Stories from the set

It was originally intended to be a film about human consciousness in a penguin robot. When director and screenwriter Daniel Chong presented the script to Pixar's leadership, in particular to Pete Docter (Docter became one of the producers), the management liked the script. They only suggested replacing the penguins in the concept with something else, stating that there were already too many animated films about penguins. The script was rewritten two more times until it was finally decided that the robot would be a beaver rather than a penguin. In addition, Chong found out that beavers serve as a kind of ecosystem engineers, and decided that a film about a beaver should be a hit.

The last film of Isaiah Whitlock Jr. The film is dedicated to his memory.

One of the characters was based on Meryl Streep (although none of the film's creators expected that she would take on voicing him). According to director and screenwriter Daniel Chong, he finally called her via video link to discuss the matter, and Streep was very favorable to the offer to work on the project.

As a consultant, the filmmakers brought in a beaver specialist from the University of Minnesota. She was first contacted in 2021.

The character voiced by Piper Curda was inspired by the mother of director and screenwriter Daniel Chong, who, according to him, had a very strong sense of duty.

According to director and screenwriter Daniel Chong, he once came across an article about Yellowstone National Park, where wolves were being reintroduced to life in the wild, and whose ecosystem included beavers.

The character voiced by Bobby Moynihan was inspired by director and screenwriter Daniel Chong. He himself admitted that this character "has a lot of me in him."

In the original idea for the film, the character voiced by Tom Law did not exist. According to Daniel Chong, this character "somehow slipped into the storyline on his own" and stayed there, even though there was no pressing need for him. The conclusion about this character's popularity with the audience was drawn from the results of test screenings.

According to director and screenwriter Daniel Chong and producer Nicole Paradis Grindle, the visual difference between the worlds of animals and humans (specifically, the eyes of the animals) was inspired by the 1994 Studio Ghibli anime titled "Pom Poko," which was about raccoon dogs. It was this project by director Isao Takahata that helped the creators of the film convincingly convey the concept of two worlds coexisting.

At the very last moment, the opening scenes were significantly changed. New text and additional footage were added in order to develop the story of the main character voiced by Piper Curda. According to director and screenwriter Daniel Chong, this was required by the very nature of the main character—unruly and somewhat chaotic. It was necessary to add humanity to Mabel's character so that viewers would empathize with her, understand her feelings and, in particular, her anger. And also understand the reasons for the struggle she is waging.