On Nim's Island, every day ushers in a wild new journey. The movie Nim's Island, based on Wendy Orr's novel, tells the tale of a spunky girl named Nim who lives on a distant island with her scientist father. Nim spends her days reading adventure books and playing with her friends: Selkie, a sea lion; Fred, a bearded dragon lizard; and Galileo, a pelican.
So how did filmmakers get the creatures to perform on cue? Enter animal trainer Katie Brock. She had to cast the perfect animal actors, especially for the role of Selkie. Luckily, she found natural performers in Spud and Friday, two Australian sea lions from Sea World who shared the part. Though highly trained, the marine mammals still needed to learn to ignore the lights and cameras and react only to special hand cues. The pair got fishy treats for a job well done. "They never missed a beat," Brock told TFK.
The animals weren't the only ones to get training. Brock taught the human actors how to work with their critter costars. She says it was no problem for Abigail Breslin, who plays Nim. In one scene, Nim is towed underwater by Selkie. Abigail wasn't too scared to take the dive. "The trainers made me feel comfortable," she says.
Abigail also mastered hand signals to cue the sea lions. Her favorite? Forming a circle with her right thumb and index finger to make them stick out their tongues. "It was really cute," she says.
The animals mainly stuck to the script, but Brock says anything can happen on set. During a dance scene with Abigail, Friday stole the spotlight by showing off his own moves. "Friday took some artistic license," Brock says. "That resulted in some nice things we didn't plan."