Is the Baby Real or CGI in Man vs. Baby?

Netflix’s ‘Man vs Baby’ brings back Rowan Atkinson’s Trevor Bingley, who, once again, finds himself in a peculiar situation where things keep escalating to the point of hilarity. The show begins with Trevor finding a baby at the door of the school where he works as a caretaker. He mistakes it for the baby that was supposed to appear in the school play. When everyone leaves for the holidays, and the baby is left behind, Trevor decides to retrieve the baby and bring it back home. The problem is that he doesn’t know where the baby has come from, and more importantly, he needs to leave for London for a job that will pay exceptionally well. Over the course of four episodes, Trevor tries to manage an increasingly tense situation. Since the baby plays a significant role in the show, he is present throughout the four episodes. However, there are times when he doesn’t appear to be a real baby. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Man vs Baby Uses a Mix of Reality and CGI to Portray Baby Jesus

If the baby, called Baby Jesus, in ‘Man vs Bee’ feels a little off sometimes, it is because it’s a CGI baby. Filming for a TV show means working for long hours, but while adults can handle the work, babies are not supposed to be on set for more than two hours a day. Since the Netflix series features the baby as a co-protagonist, it was essential to include Baby Jesus in as many scenes as possible. For this, a pair of twins, known as hero babies, was employed so that filming could continue for a more extended period while adhering to the rules about the babies’ work schedule. At the same time, backup baby actors (also twins) were also brought around. Since the hero babies couldn’t crawl, the crawling scenes were filmed with twin babies. However, these scenes also featured the face of the Baby Jesus, so CGI was used to implant the faces of the hero babies onto the faces of the backup babies, wherever required.

Framestore, the company that previously worked on Man vs. Bee to create the antagonistic bee, was brought on board to work on the CGI baby. The video capture technique was used to capture all the possible reactions of the hero babies. They were filmed while crying, smiling, sleeping, eating, yawning, and engaging in other activities, which allowed the show’s creators to create a reference pool that they later used in scenes involving backup babies. Since they didn’t want the CGI placement of hero babies on the face of backup babies to come across as uncanny or disturbing, they tried to keep things as real as possible. They would adjust shots based on whether or not the baby’s face was required in a particular scene and for how long. Through this, they were able to create a sense of continuity about the baby.

Talking about the challenges of filming with a baby, Rowan Atkinson confessed that things get rather tricky when one’s scene partner is a toddler. He said, “I think the main challenge was just keeping the story and the logic of it in your head when you are dealing with a co-star who, you know, there’s not much chat between takes. You have just got to go with the flow, but I was OK with the babies, keeping them happy.” Reportedly, the veteran actor, best known for playing Mr. Bean, built a rapport with the babies, developing a genuine chemistry that informs his performance and adds depth to Trevor’s storyline.

Read More: Where is Netflix’s Man vs. Baby Filmed? All Shooting Locations