NIM’S CREATURES:
SEA LIONS, BEARDED DRAGONS AND PELICANS
 JOIN THE CAST

Until Alexandra Rover comes into her life, Nim’s primary friends are of the animal sort.  Indeed, her closest companions on her island include Selkie the Sea Lion, Fred the Bearded Dragon and Galileo the Pelican – which meant that the film would have to find ways to bring these most unusual yet essential characters to life.  That formidable task fell to the film’s animal trainers, John Medlin and Katie Brock, the latter of whose credits includes working with the menagerie of the acclaimed Babe: Pig in the City. 

Selkie the Sea Lion was an especially key role to cast, because this giant sea mammal is as dear and loyal to Nim as any family Golden Retriever, despite the fact that it weights 400 pounds and lives in the ocean.  To find a suitable Selkie, Brock and the filmmakers turned for help to Sea World Australia, near where they were shooting on Queensland’s Gold Coast.  The aquarium suggested two of their most highly trained adult male Sea Lions – Spud and Friday -- who were used to performing in local shows and already knew how to do such unusual Sea Lion things such as salute, kiss and hug. 

Spud and Friday turned out to be especially affable cast mates.  Though their sheer size and strength can make them formidable, Australian Sea lions are known as wonderfully curious animals, very adaptable to new situations and brimming with spirited energy.  “Sea Lions have big personalities and make great characters,” notes Brock.

Brock worked with both Spud and Friday so that the production would always have a double or stand-in if one Sea Lion wasn’t “in the mood” for a certain behavior.  While the Sea Lions were already highly trained, they did have to learn a few new movie tricks.  “The hardest thing for Spud and Friday was that they are used to working one-on-one very closely with their trainers but now they had to learn to work at a distance while on camera, which wasn’t easy,” Brock explains.  Adds Medlin:  “They also had to get used to working with all the cameras and lights and a crew surrounding them, something Sea Lions aren’t exactly used to!”

Perhaps the most important thing Spud and Friday had to learn to do was get along famously with Abigail Breslin. “We started building their rapport from the very beginning,” says Brock.  “We had her feeding them and petting them every day before production even began.” 

Abigail admits she was a bit taken aback when she saw how incredibly out-sized she was by her glossy-coated marine mammal co-stars.  “They were much bigger than I thought they’d be!” she says.  “But I wasn’t really scared because they’re so cute and I had a lot of fun with them. Learning to do all the tricks with them was amazing.  The only thing I didn’t like was the smell of the fish I fed them as their reward!” 

The Sea Lions responded in kind to Abigail’s affection.  “Whenever Abigail would walk in the room, the Sea Lions would just run up and give her a kiss,” recalls Levin.  “They developed a beautiful relationship with Abigail and we were able to capture that in the movie.” 

Producer Paula Mazur says that the Sea Lions brought more to the table than she had ever thought possible.  “At first weren’t sure how much they could do, but when Katie showed us what they were capable of, we went back to the script and started injecting even more interaction with Selkie,” she explains.  “They, and of course their trainers, were just brilliant, and so much easier to work with than we ever imagined.   They also really took to Abigail, and she to them, which was wonderful.”

Another, even more unusual animal joined the cast to play Fred, Nim’s Bearded Dragon, a type of exotic lizard named for the expandable pouch under its jaw that resembles a hanging beard.  Despite their mythic-sounding name, Bearded Dragons are reptiles that are known for being quite docile and for enjoying human contact, which made them a great choice for the film.  Ultimately, John Medlin cast five Bearded Dragons – Goblet, Steve, Crusher, Calico and Alice – who all shared the role. 

“We used Steve most of the time because he would do anything,” explains Abigail Breslin.   “But if he started to get a bit too active we’d bring in Goblet, then Calico, then Alice, then Crusher.   That was our plan.”

Goblet actually gave birth to about a dozen or more eggs during filming. The first one that hatched was called “Nim” and the second “Abigail.”

Still it wasn’t always easy working with such primitive creatures for whom filmmaking is a mystery.  “Lizards are real straight men.  They don’t give you a lot in terms of acting range!” laughs Jennifer Flackett. 

Rounding out the main animal cast were several Pelicans, the large water birds famous for their enormous bills, who took on the role of Nim’s message-carrying friend Galileo.  The film’s Pelicans also hailed from Sea World, where they were already trained to fly on command.  Surprisingly, Pelicans are quite responsive to training, loving both praise and fish treats.  “A little bit of praise goes a long way with Pelicans,” says Brock.  “They’ll work for a bit of loving which really helps.” 

Still, as Paula Mazur notes, “Pelicans are just quite odd.  The casting session for the Pelicans was the strangest I’ve ever had in my life.  We all stood in a big circle and out marched all these Pelicans and we stood there saying things like ‘I like the way that one cocks it’s head’!”

While most of the animals seen in Nim’s world are real, a special few are animatronic, including the Sea Turtles, a wonderful ancient species too endangered and fragile to participate in film production.  Animatronic supervisor John Cox explains that he became a mini expert in turtle biology as he created the amphibians for the film.  “We visited some real Sea Turtles at Sea World and took lots of photographs and measurements, and explored all the details of their scales and shells and movement to build ours,” Cox says. 

Cox also created a stand-in animatronic Sea Lion for the few scenes which weren’t safe for Spud and Friday to perform.  “The animatronic Sea Lion was modelled directly after Friday,” he explains.  “Luckily, Friday didn’t mind being measured and came right up to us!  But the hard thing about sea lions is that they are like a big bag of jelly and constantly changing shape so sculpting that stand-in was one of our biggest challenges.”  The fake Friday was finished off with specially constructed fur and a coating of oil to keep him looking as wet and glossy as the real thing. 

One of the biggest fans of the film’s animals turned out to be author Wendy Orr.  Recalls Brock:  “When Wendy came to the set and met the Sea lions, she just started crying.  She said, ‘I can’t believe you’ve actually brought these animal characters life; I never dreamed that Sea Lions could really do what I wrote in the book!’ So we were very proud of them.”