Amazon's all-new take on the classic cartoon series The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle makes its anticipated debut today! To celebrate that fact, I got to speak with the new voice of Rocket J. Squirrel, the one and only Tara Strong. If you count Twilight Sparkle, Raven, Harley Quinn, Timmy Turner, Ben Tennyson, Bubbles, or any of a huge number of cartoon characters among your childhood favorites, you already know Strong's voices. I'm happy to say that, though stepping into the shoes of the late June Foray for this role was no small feat, Strong absolutely nails it.

We talked about how she got the role of Rocky (which was a little more dramatic than you might have guessed) and how she eventually found the character's voice. Strong tells a great story that should be a source of inspiration for aspiring actors out there to keep at it since you never know where an opportunity is going to come up. The veteran voice actor also talks about how the storytelling arcs of The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, which are broken down into three mini-movies rather than an episodic series, impacted her approach to the performance. It's a great read for fans of both Strong and Rocky and Bullwinkle, which you can check out on Amazon now!

What’s your first memory of Rocky and Bullwinkle?

Tara Strong: First of all, I loved Saturday morning cartoons and Rocky cartoons as a kid, but I remember seeing reruns as young as five, six years old. Just loving it and it making me laugh. It definitely brings back a lot of childhood memories.

Was that one of the cartoons that made you interested in pursuing this career?

Strong: I actually didn’t know that I wanted to do cartoons as a kid. I knew I wanted to be an actress and a singer and a dancer, and I didn’t realize that animation was its own career. Certainly, I appreciated good voice-over work once I realized what that was, and I thought it’d be fun to do it. I loved Rocky & Bullwinkle, The Flintstones, The Smurfs, all that stuff. It certainly gave me a good appreciation for voice-acting.

When did you first find out they were bringing ‘Rocky & Bullwinkle’ back?

Strong: The auditions came out and I remember thinking that would be incredibly cool and exciting. I always do my first auditions in my home, so I laid down a few examples in the house. I paid attention to the original; I would watch the original a few more times just to refresh my memory of how it should all sound. And then I didn’t get it. I didn’t get a callback. So I sort of kissed it goodbye as one of those things. Sometimes you really want a job and you just don’t get it, and you’ve really got to let it go.

And then a few months later, I had to re-audition again; I didn’t really know the story. Then [executive producer] Scott Fellows later told me that it had had some issues in the beginning where people were not sure about certain writers or certain performers, and one of the things they thought was that the girl who did Rocky was great, it just wasn’t meshing that well with Bullwinkle, and they wanted to try something else. They had played a bunch of auditions for Scott, who I had met on The Fairly OddParents and he also brought me in to play Ms. Collins, a teacher on his on-camera show Big Time Rush, and he said in the room, “Where’s Tara Strong?” I guess they all kind of looked at each other and went, “Oh, okay.”

That’s not really their fault. It sort of happens in the business where someone goes, “Oh, that person’s on every show. Let’s bring in new meat.” The truth is, the people who work a lot work a lot because they’re versatile. It’s kind of a silly mentality to take, but as soon as they brought in my audition, everyone kind of looked at each other and went, “Okay!” I really have to thank Scott Fellows for that one.

What was your thought process like when you realized you’d be following up on the late, great June Foray’s iconic performance?

Strong: Oh my gosh, there was a huge connection. Very daunting. And those are some pretty big shoes to fill for such a little lady. It’s such a beloved character, she’s such a beloved icon, you don’t want to just jump in the booth and phone it in, which neither I nor my cohorts would do anyway, but I knew right away how daunting it would be to get a new generation to accept me as Rocky. The nice thing is, even before hearing my version online, a lot of the fans were like, “June would be proud.” That kinda makes my heart happy. I did meet her and she was so lovely to me, and so I’m aware and I hope that the general public appreciates my version, which is sort of a mix between here and I, although three or four episodes in, it sort of becomes all her.

I spoke to executive producer Scott Fellows earlier and he mentioned that you actually found Rocky’s voice during the production and went back to ADR some earlier episodes. What was that process like?

Strong: I begged him to let me go back [laughs] because if you watch the first episode of any show, I’m talking Fairly OddParents but I’m also talking Seinfeld, you see how the characters grow organically and grow into a family together. I just really felt that by three or four, I was in the pocket. Initially, at the audition, they wanted Rocky to be deeper, a little bit older, and a little smarter, so that was playing into my delivery. But as I went along and as I got to work with Brad [Norman], it just sort of came to be like the original.

I asked if I could go in and fix a lot of it that, to me, just sounded to deep and not the right age for Rocky, in terms of this version that I was doing that felt comfortable and organic and real to me. It sort of came to life in three or four. Then I had to play catch-up because they’d already done some recordings, so initially just me in the studio doing three episodes at a time, which could be quite exhausting. Then once I got to be with the other kids, I was like, “This is Rocky.” I was really grateful he let me go back in and fix it.

Did you have a chance to work in-person with your co-stars?

Strong: Yeah, it’s so much fun. It’s always more fun to play off the other actors because it’s such a gift. You don’t get to do that in features or video games for the most part. It’s more collaborative, it’s more fun. I’m blown away by what my cohorts do every single day, and you rob yourself of that experience when you’re by yourself. Of course, with that said, it goes much quicker because you’re not waiting for everybody to get it right. When we would do Fairly OddParents, we would do two episodes back-to-back within an hour. After a certain time, it just became second nature to us to be in the room together to just bang it out, so that really started happening with Rocky and I’m so grateful that we got to do it all together.

How does the more modern humor of this new series compare to the classic ‘Rocky and Bullwinkle’?

Strong: I think it really does do both. Our generation who may have watched as kids are going to appreciate how much of the throwbacks, and Easter eggs, and animation, and characters are similar to what we saw, but then there’s so much in the storylines, which are so well written, and the humor. It’s kind of funny, politically, that there’s a similar sort of odd thing going on with Russia [laughs], the political climate. It’s sort of this nice full circle. I think the timing is right. I think it’s something that, like I said, if you saw it as a kid, you’ll appreciate it and remember it. If you’re seeing it for the first time as a child, there’s so much that’s relevant and funny. Little kids will think it’s funny because it’s just slapsticky and hilarious and beautiful to look at. The colors are extraordinary. I like to say that it’s the original Rocky and Bullwinkle meets the original Powerpuff Girls. It’s really colorful and fun, so the little kids will get a kick out of it, the older kids will get more of the jokes, and the adults will get the history of it and also because it’s still really funny. We laughed out butts off the entire time. It’s criminal that we are paid to do this show.

Since this show is broken down into a number of story arcs rather than just an episodic series, how does that help you to figure out Rocky’s journey in each story?

Strong: When you create a character, for me, the process is [that] you get a drawing of the character, a character description, maybe you get a show bible, and then sides, or a portion of the script, and then you as the actor have to think how production would want that to sound. Then, with that said, it becomes collaborative in the callback stage and this character sort of exists in my brain and comes out to play when it’s their turn. So when I’m in a session, I don’t think, “Oh, there’s not going to be another continuation of this episode,” I think, “I’m in this moment right now.” So it doesn’t really change my process to have a continuation of the story, but it is fun because it’s unique. When you get in and do the second part of it, it’s like, “Oh, okay, that’s sort of fun!” And maybe it adds a little spring to your voice step, but within your performance [not your process].

What are you hoping audiences get out of this new take on Rocky & Bullwinkle?

Strong: I hope they have hours and hours of family fun. When I do conventions, people say, “Thank you for my childhood,” so I hope it keeps that going. I hope they get that it’s okay to be silly and crazy and look at life through the eyes of these real innocent, happy-go-lucky characters who sort of embody all that’s good. Just that everyone has fun with it, hopefully as much fun as we had making it!

I just had a chance to catch Batman Ninja, which was completely insane by the way…

Strong: Crazy, right? Like you’re watching and are like, “This makes no sense but I like it.” [laughs]

But what else are you currently working on and what’s coming up next for you?

Strong: I’m still doing Unikitty, which has been a tremendous amount of fun, and Ben 10 and Teen Titans… I’m really excited for the Teen Titans Go! movie that’s coming out. It’s hilarious. It’s so ridiculous and funny.

Check out Strong's work as Rocky in The adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, available now on Amazon!