Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1383665
24 I M PS E . O R G it's really going to be cool. But this is also designed for streaming, and it's Disney." We were convinced, "There's no way he's going to win that battle." [laughs] In the end, I think it was in the right direction. I don't know if they went as severe with it, but it did have that look to it. OB: Thematically, he didn't want it to be like a typical Disney film. When he was done with it, the executives were floored—they loved it. They thought he really made a beautiful picture. TT: It was during the second audience preview when things really came together and kind of cemented it with the studio. They were convinced, "Okay, we see what he's doing." They were literally cheering at the theater! EM: As you mentioned, the film focuses on sled dogs of various ages and sizes. How did you both go about recording and editing dog vocals for this film? TT: We first assembled whatever we could from our libraries. There were a few other dog pictures that we were able to wrangle material from. I know Odin recorded some stuff. We had to get a temp dub together quickly. OB: There was also a lot of great production. We were able to use a lot from the wild tracks. There were these great teams of puppies that they had recorded. They also recorded all these dog sled teams. There's basically two different kinds: the huskies and the malamutes, which are a little bit bigger than the huskies. My aunt and uncle had been raising huskies forever [laughs], and so my natural thought was to go over and record them. TT: We did get the puppies, we went and recorded those. Charlie Campagna, our sound effects recordist, was able to go, I believe it was in San Bernardino. The production wrangler located a litter of puppies born the week before we started pre-dubbing. [laughs] I went through all the material and Ericson was like, "Maybe we can have both." We had it working so well with these production wild tracks and whatnot. But I did go through, and there was some beautiful stuff, so I replaced some of it with the new recordings. It was worth the extra effort, even if it was at the Eleventh Hour. That's what you do for Ericson—no stone goes unturned. You have to find out for yourself. OB: Having access to dogs is great, but you never know what kind of sounds you're going to get. So, between Todd and myself, we pulled every dog sound that we could— every expressive sound, any type of breathing, anything we could get that we could sell as a husky. Leonard Seppala (William Defoe) and Togo look on. Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Studios