I have to throw a shout out to David over at MaxPlugins.de. If you didn't know about the site already, He has an extensive list of older 3dsmax plugins that he keeps re-compiling for the latest version.
If you've ever tried to make a talking animal you would want to use an old plugin from Peter Watje called "Camera Map Animated". You can use it to re-project footage onto a model, then use skin and deformers to pose the face, and render the distored camera mapped object out. If you tried to go to Peters old site for pluigns you'll be out of luck. Go visit MaxPlugins.de and make a small pay pal donation for this selfless contribution to the community.
Fred