar.
- If we went back and did it again...

1375
01:14:06,400 --> 01:14:09,403
I think I would have done
digital collar on every shot...

1376
01:14:09,570 --> 01:14:12,198
because it's just the interaction
with the...

1377
01:14:12,365 --> 01:14:15,451
It's great to put the interaction in there
and we could add that...

1378
01:14:15,618 --> 01:14:18,245
and then put in the digital collar
over the top of it.

1379
01:14:18,412 --> 01:14:21,207
Once we were able to add
the digital collar...

1380
01:14:21,374 --> 01:14:23,876
it gave us a lot more flexibility.

1381
01:14:24,043 --> 01:14:26,379
And just as a general
rule of thumb...

1382
01:14:26,545 --> 01:14:29,548
I really like adding digital props
as much as I can...

1383
01:14:29,715 --> 01:14:33,386
because then the character sort of
is the primary focus of the shot.

1384
01:14:33,552 --> 01:14:37,682
We don't have to worry about timing
the character to match a physical prop.

1385
01:14:37,848 --> 01:14:41,268
Lowering this branch is one thing.
This is great to do with a physical...

1386
01:14:41,435 --> 01:14:44,438
The actual branch on the set
and we're matched up to it.

1387
01:14:44,605 --> 01:14:48,067
But with things that Stuart hits
or bumps into or carries...

1388
01:14:48,234 --> 01:14:50,653
it's much better to do those
as a digital prop...

1389
01:14:50,820 --> 01:14:55,116
because then Stuart's timing,
Stuart's acting drives the props.

1390
01:14:55,366 --> 01:14:56,909
See that little slip there?

1391
01:14:57,076 --> 01:15:00,746
There's a technique in computer
graphics with a character...

1392
01:15:00,913 --> 01:15:02,623
which is called parenting...

1393
01:15:02,790 --> 01:15:05,001
where you can attach
one object to another.

1394
01:15:05,167 --> 01:15:08,254
And normally, Stuart's hierarchy
of the way he's animated...

1395
01:15:08,421 --> 01:15:11,924
his is from the bottom up,
so that he sticks to the ground.

1396
01:15:12,091 --> 01:15:16,512
But in these shots, we had to go in and
reverse a lot of the ordering on Stuart...

1397
01:15:16,679 --> 01:15:21,100
so he went from the top down so that
his hands would stick to the branch.

1398
01:15:22,476 --> 01:15:25,938
That acting on Monty back there
was really good too. His faces.

1399
01:15:26,105 --> 01:15:28,983
We actually were able to raise
and lower that branch...

1400
01:15:29,150 --> 01:15:33,154
which made the cats a little nervous.
But no cats were harmed in this.

1401
01:15:33,320 --> 01:15:36,532
In fact, the cats didn't fall in the water.
Those were puppeted cats.

1402
01:15:36,699 --> 01:15:37,742
Those were dummy cats.

1403
01:15:37,908 --> 01:15:41,078
But these cats were literally carried
into the water...

1404
01:15:41,245 --> 01:15:43,122
by the trainers and then released...

1405
01:15:43,289 --> 01:15:46,125
so that they would actually
be able to climb out.

1406
01:15:46,459 --> 01:15:51,422
And there was a buzzer going on.
That was another technique they used.

1407
01:15:51,589 --> 01:15:53,883
They would buzzer the cats
to a location...

1408
01:15:54,050 --> 01:15:55,468
where they would feed them.

1409
01:15:55,634 --> 01:15:59,346
And food is actually
how you pay a cat.

1410
01:15:59,513 --> 01:16:02,016
So all of these cats
are working for scale.

1411
01:16:02,183 --> 01:16:04,643
They're doing what they do...

1412
01:16:04,810 --> 01:16:08,898
because they get to eat,
you know, basically.

1413
01:16:09,065 --> 01:16:12,401
If they...

1414
01:16:12,568 --> 01:16:16,030
don't finish the amount of food
that's allocated for them...

1415
01:16:16,197 --> 01:16:19,325
because there's a certain amount
that they get every day...

1416
01:16:19,492 --> 01:16:22,078
if they don't finish it
doing their work...

1417
01:16:22,244 --> 01:16:26,332
the trainers give them the balance
of the food once the cats are finished.

1418
01:16:26,499 --> 01:16:28,709
The trainers are very sensitive
about that...

1419
01:16:28,876 --> 01:16:31,670
because they wanna make sure
the cats aren't overworked...

1420
01:16:31,837 --> 01:16:34,507
or, you know, once the cats
basically get burned out...

1421
01:16:34,673 --> 01:16:36,675
just like people do...

1422
01:16:36,842 --> 01:16:38,844
they need a break
the rest of the day.

1423
01:16:39,011 --> 01:16:41,347
When Smokey got hit in the face
with that branch...

1424
01:16:41,514 --> 01:16:44,183
he also never actually got hit
with that branch.

1425
01:16:44,350 --> 01:16:45,684
That was composited.

1426
01:16:45,851 --> 01:16:48,854
It was done with a little canister
of compressed air...

1427
01:16:49,021 --> 01:16:51,232
that we blew on the cat's face.

1428
01:16:51,398 --> 01:16:56,153
And then later, we shot the branch
swinging towards a blue screen.

1429
01:16:56,320 --> 01:17:00,032
Then we composited those elements
to make it look like he gets hit.

1430
01:17:00,199 --> 01:17:02,618
So Boone didn't actually hit the cat?

1431
01:17:02,785 --> 01:17:05,371
- No. No cat hitting.
- No cat hitting allowed.

1432
01:17:05,621 --> 01:17:07,498
This was a fun shot to animate...

1433
01:17:07,706 --> 01:17:09,750
with Stuart stuck
on the back of the cat.

1434
01:17:09,917 --> 01:17:11,627
Stuck.

1435
01:17:11,794 --> 01:17:15,673
- That one really is stuck.
- He's actually a puppet in this shot.

1436
01:17:15,840 --> 01:17:18,300
That's a puppet.
The other one was a digital Stuart.

1437
01:17:18,467 --> 01:17:21,637
- Yeah. And in the one coming up too.
- I love this shot.

1438
01:17:23,264 --> 01:17:25,891
And the way he slides off here.
That's nice.

1439
01:17:26,058 --> 01:17:27,893
Don't mention it. Ever.

1440
01:17:28,060 --> 01:17:30,521
See that? Even though his face
is away from you...

1441
01:17:30,688 --> 01:17:34,567
you could see his cheeks puffed out
when he smiled and just how...

1442
01:17:34,733 --> 01:17:37,403
His warm feelings
toward Snowbell now.

1443
01:17:40,906 --> 01:17:43,075
And here we are.
He's back home and it's nice.

1444
01:17:43,242 --> 01:17:47,580
Stuart's just savouring the moment.
He's happy to be home.

1445
01:17:49,957 --> 01:17:55,296
This was, again, a scene that was
written in the original script.

1446
01:17:55,462 --> 01:17:57,423
And when it came time to shooting...

1447
01:17:57,590 --> 01:17:59,884
it was complicated by the fact
on one set...

1448
01:18:00,050 --> 01:18:03,596
you could look into the Littles' house
and the other you could look out...

1449
01:18:03,762 --> 01:18:05,598
because the big street...

1450
01:18:05,764 --> 01:18:09,185
wasn't actually built on the same set
as the interior of the house.

1451
01:18:09,351 --> 01:18:11,979
So we were limited in some sense...

1452
01:18:12,146 --> 01:18:15,316
to what we could shoot,
based on those two circumstances.

1453
01:18:15,482 --> 01:18:19,320
So these shots of Stuart looking
in this direction were shot on one set.

1454
01:18:19,486 --> 01:18:22,489
And then the shots of the Littles
were shot on a different set...

1455
01:18:22,656 --> 01:18:24,116
at a different time.

1456
01:18:24,283 --> 01:18:26,076
What's the matter?

1457
01:18:26,994 --> 01:18:29,788
And here Stuart gets his last
close-up in the movie.

1458
01:18:31,790 --> 01:18:35,794
It was actually funny because
the laser pointer was being used...

1459
01:18:35,961 --> 01:18:38,964
to point out Stuart so everybody
would look in the same place.

1460
01:18:39,131 --> 01:18:42,843
But you'll notice that Snowbell
is really riveted to where Stuart is...

1461
01:18:43,010 --> 01:18:45,387
because he was really focused
on that laser dot.

1462
01:18:45,554 --> 01:18:47,473
- He was waiting to get paid.
- Exactly.

1463
01:18:54,313 --> 01:18:58,108
- Here we have the end to the movie.
- There it is, our animated "the end."

1464
01:18:59,193 --> 01:19:01,028
- And then?
- But wait, there's more!

1465
01:19:01,195 --> 01:19:03,155
That's right.

1466
01:19:03,739 --> 01:19:06,200
This actually was a scene
that was conceived...

1467
01:19:06,367 --> 01:19:10,079
as a scene to express the bonding
between George and Stuart.

1468
01:19:10,246 --> 01:19:13,749
But we could never quite make it work
in the middle of the film.

1469
01:19:13,916 --> 01:19:18,379
So we ended up deciding that we would
use this at the end of the picture...

1470
01:19:18,545 --> 01:19:20,673
really as a finale to the movie.

1471
01:19:20,839 --> 01:19:23,342
And to give the audience
something extra.

1472
01:19:24,635 --> 01:19:28,055
It was a long road,
and it's amazing at this point to see...

1473
01:19:28,222 --> 01:19:31,892
how so many disparate elements
can be pulled together...

1474
01:19:32,059 --> 01:19:35,020
and appear to have come
fully formed.

1475
01:19:35,187 --> 01:19:39,858
It took the labour of so many
incredible, talented artists.

1476
01:19:40,025 --> 01:19:43,779
Not only the artists who shot
the live-action portion of the film...

1477
01:19:43,946 --> 01:19:47,866
but all the animation artists
and digital artists and everyone.

1478
01:19:48,033 --> 01:19:52,037
And you really feel that the sum total
of all of that work...

1479
01:19:52,204 --> 01:19:54,915
came together to create,
you know...

1480
01:19:55,082 --> 01:19:58,669
what is hopefully a new character
that will, you know...

1481
01:19:58,836 --> 01:20:00,504
be loved by millions.

1482
01:20:00,671 --> 01:20:03,299
Well, certainly by the two people
in this room.

1483
01:20:03,465 --> 01:20:06,677
But it was great to actually be able
to work on...

1484
01:20:06,844 --> 01:20:10,389
For me, to be able to work on
one character for almost 500 shots.

1485
01:20:10,723 --> 01:20:13,392
You really get to develop that character
and I think we...

1486
01:20:13,726 --> 01:20:16,395
We really... Speaking for myself
and the animation team...

1487
01:20:16,562 --> 01:20:20,149
we really were able to sink our teeth
into that and really develop Stuart.

1488
01:20:20,316 --> 01:20:25,070
And as we talked about, Rob,
I think there's a whole new genre...

1489
01:20:25,237 --> 01:20:27,906
of filmmaking out there
that is not very explored...

1490
01:20:28,073 --> 01:20:32,494
which is these digital, realistic,
believable characters with live action.

1491
01:20:32,661 --> 01:20:36,290
Yeah, I think that <i>Stuart Little</i>
represents one further step...

1492
01:20:36,457 --> 01:20:38,709
into a kind of fantasy filmmaking...

1493
01:20:38,876 --> 01:20:41,628
which I think we'll be seeing more of
in the near future.

1494
01:20:41,795 --> 01:20:43,672
- And that's very exciting.
- Nudge, nudge.

1495
01:20:43,839 --> 01:20:45,424
Wink, wink.