Strays prioritized the use of real dogs over CGI in the Will Ferrell comedy
Strays director Josh Greenbaum used 95% real dogs in his latest film.
Summary
- Will Ferrell’s new filmstray” started at $8.3 million, living up to expectations for an R-rated comedy.
- For a more authentic feel, director Josh Greenbaum used real dogs instead of CGI dogs, with 95% of the film featuring real animals.
- “strayperformed well with fans, earning a CinemaScore of “B+” and a 73% viewer rating on Rotten Tomatoes, despite mixed reviews from critics.
Will Ferrell’s new film didn’t fall far short of his expectations. Live action comedy directed by Josh Greenbaum stray The film opened at $8.3 million in the United States, which is expected to fetch the R-rated flick as well. Ferrell, Jamie Fox, Isla Fisher and Randall Park all lent their acting talent to voice the lead dogs in the film. And for the sake of realism, Greenbaum refrained from using real dogs instead of CGI dogs for most of the film. Greenbaum said in an interview with colliders:
“We kind of shot everything without the voices, which is interesting. I would also say that 95% of what you just saw are real dogs, which was very important to me. Obviously it’s always been unsafe for a dog to do that.” Whatever it was, it was like, “Okay, we’re going to go full CG,” but for me I really wanted to make sure in the beginning that you just feel like watching real dogs. Of course we had to get them to talk. As we couldn’t get the dogs to talk I thought about it and we could have switched to full CG.
The film, which follows Reggie’s (Ferrell) attempt to get revenge with Doug (Will Forte), made enough money to grab fourth place at the box office, right behind pizza-loving Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their third place Mutant Chaos Movie.
Strays introduces real dogs via CGI
stray didn’t have enough bark or bite to deal with it Blue Beetle or Barbie about the film’s first weekend in cinemas. But Josh Greenbaum has nonetheless created a unique comedy with a very authentic look – largely thanks to the use of real animals whenever possible via CGI. Greenbaum strove to create realism on screen, and he certainly succeeded. Greenbaum also told Collider:
“‘Lady and the Tramp’ – that was really well done, if anyone saw that – they were all computer generated dogs, and ‘The Lion King’ and all these great movies came out. But I’ve always felt like I’ve had dogs my whole life, and I’m sure a lot of people in this space have dogs.
You could put an elephant in a movie, and I’d say, “Yeah, that’s pretty good,” because I get to be with an elephant at the zoo about five minutes a year when I take my kids there. But I think as far as dogs go, I know dogs, we all know dogs. We live with them, their behavior and behavior, and I just wanted them to feel as real as possible because the more real it feels, the funnier it gets, right?”
In addition to domestic revenue of $8.3 million, stray The film was so well received by fans that it received a B+ on CinemaScore and a 73% viewer rating on Rotten Tomatoes. On the other hand, most critics didn’t like the film (although MovieWeb’s Julian Roman wasn’t one of them) and stray subsequently received a Tomatometer rating of 55%. However, on a budget of $46 million, Greenbaum’s comedy still grossed $10.3 million worldwide.
stray is playing in the cinema now.
