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Creature Shop hired for Country Bears

Courtesy of Yahoo News
January 9, 2001

Haley Joel Osment ("The Sixth Sense") has been signed to voice the central character for the Walt Disney Co.'s live-action feature "The Country Bears" for director Peter Hastings. Shooting is scheduled to begin next month.

The eight bears in the film will be suit-performers inside radio-controlled bear costumes complete with detailed facial articulation created by the Jim Henson Creature Shop. Osment and other actors will provide the voices of the bears. The cast also will include human characters, including some yet-to-be-named music stars in cameos.

The story follows a 10-year-old bear, Beary (voiced by Osment), who has been raised by a human family, unaware that he is adopted until his jealous brother tells him. Beary leaves home and goes to Tennessee in search of his purpose in life. Once there, he learns that the historic Country Bear Hall is about to be torn down, and he organizes a benefit concert to save it. But first, he must reunite the once-successful band the Country Bears, who had bitterly broken up years before.