Mystery Men

Mystery Men is a comedy based on the comic book "Mystery Men" about a group of wannabe heroes who must defend their city against the villainous Casanova Frankenstein.

  • Starring: Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria, Geoffrey Rush, Lena Olin, William H. Macy, Greg Kinnear and Janeane Garofalo
  • Director(s): Kinka Usher
  • Producer(s): Mystery Men Productions
  • Screenwriter(s): Neil Cuthbert, Bob Burden
  • Distributor: Universal Pictures
  • Animal Coordinator: Working Wildlfe
  • Release Date: Friday, August 06, 1999

Featured Animal Action

What does a super-hero's pet do?

The super hero's family dog basically sits around the house. For all of the scenes the trainer placed the dog on its mark and cued it with verbal and hand commands.

How does a super-hero handle a skunk in the woods?

Heroically? Spleen, one of the heroes encounters a skunk that waddles over to Spleen's leg and starts to hump it. For this scene, several different methods were used to accomplish this behavior. Flowers, champagne and music? Wrong. Cat food applied to a real and fake pant leg encouraged the skunk to appear amorous. One trainer released the skunk from its carrier and a second trainer used verbal commands to cue it to the pant leg.

Whose chicken?

The eccentric inventor, Dr. Heller, is the chicken lover. When the superheroes ask the doctor for help, they visit his lab where there are cages containing chickens and many chickens walking around. At one point the doctor is walking around holding one in his arms. The trainer placed the chickens in the cages or on their mark and placed food around the area and the chickens acted naturally.

Cameo appearances by other animals include… A goat standing in line to audition for super hero status, ducks in the background at a camp area, and a rooster standing on top of a refrigerator.