INDIANAPOLIS — No amount of money is worth losing a friend.
That's the theme in Aniventure's "Hitpig!," which follows the titular bounty hunter (voiced by Emmy winner Jason Sudeikis) hired to return a dancing elephant (voiced by YouTube influencer, comedian and actress Lilly Singh) to a maniacal Las Vegas showman (voiced by "The Office" star Rainn Wilson).
"Pickles is a larger-than-life, fun, ridiculous, silly elephant who is trapped in a Vegas show trying to find her way back to her family in India," Singh said of her character. "They become unlikely friends on this mission across the world."
Also in the voice cast are Emmy winner RuPaul ("RuPaul's Drag Race") and Grammy nominee Anitta.
"When I say that they all did a phenomenal job in this movie, it is hilarious. The voice acting is incredible," Singh said. "My general rule of thumb is to surround myself with very famous people, like these people, so I also feel very important, so I feel like I crushed it with this voice cast."
Unlike live-action roles, filming voice acting performances are typically done separately — and Singh said she hasn't even met all of her co-stars.
"If there were two words, it would be 'commit' and 'imagination.' You really have to tap into that child-like ability and be like, 'Let me close my eyes and what does the set look like? How would I be running? How would an elephant run? How would an elephant fall?' And then, you just commit," Singh said. "Voice acting is all about being OK with sounding silly, looking silly. I'm alone in this sound booth, but I'm going to pretend there's 10 people around me. I'm going to talk to myself for these next four hours, and you just have to commit to that."
The story comes from Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and children's book author Berkeley Breathed, loosing basing the 84-minute film on his 2008 children's book "Pete & Pickles."
"I love being part of anything that has source material that is so beloved and has stood the test of time like that," Singh said. "It is that genre that the whole family gets together and watches."
"Hitpig!" is now in theaters nationwide.