Certified Animal Action Overview

No Animals Were Harmed™ representatives monitored the animal action in this production, where live-animal performances were carefully filmed as reference material and later enhanced through visual effects. The dog, puppy, and rat were guided through simple, natural behaviors using positive training cues, familiar handlers and calm studio environments designed to keep them comfortable. Scenes involved everyday actions such as walking, responding to trainers, being gently carried by actors or investigating food placed by handlers with animals returned to their resting areas between takes. Special effects were used whenever needed to create more complex on-screen moments, including digital animal imagery and mechanical effects, reducing demands on the live animals. Throughout production, the focus remained on patience, supervision and allowing the animals to work safely within their normal abilities.

Detailed Animal Action Report

The dog and puppy action in this film was mostly taken from reference shots. They filmed the animals in a studio against greenscreen, scanned their movements and used those shots to create a CGI image of the animals.

In the scene where the dog walks through the trailer, pees on a newspaper, and jumps on bed waking up actress, prior to filming, the trainer brought the dog into the studio on a leash. On action, the trainer cued the dog to walk through the trailer set, while following him with a handheld camera. Trainer used a cue stick to get the dog to stop at newspaper, act as if he’s peeing then jump on bed. Then they placed dog on bed next to actress and cued him to get excited with cue stick, waking her up. After the actress wakes up, the handler verbally cued the dog to walk down the small wooden stairs.

In the same sequence when the dog runs outside to the grassy area, prior to shooting the scene, the dog was led to set by the trainer. On set, the handler held the dog at his starting point while the other the trainer crouched near the camera with a squeaky ball. On action, the handler released the dog and the other trainer squeaked the ball and called to him. The dog ran towards the camera.

In the scene where the actress walks into the bar with the dog, before getting into a fight with a creature, the dog was brought to the set. On action, they got shots of the dog’s movements and actions. They used these shots to create the CGI version of the dog fighting the creature.

In the scene where the girl discovers the puppy in the trash heap, the scene was filmed on stage. Prior to shooting the scene, the puppy was placed next to pile of rubbish. On action, the actress picked up the puppy and walked off-camera.

In the scene where the pod opens and we see the girl with the puppy and Superman stands before them, introducing himself, again they filmed these scenes for VFX reference purposes. Prior to shooting the scene, the puppy was walked to the stage by his trainers. The actress climbed into the pod, lying down before trainers placed the puppy in her arms. After getting some VFX shots, they walked the puppy back to the van.

In the scene where the actress wakes up in a cell and sees a rat eating maggots from a bowl, prior to shooting the scene, the handlers brough the rat to set in a carrier. Once they were ready to film, the trainer picked the rat out of the cage and placed it on his mark. They placed food on the floor in front of the rat. On action, the trainers sat next to rat and watched it eat from a bowl. The maggots were mechanical, they weren’t real. The fake maggots moved as if they’re real.