'Tooning reality: Tippett Studio populates a photorealistic fairy tale with furry CG animals that sometimes behave like cartoons.(CG Modelling)

Disney's Enchanted begins as a classic 2D animated fairy tale, but the handsome prince's wicked mother pushes his beautiful bride into a well just before the wedding, and that begins the story. When Giselle emerges, she's actress Amy Adams and she's in Times Square. Giselle doesn't know she's no longer a cartoon, so when she leans out an apartment window and sings her "happy working song," it makes sense for rats, pigeons, and cockroaches to show up and merrily whistle while they work.

Kevin Lima, who directed Disney's animated feature Tarzan and live-action feature 102 Dalmations, masterminded Enchanted's blend of animation and live action. Tippett Studio created the photorealistic CG animals and insects for the "happy working song" and other scenes, the wicked mother (Susan Sarandon) who turns into a dragon for the film's finale, and Pip, a disarmingly charming chipmunk that nearly steals the show.

In addition, CIS Hollywood contributed 36 of the 320 visual effects shots in the film, primarily wire removals and composites, WETA Digital created the first and last shots with the Disney castle and storybook, and Reel FX worked on two of the storybook shots.

"Pip was probably the biggest challenge for the entire project," says Thomas Schelesny, visual effects supervisor. "He was unique. He's the only guy in the movie who knows what's going on." However, knowing what's going on and explaining that to Giselle [Amy Adams], the almost-princess, and her handsome prince [James Marsden], are two different things, as Pip discovers. Once he lands in the real world, the cartoon chipmunk loses his commanding speaking voice and has to resort to squeaks and pantomime.

"The kind of work Pip needs to do is not standard visual effects work," Schelesny says. "We really needed to study how a traditional Disney animator would approach the character."

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A crew of approximately 12 animators, led by Tom Gibbons, worked on the show at Tippett Studio, and every animator performed Pip. "We got a flavor for Pip starting from drawings by John Baxter, who did the 2D animation," Gibbons says. "We took those tidbits and information from Kevin [Lima] and Tom [Schelesny] and had a huge Disney history lesson. We watched all the films. We knew that Pip would be an homage to the early Disney films."