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Teen plays role of mouse in Eckhart
P.E.I. animated series airing on Teletoon
by By Sally Cole / The Charlottetown Guardian

Tuesday, December 5, 2000

Charlottetown - For an actress just into her teenage years, Jessica Pellerin has plenty of acting credits to her name.

They include everything from P.E.I. tourism ads to playing Ilse Burnley in the Emily of New Moon television series.

But never in her wildest dreams did the 13-year-old Souris resident imagine that one of her roles would turn out to be a mouse.

"It's really fun," says Jessica, the voice of Eckhart, a young field mouse, in the self-titled animated TV series airing this season on the Teletoon Network.

The cartoon series is about the adventures of a mouse who is full of bravery and irrepressible wonderment about the mysteries of his world.

Whether Eckhart is learning to accept the things he cannot change, like the pungent odour of Sir Roswald, the skunk, or scampering across the countryside in search of maple sweet, the elixir that can nurse his ailing grandfather back to health, the storylines are filled with warmth and humour.

"But what's really neat about the role is that I'm playing something I'm not - a mouse, and a boy one at that," Jessica says.

One of her biggest challenges has been learning to keep her voice at a low pitch during taping sessions at Boulevard Productions, a recording studio at Slemon Park, P.E.I.

"Sometimes I end up squeaking a little bit. So, the directors remind me, 'You're a boy, lower your voice.' "

Jessica is among the 16 Prince Edward Islanders who are the voices of the characters in the Eckhart series.

Others include Martha MacIsaac as Brigid, Jack McAndrew as Tomis, Sarah Briand, Mavis, Mitchell Underhay as Sweeney and Bill McFadden as Sir Roswald and the narrator.

For McFadden, the best part about the show is getting to work in his home province.

"The thing about doing voices for animation is that you can do it anywhere - so, it's nice to be able to do it here . . . (and) be near to my family," explains the actor, who has been in everything from Dracula to Emily of New Moon.

A second positive element is working in a totally different medium.

"With animation, they send you script, you come into the studio and put it on tape, so technically it's very gratifying - although you miss the interplay (on stage or during a film shoot) with the other actors," he says. "Therefore, you have rely on your imagination."

But Jessica says acting in animation takes much more than imagination. It takes plenty of hard work.

"When you're doing live action (for a film), you can use your body to express how you're feeling," she says. "But when you're doing voices for cartoons, no one can see you. So you have to make your voice bigger and overact to get your point across."

Watching in the wings, producer Gretha Rose, president of Cellar Door productions, likes what she sees.

"Doing voices in animation is very hard," Rose says. "That's because there's no one to play off of. But Jessica has the full range of voice and does the job very well."

The animated series was inspired by the holiday special, The True Meaning of Crumbfest, which was written by Islander David Weale

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Article and Picture taken from The Halifax Herald Limited

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