Toy of the Year. Best selling toy in the United States. A product of the fastest-growing toy company in history. The LeapPad.
The LeapPad toy is basically a talking book. To be more exact, it is a device in which one places a sold-separately book and cartridge. The LeapPad has a sort of electronic stylus attached to it, and whenever this stylus is pointed at a word on one of the pages of the book, the LeapPad will “read” the word.
Ben was hired to provide voices for several characters in three of the sold-separately books. The recording studio near Boston, Massachusetts was everything one would expect a recording studio to be: Soundproof foam lining the walls. Microphones of all shapes and sizes. Mixing tables with countless knobs and lights and buttons.
Ben was handed a five-page script and sent into one of the recording booths. After he warmed up, the lines were recorded.
Ben had to create character voices for a talking door mat, a talking kite, a talking squirrel, and last but not least, a talking baseball hat. These various anthropomorphic characters inhabited the worlds of the following LeapPad books: That Was That!, At the Lake in June, and I Spy in the Sky.
Ben’s voice work has not stopped. He recently served as an announcer for a non-profit website, welcoming visitors and detailing the mission of the website’s organization.
|