Speechless (1994)
Animal Action
For the scene in which the baby bear is rescued by Wannamake, a trainer held the baby bear in the shaft and handed him to the actor while holding on to the bear’s harness. In a subsequent report from the zoo, a black bear is seen standing against the front wall of an exhibit and growling. He is responding to his trainer’s commands. Several trainers were always on hand when the bears worked. The dancing bear report early in the film is stock footage of a dancing bear at the Moscow Circus. Another video interlude featuring a dog is used in the film to show what the insomniacs watch when failing to fall asleep. In the video a man is reunited with his dog and the dog puts his front paws on a chain link fence and barks. For this scene one trainer released the dog off camera while a second trainer cued the dog to come and to speak, rewarding him with food. Later in the film, Trina writes an infomercial involving a sheepdog, Ruffles, who jumps up onto a kitchen counter and eats the food props. For this scene one trainer released the dog off camera and a second trainer, behind the counter, called the dog and assisted Ruffles up onto the counter. The food props were doctored with cat food which the dog liked to lick. Other animals seen briefly in the film were some cows in a corral at a political barbecue.
