Rising young actor Connor Esterson (Spy Kids: Armageddon) will voice JJ in the upcoming animated feature film CoComelon: The Movie from Universal Pictures.
Created for the theatrical experience, CoComelon: The Movie is an epic adventure that invites families to go beyond the world of CoComelon they know. It follows JJ, his friends, and an exciting new cast of characters on a cinematic journey filled with original music and rich storytelling.
Directed by Kat Good, the film features a remarkable quartet of young actors will voice the iconic characters from the CoComelon world. Connor Esterson will voice JJ, Camden Brooks (Swapped) will voice Cody, Olivia London Leyva (Lopez vs. Lopez) will voice Nina, and Aerina DeBoer (The Summer I Turned Pretty) will voice CeCe.
The film also features new characters voiced by SZA (One of Them Days), Ike Barinholtz (The Studio), Nicholas Hoult (Superman), Sarah Sherman (Saturday Night Live), Ego Nwodim (Saturday Night Live), Josh Johnson (The Daily Show), Matt Friend (Family Guy), Rhys Darby (Jumanji: The Next Level), and Cristo Fernández (Ted Lasso).
The CG animated feature, inspired by the global children’s phenomenon CoComelon, will be released by Universal Pictures and produced by Moonbug Entertainment, Flywheel Media, Prime Focus Studios, and DreamWorks Animation, with animation by the DNEG Group. The Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum songwriter and producer Justin Tranter also serves as Executive Music Producer.
Check out our interview with Connor:
So, word is that you are the voice of JJ in the new Cocomelon movie. Congratulations on that. What has this experience been like for you?
Connor: It’s been surreal. I started watching the show when I was around five years old, and I’ve probably seen every episode across the 14 seasons. So getting to actually be a part of it, and the first movie adaptation in the CoComelon world is just awesome.
I know you can’t say a whole lot about the project just yet, but what was it about this that made you really want to be a part of it?
Connor: I mean, JJ and CoComelon have been such a major part of me growing up, and I watched it so much. Originally they reached out to me for scratch work, and when my dad told me what the project was, I was just like, “What?!” So, I feel like it was more about how much I’ve watched the show that pulled me to it and made me super duper interested.
That’s awesome. And am I correct that this is your first time voice acting?
Connor: I’ve had some small voice acting work, like a few marginal roles, but this is my first major project, yes.
Okay. Awesome. What inspired you to start voice acting?
Connor: Well, when I first started acting, my agent sent me a few voice acting auditions to see if I was interested in doing it. And when I did it, I don’t know, something just really clicked. It was just super duper fun to be able to convey everything in my voice and be crazy.
What’s your favorite part of voice acting?
Connor: Just being able to have complete creative freedom with whatever I want to do with my voice. It’s so amazing.
What are some challenges you faced with it so far?
Connor: I don’t know if there’s necessarily challenges, but there’s definitely some differences in what I was expecting the process to be like and what it actually was. I think it wasn’t necessarily a challenge, but I think that there were definitely a lot of things that surprised me along the way, like for example, I thought that in the voiceover booth it would be multiple people at one time, but it was actually individual sessions, which kind of surprised me.
What’s it like going from live-action acting, where you do have your co-stars there with you to being alone in a sound booth?
Connor: I feel like with live-action acting, you use everything to convey the environment and the story, but with voice acting, everything has to come through the voice. I feel like in a different way, voice acting challenges me. I think they’re both sort of challenging, but I feel like the way that they push me are very different.
That’s really cool. Is there anything that you are taking from this voice-acting experience that you are going to help or use with your live-action acting?
Connor: Yeah, for sure. I feel like working with voice acting has really helped me learn to visualize the scripts better. Like, I feel like it’s a lot easier now to visualize scenes in the physical comedy now that I’ve been visualizing it so much during this (voice acting) process.
That’ll definitely come in handy. It sounds like you are really vibing with voice acting, so is it correct to assume that you want to do more of this in the future?
Connor: Absolutely, yeah, it’s great.
Do you see yourself kind of doing more voice acting than live action, or a nice balance of both?
Connor: I’d say a nice balance. I still absolutely love live action, but voice acting definitely isn’t going anywhere for me.
That’s awesome to hear. So, in addition to voicing JJ in the Cocomelon movie, what else do you have going for you?
Connor: I’m also extending my reach in other areas of the entertainment industry. I’m also starting up my skills as a writer, a producer, a director, I have a few sitcoms and a few feature films. One of the feature films is called Little Wise Guys, and I am penning it with Nick Vallelonga, and George Gallo is gonna be set to direct, which is pretty awesome. So, yeah, I’m gonna extend my reach in many ways to become a really good filmmaker.
Jeez, how do you find time to do all of that?
Connor: Um, my free time. I love writing, it’s so fun, I do it all the time.