Synopsis

A talking parrot named Paulie is separated from Marie, the little girl who raised him. After years spent moving between owners and strangers, Paulie ends up confined at an animal research institute, where he tells his life story to Misha, a sympathetic janitor. Misha becomes determined to help Paulie escape and reunite with Marie.

Factoids & Trivia

• Screenwriter Laurie Craig developed the story after seeing a lone parrot in a cage and wondering what it might say if it could recount its life. She was also influenced by Alex, the famous African gray parrot known for his remarkable vocabulary.

• Paulie was portrayed by 14 trained blue-crowned conures. The birds were assigned different tasks, with some specializing in flying, others in landing on marks, and others in close-up work.

• The animal performers were trained to respond to more than 50 verbal commands, along with buzzer, whistle, hand, and visual cues. Trainers rotated the birds to avoid tiring them during production.

• Live birds were combined with split-screen techniques, computer effects, and an animatronic version created by Stan Winston Studio. The mechanical bird was used for dangerous actions and close-ups requiring elaborate facial movement.

• Animal stunt coordinator Boone Narr arranged seven bird-casting sessions involving more than 38 species before the production settled on blue-crowned conures for Paulie.

• Jay Mohr's Paulie voice was partly based on Buddy Hackett's style. Hackett had auditioned for the role and later appeared in the film as the pawnbroker.

• Filming took place in California and Toronto between July 14 and October 2, 1997. The completed film was released in the United States on April 17, 1998.

• The film was one of the early live-action projects developed by the newly formed DreamWorks Pictures. It was released several months before the studio's animation division began its theatrical run.