Abigail Breslin and Isla Fisher have no doubt both been a part of many a-great ensemble casts, from “Little Miss Sunshine” to “Zombieland” for Breslin to “Wedding Crashers” and “Hot Rod” for Fisher. And thanks to the innovation of “Pirates of the Caribbean” director Gore Verbinski, they can also claim to have worked in an animated film among another set of prestigious performers: a luxury not afforded to most actors who lend their to voices to the genre.
Unlike most animated features, where each actor’s dialogue is recorded individually, the Western-flavored “Rango” rustled up all of its talent to record their dialogue while acting out the scenes on a soundstage.
In some ways, “Rango” was filmed a lot like “Avatar,” except that, instead of motion-capturing the characters’ movements, Verbinski was gunning for EMOTION capture. Instead of hooking his actors up to different sorts of digital bells and whistles to record their movements, Verbinski aimed to use the actors as living, breathing reference points for his animators.
“We filmed it like a play, and since we were all together, it gave us the opportunity to play off of each other,” Breslin said. “If an actor you’re working with changes the way they do something, you tend to change the way you do something. It’s a lot more fun than standing in a recording studio, talking into a microphone.”
