MouseHunt

It is Gore Verbinski’s first feature. He was known then for commercials, including the 1995 Budweiser Frogs campaign that ran during Super Bowl XXIX, and Steven Spielberg brought him onto the picture. The production problem was the mouse. Verbinski wanted no bow-tied cartoon rodent but an ordinary house mouse, and when animal trainer Boone Narr put out a call he got more than 8,000 submissions, of which only 4 met the specification. Narr bred the two Verbinski picked into a colony of 60: one lead animal for close-ups and 59 stunt doubles trained in teams for running, climbing or jumping. Some shots needed 130 takes. What reaches the screen is not one technique. Beside the live animals there is a Rhythm & Hues computer mouse for moves too dangerous to stage, and a Stan Winston Studio animatronic with remote-controlled facial features and internal bladders that make it appear to breathe. Catzilla the cat is animatronic too. The film is dedicated to William Hickey, who died days before the shoot wrapped. A good fit if you want a trap built in front of you and then left to grow until it takes the house down, with the dialogue pared back. Not for anyone who will not find the crushing, drowning and detonating funny; the film stages those traps as comedy.