When director Lawrence Guterman and producers Chris deFaria and Andrew Lazar embarked upon "Cats & Dogs" they didn't set out to make a puppet movie or a CGI movie ­ that had already been done. They wanted to present living, breathing, flesh-and-fur dogs and cats, with all their unique charm and personality as individuals, and then just enable them to do impossible things like talk, fly airplanes, operate rocket sleds and engage in marital arts combat. And they wanted it to appear so perfectly real that moviegoers might go home and eye their own pets a little bit suspiciously afterwards, just in case.

"It's a story that any pet owner can relate to," says Lazar, recalling his initial reaction to the script. "I now know when I wake up to find my dogs have broken something it's only because they've been protecting me. Our clever writing team of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have finally managed to answer the age-old question of why dogs chase cats ­ they could be saving your life."

Initially, the project was considered as an animated feature until Jeff Robinov, an Executive Vice President of Production at Warner Bros. Pictures, asked deFaria if he knew of any other way to make the film. "The timing was perfect," recalls deFaria, "because we happened to be at a point in the development of certain critical special effects techniques where everything needed to make this movie work was almost ready.

"That's exactly where you want to be when you make a movie like this," deFaria continues, "on the cutting edge. I made some initial assumptions about what I thought could be done using puppets, live animals, full GCI, and face replacement on animals in a live-action setting."

It was already known that skilled trainers could get live animals to perform an amazing amount of what was required, especially under the tutelage of renowned trainer Boone Narr, whom the filmmakers wanted on board from the start. What they needed to find out was if animals, backed up by a combination of puppets and computer generated imagery (CGI), could create the kind of seamless performance they wanted for each of the characters.

To get their answer, the filmmakers needed a test case and this was provided by Guterman, who by then had already been developing the script with writers Requa and Ficarra. "I worked on the tests combining computer images and live action for a piece we called 'kung fu cat' in the summer of 1999," says Guterman. "We wanted to show how much fun it could be and what the tone could be. We wanted a very heightened sense of action, almost like a live-action cartoon, pushing everything, exaggerating everything, but with absolute clarity. That way, you can suspend your disbelief when the cats and dogs talk, and from there, to when they do even more outrageous things."

I think anyone who ever had a pet will find this idea totally intriguing," Guterman continues, regarding the adversarial premise behind "Cats & Dogs." As for its execution, "I certainly couldn't resist the chance to get involved in showing the audience so much that has never been seen before."

The kung fu cat test, although not up to the standard that actual filming would require, was enough to convince them that what they imagined was indeed possible.

Creating each animal performance proved to be a complex process. Every scene was first set out in storyboards. From these, the filmmakers decided what portion could be filmed with live animals, what portion required puppets and what was only possible through CGI. The preference was to have live animals perform as much of the action as possible, to ground the film in reality and provide much of its charm, and to bring in the technological element when something was physically impossible or dangerous for an animal.

"It's a complicated, time-consuming process," explains Lazar. "Each shot has to be perfect. Once the director, the animal trainers and the puppeteers were happy with the performances and the camera and sound crews were satisfied, the visual effects people had to be consulted. Usually we would then get plates of the animals chewing to help the effects artists better approximate what the cat or dog would look like when speaking. It was not uncommon to spend hours on a single close-up."

With a total of more than 800 visual effects in the film, involving close to 200 animators, designers, compositors, sculptors and technicians, everything overlapped and everything had to finally come together in seamless synchronization. Throughout the production, director Guterman was overseeing a creative process taking place in several locations and involving several teams simultaneously. He kept track of the CGI efforts of three design studios plus the animatronic work on a daily basis, while shooting scenes with the actors and managing the live performances of the ever-present menagerie of animals and trainers on the set -- a process that brought new meaning to the term multi-tasking.

In the recent past this would have involved a constant stream of courier packages circulating tapes of live action and effects between the location in Vancouver, Canada, and visual effects houses in England and the U.S. But the "Cats & Dogs" production team was able to use a series of high-bandwidth hook-ups to each supplier, plus a trailer equipped with satellite up- and down-link capabilities. This made it possible to send a shot or sequence of CGI work from the supplier to the set, get the director to comment on it between live action takes and return it for changes or completion, all in a matter of hours.

"It was like stepping onto the deck of the Starship Enterprise," Lazar says of the state-of-the-art equipment that occupied an entire trailer. "Digital display screens lining the walls, a multitude of computer terminals, the cool crisp hum of data transfer ­ this is the future of moviemaking."

Having worked that out, there were also some less esoteric elements to be considered. Before production began, the crew had to build a complete, on-site housing, grooming and training facility for as many as 50 animals. Feeding and exercise schedules had to be drawn up. A staggering array of animal-friendly sets, set pieces, and props had to be designed, built, and tested by the animal stars. Costumers had to design and create vests and goggles for Ninja cats and equipment vests for hero dogs.

Finding the right studio was a challenge. It had to have a backlot and three stages to accommodate several large sets plus a very large blue screen. It had to have space for the animal facilities. Plus, it had to be in an area that was away from heavy traffic so the animals would not be subjected to excessive noise and pollution. Once space was found, the animal complex was built first so that the furry stars could move in and settle into a training routine.

Set builders constructed three versions of the Brody home, including a real house, used for front yard and street sequences, and the rear facade, porch and backyard, built on the studio backlot. Hundreds of live plants and trees were tended on the Brody's backyard throughout the four-month production schedule. Additionally, the construction crew built the interior of the house, with front and back porches, and an entire fully-landscaped backyard on a sound stage so that night scenes could be shot in a completely controlled environment.

Stage One housed Lou's doghouse interior with its secret, high-tech compartment. Stage Two housed Mr. Mason's office in the Flocking Factory, where the final confrontation occurs. The latter was designed to accommodate the fire and general destruction that would be required when Mr. Tinkles made his move.

A third stage was equipped with a very large blue screen. Here the crew could shoot scenes that required added backgrounds like the international assembly room, where international dog delegates debate the best response to Mr. Tinkles' evil plan.

Logistics remained a priority throughout filming. Because of the production's complex nature, a second unit crew shot every day, while production schedules accommodated the needs of both crews. If main unit was working with the puppeteers, second unit could have the animals and trainers; if second unit had the back lot, main unit had one of the stages. Live filming began with scenes involving only dogs to give the cat trainers the time needed with their more demanding charges.As production advanced, more difficult scenes could be tackled. For the first two months, the human cast was seldom present but in September and early October Jeff Goldblum, Elizabeth Perkins and Alexander Pollock became part of the daily routine of production. Once their parts were captured on film, the crew returned to its routine of animal and puppet work. Once the cats came into play the most demanding parts of the story were tackled.

As for tackles?he puppet crew maneuvered around the set like a football team. For every mechanical dog or cat that appeared in a scene, a number of talented and agile puppeteers were hidden nearby to supervise its movements. "It takes about six people to operate Mr. Tinkles," explains David Barclay, of the famed Henson Creature Shop. "We had to hide those people somewhere." One puppeteer recounted having been hidden at various times under the floorboards (sharing a bathtub-sized space with two colleagues), inside an underground chamber stuffed with mechanical elements, under the stage, under a wheelchair, and under a cut-away limo.

For the final showdown, an abandoned tank and boiler factory was transformed into Mr. Mason's Flocking Factory: a jumble of Christmas trees, snowmen and antiquated machinery.

"The flocking factory just involved hard, honest work," says production designer Jim Bissell. "We created a horseshoe assembly line surrounding the central aisle down which Mr. Mason had to travel. The most fun we had was taking the trees and turning the flocking of them into a real industrial ritual. And designing the flocking guns, of course -- they are real super, heavy-grade, industrial size tree- flockers that look like ray guns or maybe early 1950s TV cameras."

Once in the factory, Mr. Tinkles' gang of cats prepares to operate the array of flocking guns while Lou, Butch and Ivy work their way closer to the evil feline's center of operations. Few films of any kind have had a more amazing setting for a final conflict. The showdown between the cats and the dogs involved, among other things, several tons of cellulose paper flocking, 16 air cannons, thousands of gallons of shaving cream, hundreds of gallons of food coloring and 6,700 latex mice.

Back to Cats and Dogs page 1