FIGURE skater Eddie Gornick has watched Toy Story so many times he can play the part of Cowboy Woody asleep. He knows every move, every line.
But his keen observation of the Disney creation is not due to hero worship. Since 1996, the 22-year-old has been playing the cowboy for audiences young and old. Gornick's role, however, has a twist: he does it on skates.
A member of Walt Disney's World On Ice team, Gornick will bring his version of Cowboy Woody to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in December, when the venue's top floor will be converted into a giant ice arena for the adaptation of Toy Story, Hollywood's first full-length computer-animated film, released in 1995.
With the help of the film's creators, producer Kenneth Feld adapted the Disney story to his US$8 million (about HK$62 million) ice extravaganza. The main challenge was to re-interpret for a live audience the visual and creative excitement of animation.
This was why Feld asked Briton Robin Cousins, the 1980 Olympic figure-skating gold medallist, to choreograph the show. He also picked 43 professional skaters to bring the characters to life.
The skaters, like Gornick, watch the movie Toy Story almost daily to ensure they are capturing the characters faithfully.