Rather than the photorealistic CGI employed on The Jungle Book and the upcoming The Lion King, actor Thomas Mann has revealed that Disney has employed real dogs for its live-action remake of Lady and the Tramp, which has been produced for the Disney+ streaming service.
“The dogs were there,” Mann told Collider. “We shot with the dogs, every day. They were on set and they weren’t even trained. They found these dogs and started training them about three months before. They just wanted to find the perfect dogs. It was crazy because they didn’t know they were working, so they would run off in the middle of a take, and then come back over. You have to be extra patient because you have to be good every time for when they are good once. It was a lot of fun. It was so cute, every day, to just have a bunch of dogs to play with. It made the job a lot less stressful.”
Mann also went on to discuss the movie’s tone, and how it differs from the 1955 animated movie: “It’s a little more dramatic, too. I wouldn’t say that it’s a full-on drama or anything, but it’s a little more grown up, in its own way, and a little more sophisticated… I really think it’s an enhanced version of the world that you saw before. Obviously, the human characters are a little more flushed out. They’re not these passing faces that you barely get a glimpse of. You get to know them a little bit better. And also, there are real dogs. Who doesn’t want to see two real dogs kiss over a plate of spaghetti?”
Charlie Bean (The LEGO Ninjago Movie) is directing Lady and the Tramp, while the cast includes Tessa Thompson (Thor: Ragnarok) as Lady, with Justin Theroux (The Leftovers) as Tramp, Ashley Jensen (Extras) as Jackie, Benedict Wong (Avengers: Infinity War) as Bull, Janelle Monae (Moonlight) as Peg, Arturo Castro (Narcos) as Marco, and Thomas Mann (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) and Kiersey Clemons (Hearts Beat Loud) play Lady’s human owners Jim Dear and Darling.
