Oscar-nominated film used bizarre method of 'tickling' animals to record sounds

An Academy Award-nominated movie has seen its director share how animal sounds were captured for the making of the movie, leaving many in stitches at the behind-the-scenes fact

An Oscar-nominated film had a hilarious method of capturing its animal sounds.

Gints Zilbaldois, the director of the movie 'Flow', which is in the running for Best Animated Film at this year's Academy Awards, shared behind-the-scenes footage of how it was made.

The film, already a Golden Globe winner for Best Animated Film and nominated at this year's British Academy Film Awards, follows a series of animals including a capybara. However, recording the capybara's sounds proved challenging. Instead of trying to get the animal's voice in the film, the team found it would be much easier to substitute their capybara with another animal entirely.

Zilbaldois shared: "We used real animal voices in Flow. In most cases this wasn't a problem, except for the capybara. Capybaras don't speak that much, so it had to be tickled to make it say something, but the voice was very high-pitched and didn't fit our chill, hippy like character. We made a creative decision to offer the role to a baby camel instead."

Despite the switch, most viewers didn't seem to notice. One commented: "What an incredible film, my students loved it. We had a wonderful discussion after, and the consensus was that the Capybara was the favourite of the gang."

Another user asked if there was "footage of the tickling" of the capybaras, while a third commented: "I'm just relieved that human voices weren't inserted in there."

It seems the behind-the-scenes tidbits from the making of Flow are providing delight to others too. One fan expressed their enjoyment, writing: "I am absolutely loving all of these fun facts. 'Flow' was my favorite film of the year, and it's a joy to learn things like this!"

The use of real animal sounds over impressions by people won many plaudits, with members of the public praising the recently released film on social media.

Another added: "That's an amazing casting decision using real animal vocals. If this were made here in America they'd all be played by Frank Welker." Further praise for Flow came as fans described it as heart-warming, with additional appreciation growing through these reveals.

A comment read: "This movie was precious but this does take it to another level of precious that I honestly didn't think was possible."

Amongst the humorous reactions, one joked about the Oscars: "A new controversy takes over the Oscars. How can we stand this Capybara erasure? Tch tch." And another user couldn't help but declare: "Everything I learn about this movie makes me love it more and more."