No matter what some horror flicks may depict, not every extra-terrestrial creature is out to conquer the Earth. In fact, some aliens pay us a visit to learn more about our planet – while helping our kids do the same.
Such is the case for the one-eyed purple alien Teek, the star of “Teek and Tom Explore Planet Earth.” This five-part animated series connects Teek with NOAA climate scientist Tom Di Liberto as the two delve into the ocean’s influence on our planet’s weather and climate.
Available for free on the NOAA website, the series is designed for students in fourth to sixth grades. Each animated video comes with downloadable lesson plans for teachers to use in the classroom.
It’s not just the educational and entertainment value that make this series special, either. The two-year project is close to our hearts because my daughter Natalie Rarick is the voice of Teek.
As a 23-year-old voice over artist who already has years of experience, Natalie was an ideal fit for the role. (And I’m not just saying that because I’m her mom…or her manager!)
Natalie says:
“They wanted Teek to be a young-sounding character, while also having a lot of range and being highly directable. So, they wanted a child sound without actually casting a child — which is kind of my specialty!”
‘Teek and Tom’ Fun Tidbits
We wanted to share some fun behind-the-scenes tidbits that made working on this project absolutely out of this world.
Alien Roles Are Popular
Teek is actually the second animated alien character Natalie has recently played. She was the voice of Axis in an e-learning program designed to teach grammar rules and English. While Axis stayed solely in world of animation, Teek gets to interact with live-action actors.
Since Teek is working on an alien class project about the planet Earth, each “Teek and Tom” episode is also jam-packed with tons of information – including a few fun facts even adults may not know.
Natalie says:
“This series is a unique and creative way to teach about Earth’s weather, ocean, and climate, and is as entertaining as it is educational. It also talks about how special Earth’s unique geography and weather systems are – Teek had to come all the way across the galaxy to find it, and there’s nothing like it anywhere else in the universe!”
Project Was a True Collaboration
Not only is portraying a character more creative than recording straight-up narration or commercial work, but it was a true collaborative process. Natalie worked side-by-side with the writing and the animation teams for each episode.
The process went like this:
- Animators gave Natale their storyboards to portray Teek’s emotions and movements (such as lounging on a space couch or pulling a heavy object)
- Natalie recorded her performance, based on info from the storyboards
- Animation team incorporated Natalie’s emotion, tone and pacing into the final visuals
Natalie says:
“That kind of collaboration is one of my favorite things to do as VO talent!”
Alien Boy Scout Was the Blueprint
Natalie has been doing voice overs since she was a kid, and child voices remain her most successful market. She also works with kids in her day to-day life, as a teaching artist, giving her tons of references to pull from.
Once she was cast as Teek, there were several tweaks made to the character. Teek started as a boy alien, then became a girl alien, until the team finally settled on a non-binary alien.
Natalie’s versatility and experience let them experiment with several approaches before landing on a style with which they most connected.
Teek fits very comfortably into her Child / Character and Animation voice profile, though their journey took them all throughout the range of Natalie’s voice! In general, children’s voices sound more androgynous than adults, as young boys and girls both have higher pitched voices. For Natalie, boy voices command a slightly lower pitch, more rasp, and a more nasal sound. Girl voices, however, sit higher on her soft palate, and generally sound “sweeter.” While each character is unique, she often pulls inspiration from animation that she enjoys — including Aang from “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”
Natalie says:
“Teek is also a highly enthusiastic and playful, but also very caring and curious little alien, so I portrayed them as very high-energy but still believable. When recording, I liked to picture Teek like a green alien Boy Scout – with the uniform and everything!”
Marshmallows Brought Out the Best
Once the sound of Teek’s voice was pegged down, it was time for Natalie to develop the character’s personality. She says Teek’s personality came through the most during some of the lines relating to food.
Natalie says:
“Teek LOVES eating marshmallows, and the more we recorded lines about how much Teek loved food, the more the writers kept adding! I think that quirk of Teek being a tween who loves sweets made them very relatable to kid audiences who might be watching this show.”
Aliens Move Apartments – But Still Sound the Same
The biggest challenge with the role was recording some of the pickups out of context. The project took two years to complete, with a lot of changes to the script along the way. It’s imperative to make the pickups fit smoothly with the rest of the audio. This requires finding the exact emotion, tone and placement of the voice as in the original recording.
Natalie had also moved to a new apartment during the project, so her studio sound had to perfectly match her old studio as well. Two years for a project of this scope is not surprising.
Natalie says:
“Animation of that scale takes quite a long time! And voiceover is actually one of the quicker parts of the process. They say that, for really polished animation, it takes about a week of work to complete 6 seconds of visuals. Of course, for VO artists, it takes about 30 seconds to complete 6 seconds!”
The Best Part of the Project
The most enjoyable aspect of many projects is seeing pieces of the finished product as you go along. This was definitely the case for Natalie with “Teek and Tom.”
Natalie says:
“With the final few episodes still left to record, I remember seeing the ‘Intro’ for the first time and feeling so gratified and excited to hear my voice finally paired with Teek in a polished animation. Once a project is completed and polished like that, I can almost forget it’s me! That voice belonged to Teek now.”
Hear Teek in action in Teek and Tom Explore Planet Earth. Learn more about Natalie on her website at NatalieRarick.com.
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