Erik Estrada is cleared for takeoff
Role pays homage to Ponch from ‘CHiPs’
Marine/actor Dale Dye as the exmilitary transport plane Cabbie.
Estrada, 64, was the biggest hit of the voice recording studio, posing for pictures with “every person in the building,” including co-star King. “The producer said the building didn’t go that ber- serk for anyone else,” he says.
Estrada, who appeared in the ’80s reunion RadioShack Super Bowl commercial, still can strut.
“I’m Latin, I’m well-lubed,” he says, going vehicular to describe his age-preservation secrets. “And I color my hair.”
It has been decades since Erik Estrada rocked his motorcycle as Frank “Ponch” Poncherello in the classic 1980s TV show CHiPs (California Highway Patrol).
But Estrada is back in the animated film Planes: Fire & Rescue (out July 18), voicing Nick “Loop’n” Lopez — the star of a television show called CHoPs (California Helicopter Patrol).
Estrada is one of a squadron of new voices announced by Disney studios Meet the
for the sequel to new cast of
2013’s Planes. Fire vehicles
& Rescue newbies include Ed Harris, (search-andrescue helicopter Blade Ranger), Wes Studi (heavy-lift helicopter Windlifter), Regina King (head smoke jumper Dynamite) and Fred Willard (secretary of the Interior, in utility-vehicle form).
Julie Bowen (as water-scoop- ing plane Dipper) also joins Dane Cook, who reprises his role in the original as Dusty Crophopper.
The sequel centers on a team of firefighting machines in Piston Peak National Park, and Estrada is the daredevil star of their favorite TV show. “I’ve traded in my bike for a helicopter, and it’s a cute helicopter,” he says. The filmmakers “wanted to capture the CHiPs spirit. It’s a story about becoming a true hero.”
This sequel follows cropduster Dusty after an unlikely but successful around-the-globe race. Now he enters the dangerous world of forest firefighting. Director Bobs Gannaway says there is precedent for cropdusting planes to fight fires.
Voice actors were picked to resemble their machines, such as real-life couple Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara as Winnebago trailer pair Harvey and Winnie, and