© 2003 20th Century Fox All Rights Reserved.

When Tom Baker (Steve Martin) gets offered a dream job coaching college football at Illinois Polytechnic University, he and his wife Kate (Bonnie Hunt) leave their small-town digs behind and drag their brood of 12 to the Windy City for a fresh start. The well-organized household completely crumbles when Kate goes on a book tour to promote her long-awaited opus, leaving Tom to keep the house in order, coach his team, and keep this once happy clan from falling apart.

Animal Action Summary
Most of the animal action in this film is mild and stars Gunner, the Baker’s family dog. Beans the Frog plays a supporting role, and a slithering snake also has a walk-on, or should we say slide on, part. During the opening credits, Tom jogs by some cows grazing in an enclosed pasture. Moments later, a few of the cows run alongside the fence in formation, seemingly mimicking the actor. The production captured these images spontaneously, and as incredible as it may sound, cows will often follow when they see another animal, in this case Steve Martin, running nearby.

Gunner the Family Pooch
Two American Bulldogs named Gangster and Blitz played the part of Gunner. In several scenes, the dog interacts with family members as he sits on the floor or on furniture, or goes for a walk. The actors met the dog ahead of time so everyone felt comfortable during filming. A trainer put the dog on its mark and then stood off camera using a combination of verbal cues and hand signals to get the animal to portray this kind of action.

Two of the children pour some dog food into Gunner’s doggie dish, the whole bag of kibble dumps into the bowl and all over the floor. Gunner backs up from the bowl and begins to eat the food that has fallen on the floor. A trainer put the dog on its mark and stood off camera using hand signals to get the dog to back up and eat.

As the Bakers pack up the van to move, Gunner sits and watches from the lawn nearby. Tom tugs on the dog’s leash, trying to get him to stand up and walk with him. Later we see the family pull up and park by the new house and the dog exits on a leash with the kids. A trainer placed the dog in the back of the van and then hid inside with him. With the street closed off to traffic, the van was driven just a few feet and at a very slow speed. Another trainer stood off camera nearby to give the dog directions where to look. A small sliding window in the van allowed the dog to stick out its nose, though not his whole head, as they drove.

As the new neighbors arrive to welcome Tom and Kate to the neighborhood, Gunner runs up to them and Tom grabs the dog by the collar and guides him away. A trainer released the dog and stood off camera using hand signals to get the dog to run to the actors. Before filming began, a trainer instructed the actor on how to guide the dog by using its collar.

The kids play in the backyard using tennis rackets to smash apples that they toss to each other. Gunner runs by and then we see the dog jump out of a kiddie wading pool nearby. One trainer released the dog as another stood across the yard off camera calling to him. The dog loved water and relished sitting in the wading pool whenever the trainer placed it there.

Nora’s (Piper Perabo) boyfriend Hank (Ashton Kutcher) really takes a licking when the kids soak his underwear in ground beef for a while and then set Gunner after him. The dog picks up the heavenly scent during a family dinner and gives Hank a cold nose in the nether regions before sending him to the ground to endure more humiliation when Gunner bites at his backside. To achieve this scene, trainers stood on either side of the dog while the kids hold the animal and give him the underwear to sniff. When the dog appears under the table at Hank’s crotch, it’s really the trainer wearing padded pants with a piece of cloth sticking out of the fly that the dog is used to retrieving. Another trainer released the dog under the table and verbally cued it to retrieve the cloth. The actor then lay on the floor clutching the cloth between his legs; the trainer again released the dog, who ran to the actor and jumped on top of him trying to get at the cloth.

Moments later, Hank runs outside to his car with several dogs in pursuit behind him. Hank gets in the car and the dogs jump up on the vehicle and bark as he and Nora sit inside. The actor got a head start before trainers released seven other dogs and verbally cued them to follow the actor. Trainers hid on either side as well as inside the car, and the trainer hiding inside rewarded the dogs with food treats when the scene ended. Knowing that the trainer and treats were inside the vehicle was the main incentive for the dogs to jump up on the car and stay there. As a safety precaution, the street was closed during filming.

Beans the Frog
Beans the Frog sits on a light fixture hanging above the kitchen table. Mark (Forrest Landis) stands at the ready with a net and tries to retrieve the frog, who jumps onto the table as the family eats breakfast. The frog hops across the table and onto the kitchen counter while Tom and Mark scramble after it with nets. Beans finally runs into Tom’s awaiting net.

In another scene, Mark runs down the stairs holding the frog. The production used a rubber frog whenever the boy ran or had any jerky body movement.

Mark enters a secret passageway in the house and tucks the frog in his pocket as he slides down a chute in the passageway. A trainer handed the actor the real frog for the beginning of the scene, but when he puts the frog in his pocket and slides down the chute, the real frog is replaced with the rubber one.

Mark pets the frog as it sits in a shallow container of water. Mark thinks there’s something wrong with the motionless frog and so he runs and shows the frog to Tom. Again, the rubber frog was used for this scene, and was made so well it’s hard to tell it from the real one, except that it doesn’t move! The production paid lots of money to have two frogs made to look like Beans. When the frog dies, the family mentions and puts it inside a shoe box, but the dead frog is never seen on screen.

Party Snake
The kids attend Dylan’s (Steven Anthony Lawrence) birthday party and as they enter the house, they walk by a towering stack of presents. A cardboard box sitting on the very top falls to the floor and a snake slithers out and is next seen in the grass outside as people run in fright. This sequence was filmed in several separate shots. A trainer placed the snake in the box once it fell on the floor and then retrieved it immediately after getting the shot. The trainer later placed the snake on the grass and let it slither around briefly while the actors take cover nearby. Though the mayhem continues, the snake is unseen and actually off set.

Pig Action
In a brief flashback scene, a young Tom and some other kids chase pigs in an enclosed pen. Trainers put the pigs into the pen after making sure the ground was clear of debris. The trainers instructed the kids on the safe handling of the pigs and the action of the scene. The kids began to run after the pigs and pretended to grab at them, but in reality the children never actually touched the animals.

Background Pets
Mark’s bedroom contained a menagerie of caged animals that included a guinea pig, a rabbit, a parakeet, a tortoise, a dove, and a Zebra finch. There were also some goldfish swimming around in a bowl. Trainers supplied and maintained the animals and their cages throughout the filming.