‘Strays’ Director, Animal Trainer on Dealing With a Great Dane’s Zoomies and More Canine Challenges

variety.com:

Todd Gilchrist editor The new film “Strays” may enlist Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher and Randall Park to “fill in” the personality of its four canine lead characters, but it’s real-life dogs — and an army of trainers — who work hard to deliver a convincing performance on screen that matches their voice work.

Director Josh Greenbaum not only cast the pups with as much thought and detail as when he recruited their human counterparts, but worked closely with head animal trainer Mark Forbes to make sure that they learned the various activities, and behaviors to believably tell the story written by Dan Perrault about a discarded pet who travels cross country with three pals to exact revenge on his owner. “The casting process on a film like this is one of the hardest things in the whole film,” says Forbes, who previously worked on everything from the 1996 live-action version of “101 Dalmations” to the 2018 remake of “Benji.” “We had four main characters that we’re all trying to find not only the right look for that character, but how does that character look in a frame next to this other character?

And they really liked this idea of [Reggie, a border terrier] being somewhat smaller and having this giant [Great Dane] Hunter, and the other two dogs [Bug, a Boston terrier and Maggie, an Australian shepherd] were somewhere in between.” “In any movie, you’re dealing with normal chemistry questions of your cast, of ‘how do these guys play off each other?’” says Greenbaum, whose previous work includes “Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar” and the documentaries “Too Funny To Fail” and “Becoming Bond.” “In the script, there might’ve been three or so of the breeds labeled.