Every year, on April 11, National Pet Day celebrates the presence of pets in an individual’s life. Although a pet owner celebrates their pets each day, they get this designated day to shower their love on on their best companions.

In animation shows and features, pets play a big role in storytelling and in setting the personality of the heroes that the teams at Mikros Animation bring to life. . Dogs are very present in the projects the teams worked on, such as Obelix’s Idefix, Pippy, the best friend of GUS, THE ISTY BITSY KNIGHT, Spike, Tommy’s best “animal” friend in RUGRATS and are also the heroes of feature films such as in SGT STUBBY : AN AMERICAN HERO or PAW PATROL : THE MOVIE. But characters have way more original pets such as Gary, the best friend of SpongeBob who is at the center of the latest THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE : SPONGE ON THE RUN, or the fantastic Thunder, Feathers and Wu & Wei from DRAGONS : THE NINE REALMS.

For all of them, the teams at Mikros Animation thrive to “translate a strong performance so that the audience can empathize with, understand and grab onto,” as Sean Mullen, Head of Character Animation said in a round table during Beyond Imagination festival. But they also pay a particular attention to the right balance between animal and human behaviors that fits with the character design as Riash Shahnawaz, Animation Director, commented.

To get to know more about how Mikros Animation teams make characters “act”, catch up on the discussion that was streamed during Beyond Imagination festival: