Mark Forbes makes movie magic with some of his favorite creatures: animals. For Eddie Murphy’s “Dr. Dolittle” (PG-13; opens Friday), the animal trainer gathered more than 200 creatures and their 45 human coaches.
KidNews tracked down Forbes, senior trainer at Wings Wildlife Production, to get the inside scoop. Check out these howling Hollywood secrets.
– Charming chew: Jim Hensen’s Creature Shop added the animals’ most detailed mumbling mouth motions with the help of computer animation. But it was Forbes’ job to help simulate subtle muscle motions in the animals’ necks and faces. “We had to teach all our animals to chew on cue. The guinea pig was easy we just fed him a piece of carrot and he went to town.”
– Getting along: How did the trainers keep the animals, from pigeons to tigers, from tearing each other apart? “It wasn’t always easy,” Forbes said. The trainers usually worked with the animals one at a time.
– Getting lucky: How does Forbes find his animal actors? “Well, in Sam’s case (that’s “Lucky” the dog), we got him from the pound,” Forbes said. “We get 80 percent of our dogs from the pound. I don’t know that he’s grateful for being rescued or anything like that. But because he’s a mutt, he has a diversified genetic pool, so he’s more normal.”
Strays are also calmer. “They’ve been around,” Forbes said. “They’ve seen the world out on the street, so changing settings don’t upset them like dogs that have been sheltered all their lives.”
