The first (temp) voice cast was the three of them. Producer Sue Bea Montgomery showed test screenings of the story reel to children in her neighborhood, and gained input from their reactions. The filmmakers had been considering removing Japeth the goat, but chose not to when he proved one of the most popular characters at these screenings. The children also particularly liked Twitchy, which led to the expansion of the character's role. In an effort to save costs, the film's cast was originally going to be composed mostly of friends and family members of the filmmakers. Cory and Todd brought in their cousin Tye Edwards to play Dolph and turned to their friend Joshua J. Greene to play Jimmy Lizard. Japeth was written specifically for Benjy Gaither, the son of gospel music singers Bill and Gloria Gaither. He had been a friend of the Edwards brothers since childhood and Cory's short film Wobots had been produced through his animation studio Live Bait Productions. Cory's wife Vicki was given the role of a skunk reporter, and while some consideration was initially given to having an adult play the child woodpecker Quill, the role was instead given to producer David K. Lovegren's daughter Kathryn. The Edwards brothers, Leech, and producer Preston Stutzman all took on roles as well. Wanting to do one of the voices in his movie and having watched a lot of squirrels, Cory took on the role of Twitchy, and Pro Tools was used to speed up the recording of his dialogue by 50 percent. Todd played the local Sandwich Man, Leech played both Det. Bill Stork and Glen, and Stutzman played Timmy. As the producers gained greater confidence in the film, however, larger name actors were brought in. Patrick Warburton was the first celebrity actor to join the film and did so purely out of a love for the script. Though Cory Edwards had originally envisioned the Wolf as sounding like a mixture between a young Chevy Chase and Bill Murray, he praised Warburton's performance, saying that he "made the Wolf his own character." Warburton, who had past experience in voice acting from Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and The Emperor's New Groove, found funny Edwards' idea to voice the Wolf as an investigative reporter who fancied himself like Chevy Chase's Fletch character, so he decided to voice the Wolf dryly and inquisitively. Andy Dick also joined the