At the early stages of filming, stars Connelly and Bowie found it difficult to interact naturally with the puppets they shared most of their scenes with. Bowie said, "I had some initial problems working with Hoggle and the rest because, for one thing, what they say doesn't come from their mouths, but from the side of the set, or from behind you." Connelly remarked, "it was a bit strange almost exclusively with puppets in the film, but I think both Dave and I got over that and just took it as a challenge to work with these puppets. And by the end of the film, it wasn't a challenge anymore. They were there, and they were their characters."