After two successful first films released in 2013 and 2015, “Belle and Sébastien 3: The Last Chapter” was released in 2018. And in this new adventure, Belle had three adorable babies. But shooting little puppies was no small feat for the film crew.
Belle and Sebastian 3: The Final Chapter
The adventures of Sébastien and his dog Belle began with the television series imagined by Cécile Aubry in 1965. After novels and a Japanese television series broadcast in the 1980s, the two heroes arrive in the cinema in 2013 in a film directed by Nicolas Vanier.
After a big success in France (nearly three million admissions) and in Italy (more than a million spectators), the film has two sequels: The adventure goes on (2015) and Belle and Sebastian 3: The Final Chapter (2018) directed by Clovis Cornillac.
In this third installment, Sébastien (Félix Bossuet) enters adolescence and Belle has become the mother of three adorable puppies. But this happiness is put to the test when Joseph (Clovis Cornillac), Belle’s former owner reappears. The young boy will then have to show courage and inventiveness to protect his dog and her babies.
A complicated shoot with the puppies
It is common knowledge that the biggest challenge for a director on set is the presence of children and animals. But even more when it comes to children and baby animals, as was the case on Belle and Sebastian 3.
At the time of the film’s release, Clovis Cornillac confided (via Unifrance) on this challenge and on Calvary filming with puppies had been like. Especially because of the breed of dog, and the fact that these babies were growing very fast:
The puppies, it was necessary to change them every fortnight because they take a pony size in three weeks! Everything must be planned in advance according to the spans and there is therefore no room for error in the work plan. Suffice to say that it is extremely difficult to organize.
For babies of this age, the climatic conditions were also a concern to which they had to lend great attention :
On the logistics side, we could climb the puppies to an altitude of 2500 m provided that they were warmly wrapped because it was – 30° and we could only travel by snowmobile.
The film’s trainer, Andrew Simpson, had built a walking doghouse towed by a snowmobile. It was insulated and heated, so that the puppies stayed warm. He also managed to train the babies so that they adopt the attitudes desired by Clovis Cornillac. A real challenge as it is complicated to train such young animals.
Despite the name of this third film which seemed to indicate the end of the saga, a new feature film acting as a reboot was released on October 19 and is called New generation.
