When production finally began in the late 1990s, director Rob Minkoff (who had just co-directed The Lion King ) took a radical approach. Instead of a hand-drawn animated feature, he envisioned a live-action world where a fully computer-generated mouse interacts with real human actors. At the time, CGI was still in its infancy. Toy Story (1995) had proven animated worlds could work, but required a digital character to exist in a tangible, photographic environment.
: George is initially disappointed and finds it difficult to accept a mouse as his brother. stuart little 1999