When "Guardians of the Galaxy" comes to theaters Friday, one of the characters everyone will be talking about is Rocket Raccoon, a gun-toting rascal with a lot of spunk voiced by Bradley Cooper.
But before he was voiced by Cooper, and brought to life with the help of motion capture, animators drew inspiration for the character from a real-life raccoon named Oreo .
Raised since he was two days old by Sallie Rainbow and the people at Oreo and Friends, a UK-based group that describes itself as an animal encounters company that helps raise awareness of exotic animals, the now five-year-old raccoon was invited by director James Gunn to model for Rocket in "Guardians."
NoSuchBucketA young Oreo, think he was about 12 weeks old here pic.twitter.com/bkBIqNGWIL
- Oreo and Friends (@oreoandfriends) June 15, 2014
Gunn recently spoke with British magazine Small Furry Pets detailing all of the moving parts that went into creating Rocket.
Via ComicBookMovie:
"We needed a raccoon to study how he looked and his behavior, so that our on-screen raccoon, which is generated through CGI will be realistic," said Gunn. "Our Rocket is based on a combination of our voice actor, Bradley Cooper, our on-set actor, my brother Sean Gunn, the movements and behavior and look of Oreo [the raccoon], as well as my own animation."
Oreo most recently headed out to the "Guardians of the Galaxy" premiere in London where the mini star lounged in his own hotel suite ...
NoSuchBucketOreo chilling out in his hotel suite #oreoandfriends #GotG #RocketRaccoon #oreoraccoon pic.twitter.com/cJxWwQjaNm
- Oreo and Friends (@oreoandfriends) July 25, 2014
... before heading out to the red carpet to greet fans ...
Oreo meeting a few fans! #guardiansofthegalaxy #europremiere #rocketraccoon pic.twitter.com/b5ceQeIjpt
- Oreo and Friends (@oreoandfriends) July 24, 2014
... and reunite with Gunn.
gorgeous @JamesGunn with Oreo raccoon at the UK Premiere of Guardians of the Galaxy. I love them both. pic.twitter.com/pKihpYgqOc
- Настя RussianSnowBMD (@nasmadden) July 25, 2014