San Francisco Middle School Student Gains Fame As Voice Of Netflix's Animated Character
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Netflix's newest star is a car, an animated character named Cory Carson voiced by a San Francisco middle school student.
"Go Go Cory Carson!" is aimed at preschoolers, one of several shows in the streaming network's new kid's programming section called 'Netflix Junior.'
The boy's voice behind the car is A.C. Lim, an 11-year-old 6th grader from Claire Lilienthal School in San Francisco. When he isn't studying or playing video games, A.C. is taking musical theater classes at the school where his mother, Carlene Lim, is a teacher.
A.C. recorded a demo for the part of Cory Carson, then waited for more than a year, wondering if it would ever go anywhere. After 14 months, A.C.'s mother broke the news as she recorded her sons' reaction with a cell phone camera.
"Oh my God. Really? …Yayyyy!!!!" A.C. screamed as he learned the news.
"I was just like, 'did my show get picked up? Did it?'" A.C. said. "And then I kind of stopped asking. And then my mom was like, 'I have a surprise.' I had no clue what it was going to be."
The show's producers, Alex Woo and Stanley Moore met while working at Pixar on the movie "Finding Dory." They started their own animation company called Kuku Studios now based in Berkeley.
Since its debut a few weeks ago, Netflix is now showing "Go Go Cory Carson!" in 30 languages in 180 different countries.
"I think it was really fun because I got to put my own personality into the car and kind of live the life of a car," said A.C. Lim.
Why did they choose A.C. for the voice of Cory?
"I mean, really it was his voice. He has a very appealing gravely voice," said Woo. "And when I heard it, I just thought, 'oh, this is our kid.'"
"Yeah, he just had this energetic quality that was ready to jump into action and make mistakes and try to be grown-up," added Moore. "And that's exactly who Cory Carson needed to be."
Woo and Moore said they were working on other projects, including a feature length movie that they say they can't yet talk about.
Is A.C. being considered for a role in these future projects?
"Possibly. Who knows?" said Woo with a laugh. "Yeah, he'll be Leonardo di Caprio to our Martin Scorcese. We'll just put him in everything!"
