Meet Glight and Victoria! They are the new voices of Bino and Fino respectively. We’ve just had the pleasure of working with these 2 young girls and other child actors.

Acting and voice recording is always tricky when it comes to children’s cartoons. Back in 2009 we used an entirely adult cast. Episode 1 used one voice to narrate. But that proved to be unpopular. I’m not too sure why because that style can be quite popular. I think it didn’t fit the style of the show maybe. For the next 2 episodes we used more actors to get different voices for the characters. A young adult actress Seun Dada voiced the parts of Bino and Fino. This was well received.

For the new season of Bino and Fino we decided we should investigate using child actors to voice the parts. In theory it’s a good idea. However, working with children, I have to admit, scared us. You see, we have a tight deadline and equally tight budget. Every step of this project is uncharted territory for us as a small team. So yes, the thought of working with children scared us. But we decided to have auditions anyway to test the waters.

After seeing several children audition, it was obvious that we were going to use children. There was no going back. They just brought something else to the table that comes with their age and how they view the world.

The interesting thing is that Glight and Victoria were both going for the part of Fino. However, watching them interact with each other they seemed like Bino and Fino personified. Glight is pretty much a real life version of Fino! She is in your face, sharp, curious, talkative and buzzing with energy. When I first saw her, I knew she was going to be a handful but bring out some great work. Victoria is more laid back, quiet, soft spoken and always kept an eye on Glight as she is about 2 years older. So instead of casting a boy for the role of Bino, Victoria got the part. The boys weren’t happy initially but we found roles for some of them and everyone was happy in the end.

We wrapped up voice recording sessions last week and I have to say all of the children were wonderful and hard working. I and the rest of the production team definitely learnt a lot from them. It was hard work and frustrating at times but the results are worth it and I’m glad we took the risk. The studio is a lot quieter now with the children gone and we miss their madness…well a little bit anyway. I hope we will be able to capture some of their personality and energy in the final animated episodes.

I’ll introduce you to the rest of the cast in coming posts.

Meet The New Voices Of Bino And Fino