Southington 4-year-old raises thousands for charity with videos
Clips that recreate famous Hollywood scenes have gone viral
Southington 4-year-old Madison Presser has had a wild few weeks. The videos she’s been making since March with her parents to pass the time during quarantine have gone viral.
Her adorable reenactments of iconic scenes from “The Wizard of Oz,” “Titanic,” The Shining,” “Braveheart” and dozens of other Hollywood classics, have gotten attention on CNN, “Good Morning America” and media outlets around the world. The videos raise money for charity, and recently the amount raised doubled thanks to a surprise $13,000 donation from motivational speaker Tony Robbins.
But there was pain amid the
plaudits. On Sept. 13, Madison broke her forearm in a freak trampoline accident. The starlet is resting comfortably, attended to round the clock by her devoted mother Beth (a personal trainer) and her father Dan (also her director).
Dan Presser, 37, recently returned full time to his job as a producer at ESPN’s ACCNetwork, now that the college sports season has begun. Summers are generally
quiet in his line of work, which meant he could produce dozens of mini cinematic masterpieces with his kids, issued under the comical company name Quarantine 2020 Productions.
Madison has starred in homagestoeverything from “Ace Ventura Pet Detective” to “Mrs. Doubtfire” to “AFew Good Men” and the sports flicks “Miracle” and “ALeague of Their Own.”
Dan Presser creates the clips entirely on his phone, using the Splice app. There are no special effects to speak of, and each video ends with poster art from the film being spoofed. He gives his wife Beth credit for coming up with clever props and inventive staging ideas. The most complicated productions are the ones (like “Almost Famous”) where Presser enlists the children of friends for larger-cast scenes. These cameos can come from all over the country, filmed in the safety of the actors’ homes.
Usually, there’s just a cast of one or two: Madison, who gets the speaking roles, and her 21-monthold brother Barton, who makes silent cameos and behaves like the Teller to her Penn (or the Harpo to her Groucho). If Quarantine Productions is still around by the time Barton can memorize lines, he’ll undoubtedly get larger roles. In the meantime he seems perfectly happy donning a highway patrol officer’s uniform for “Thelma and Louise,” a swath of plaid for “Braveheart” or an old lady’s dress for “Forrest Gump,” stealing scenes with his bemused expressions.
“We’re running out of things to do with just one speaking voice,” Dan Presser says. He and Beth largely pick movies they enjoyed from their own childhoods and teen years, which explains how “Tommy Boy” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” made the cut.
Dan Presser posts the videos on Facebook first because he likes its screen ratio best, but you can also find them on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. He’s amused that YouTube removed his “Old School” tribute, presumably because it shows Barton’s bare bottom, but doesn’t quite understand why they also removed “Titanic,” where he’s diapered.
Many of the movies being mocked are far from G-rated, but young Madison hasn’t actually seen them when crafting her dramatic interpretations. She’s given a line or two by her father, taken from a scene that has entered the pop culture vernacular (like “Here’s Johnny!” from “The Shining”), then makes it her own. There’s even a spin on TV awards ceremonies, with Madison cooing, “You like me. You really like me,” Sally Fieldsstyle. The award she’s clutching in the video is an actual Emmy won by Dan Presser, doctored so that it has Madison’s name on it.
The videos have generated over $26,000 so far. The Pressers chose Feeding America from a list of charities for which the Walt Disney Company, which owns ESPN, offers matching donations. Dan Presser is thrilled with the attention Madison’s videos have gotten. “I randomly will Google her name before I go to bed, and there’ll be news stories in Japan, or Africa, and I think, ‘How did this get international?!’”
International f ame has had a local advantage. “Now our neighbors know what’s going on, they understand why Maddie’s riding around with half her face painted, screaming, ‘They may take our lives, but they will never take our freedom!’”