Newtown Kids Have Speaking Parts In ‘Ice Age: The Meltdown’—

Giving A Voice To The Ice Age

By Nancy K. Crevier

Newtown residents supporting the record-breaking opening of the new 20th Century Fox movie from Blue Sky Studios, Ice Age: The Meltdown, on March 31 may have detected something vaguely familiar about a few of the voices on the soundtrack. Thanks to their fathers, Bruce Anderson, production manager for Blue Sky Studios, and Ron DeFelice, color stylist at the studio, four Newtown youngsters have contributed to the production of the blockbuster since its conception in the studio.

Emily Anderson, 14, and Caitlin Anderson, 12, both students at Newtown Middle School, Connor Anderson, 9, a student at Head O’ Meadow, and Nicole DeFelice, 12, a Reed Intermediate School student, provided the scratch recordings and later the actual sound recordings for the voices of Beaver Girl 3 and Glypto Boy Billy (Caitlin), Rhino Boy and Beaver Boy (Connor), Start Girl (Nicole), and group voices (Emily).

Scratch recordings, explained Mr Anderson, are for use early on in the production of a movie to see how a story is playing out.

“They board out rough drawings and the action of a scene so that it can be seen panel by panel,” he said.

Sound effects, temporary music and temporary voices are used before the actual actors come in to record. That is where the Anderson family and Nicole came in.

For Emily and Caitlin, Ice Age: The Meltdown was not their first recording experience. Emily’s voice was used in the Disney movie Lilo and Stitch and Caitlin had a bit voice part in Brother Bear, another Disney production.  

What Emily recalls about Lilo and Stitch, recorded seven years ago when her family lived in Florida and Mr Anderson worked for Disney Productions, is that it required a lot more time at the studio than Ice Age. That is not surprising, as this mega moneymaking movie was put together in only two years, about half the time an animated film generally takes to go from idea to market.

The scratch recordings were done at Blue Sky Studios in White Plains in the fall of 2004. Almost a year later, the youngsters were called back to provide the actual recordings at a New York City studio.

“The director and everybody are really nice,” Nicole said. “They give you treats, like all kinds of food set up on a table. In New York, there was a whole room to wait in and there was a pool table and a computer and a TV.”

“We were there about an hour and a half, usually,” said Caitlin. Because each of them had only a few lines to record, their actual time in the recording booth, giant headphones clamped over their ears and a huge, round microphone dangling in front of them, was only about 20 minutes at a time. Sometimes the recordings needed to be redone. The sensitive microphone picked up any extra movements — “Things like toe-tapping or rubbing your hands, giggling,” Emily said — and Caitlin admitted that she delivered the wrong lines at one point.

For Connor, his debut as Rhino Boy and Beaver Boy involved just two lines “and a little crying,” said Connor. “It was fun.”

Learning the lines was an on-the-spot sort of thing, for the most part, said Nicole.

“I kind of knew how my character acted and Carlos [Saldahna, the director] worked with us a lot.”

“Basically, we go in and don’t know what the lines are, so we read them a bunch of times. My mom [Mary Anderson] helped me a lot,” Caitlin said. “My character is not very nice,” she admitted. “I’m rude. I’m kind of like a bully.”

There are no bright stage lights or huge audiences to give the voice actors the jitters, but still, said Nicole, “You get a little nervous because everyone’s behind this glass screen and they’re laughing at your lines and you start worrying they’re laughing at something you’ve said wrong.” She added, though, “Being in the studio makes you feel famous.”

Speaking of famous, Ray Romano, John Leguizmo, Denis Leary, and Queen Latifah provide the voices for the lead characters in Ice Age: The Meltdown. While the four Newtowners did not get to rub elbows with the stars, “When we were leaving [the studio in New York] the last time, Denis Leary [the voice of Diego] was there. We just said ‘Hi.’”

The thrill of being part of a movie that is the biggest grossing movie for the month of March ($68 million opening weekend) in the history of movies has spread to their friends and schoolmates, say the youngsters. Caitlin’s language arts cluster worked in  a field trip to the Crown Theater in Trumbull for a private showing of Ice Age: The Meltdown on April 13. For Emily’s birthday, a group of 20 friends and family celebrated by attending the opening matinee of Ice Age: The Meltdown at Lowe’s Theater in Danbury.

Would they do it again? Absolutely, they all agree. As members of the Screen Actors Guild, Nicole, Caitlin and Emily get residuals from the movie; but beyond earning some spending money, providing voices for animation is “so much fun!” exclaims Caitlin. “If anyone ever has this opportunity, they should do it!”