Moyse’s voice
Olympic gold medallist Heather Moyse does voice-over work for a Canadian animated film
As a little girl watching Disney movies, Heather Moyse loved to sing along.
Doing voices for cartoons, she thought, would be a fun job — then and now.
The two-time Olympic gold medallist in bobsled had the opportunity recently to fulfill her cartoon dream when she was asked to lend her voice for a character in “The Adventures of Shadow and Ally,” an animated children’s film.
It all came about when writer Brenda Whitehall contacted Moyse for consulting purposes.
One of the adventures the two cats, Shadow and Ally, go on is finding themselves in a runaway sled in the middle of a bobsled race on Whistler Mountain.
After giving some details about the track and how to do it in the most realistic way, Whitehall told her it would be great if she would do a voice-over in the movie.
“I said it had always been on my bucket list to voice-over for a cartoon, and I would love to do it.”
Moyse recorded her scenes at the Grant Avenue Studio in Hamilton, Ont.
“Instead of me doing a voiceover for a random character, they actually turned the character into me. I am the sports broadcaster. It was almost harder to be as animated as you have to be for a cartoon and still be yourself.”
“The Adventures of Shadow and Ally” is set to be released in theatres in December 2016.
“There are educational components in the film for young kids. They’re discussing different types of family units. The two cats have two moms, so their owners are two women. They also encounter some bullying from alley cats.
“Part of it is addressing bullying and different family units, and just because you have a different family unit, the love that’s within that family doesn’t make it no more or no less than other families.”
Moyse is happy to be part of the film, and said she enjoyed doing the voice-over work.
“I was nervous doing it in front of people who do voiceovers for a living. They were so great and supportive. By the end I wished I had another character so I could throw out different voices.”
If given the opportunity, she would love to voice-over a character for another film.
“It was just so fun. It was an amazing experience.”