Canadian news anchor Peter Mansbridge has told how his grandkids think he’s a “hero” after he got a part in Disney’s latest animated feature Zootopia.
The CBC broadcaster lends his voice to the character of Peter Moosebridge in the 3D movie, which tells the story of life in the animal metropolis of Zootopia.
Mansbridge, who has been CBC’s lead anchor since 1988, said: “I’ve got grandchildren who aren’t overly impressed with what I do in my normal life.
“But as soon as I told them I was going to be in a new Disney animated feature, I mean, man, I was a hero.”
As well as using his voice, the character of the moose newsreader was based on Mansbridge himself.
He said: “They said they were trying to incorporate certain features of mine. I don’t actually see it myself but you’re never a good judge of how you look yourself. He seems to have a lot more hair than I do.”
Asked whether he had to deliver the news differently for the role, Mansbridge added: “They wanted me to be me. They wanted me to be a Canadian newscaster.
“There were a couple of times when we were kidding when we were doing the recording, and they said “maybe you should throw in an ‘aboot’ here or there”, and I said, “you know we don’t really say ‘aboot’”.
“And they said, “well, it sure sounds like ‘aboot’ to us when we hear it coming from Canada”. But fortunately there were no ‘aboots’ in the lines I had to do.”
Zootopia features a string of other stars doing voices including Idris Elba, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Jason Bateman.
It centers around the story of Judy Hopps (Goodwin), who is the first bunny rabbit to join the Zootopia police force and has to work with cunning fox Nick Wilde (Bateman) to get to the bottom of a case.