NEW YORK (CNN) -- Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage has pretty much got this acting thing down. After all, he started acting at the age of 15 and, well, he's got that Oscar.



Nicolas Cage says that Academy Awards are "not as important as children and making them happy."



So he doesn't really need to deliver another gut-wrenching performance to demonstrate his chops. In fact, he can deviate from a traditional film and venture into animated territory.



He's voiced animated characters in the past, but in Disney's new 3-D tale "G-Force," Cage lends his voice to a mole.



Speckles the star-nosed mole comes to life thanks to the film's impressive digital animation and Cage's voice. At first it's unclear that Cage is the voice behind Speckles, because he changes his sound for the critter, er, character.



CNN talked to Cage about playing a mole, animated films and his taking walks in the forest. The following is an edited version of that interview:



CNN: What do you play in this film?



Nicolas Cage: I'm playing Speckles, the mole, and he's an outsider. He's an iconoclast -- he doesn't fit in. He doesn't get into the fray with the "G-Force," the other guinea pigs. But his IQ is off the charts, and he's a technological wizard.



CNN: So, you're an Academy Award-winning actor, and you decided to play (this role). How did this come about?



Cage: To me, nothing's more sacred than the magical world of children, and with everything that's going on in the world, it gets increasingly more challenging to keep our kids smiling -- people are losing their jobs, families are tense.



So anything I can do to give families something to look forward to and to put a smile back on children's faces -- I'm gonna do.



Disney has a great tradition of enchanting children and giving them something to behold. I mean, you mention Academy Awards -- I mean, that's not as important as children and making them happy.



CNN: Tell me about your voice: Why did you decide to really change it when you read the script?



Cage: Mel Blanc is a hero because of what he could do with his voice for all the Looney Tunes, the Warner Brothers cartoons, to be the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig. To me, he's a great actor.



I mean, one of the great character actors, and I knew that if I was gonna be in this movie, I'd want to do something like that and transform my voice.



CNN: So you're clearly comfortable playing a mole?



Cage: I'm comfortable with the mole, yeah. I mean, yeah, he's different, he's got issues, you know? I don't want a perfect character, I want a character who has, as strange as it sounds, some humanity, some flaws, some needs. But to be fair, I'm not in a lot of this movie. This is Darwin's movie, um Sam Rockwell and Penelope Cruz's movie -- they're the stars. I'm only in it at the beginning and the end.



CNN : You seem to be a big fan of animated films.



Cage: I do enjoy animated movies. I really love anime and movies like "Spirited Away" and "Howl's Moving Castle." I like movies where you feel like you're going into another world, and no matter how many times you watch it, you're gonna see something new in that world. That level of detail really inspires me.



CNN: Is there less pressure doing an animated film and lending your voice to a character as opposed to a traditional film?



Cage: Well, you don't have the pressure of the camera. And that's -- that's very liberating. And you do
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question: Who voices character of Speckles the mole in "G-Force"?, answer: Nicolas Cage | question: What is cages characters?, answer: Speckles the star-nosed mole | question: What did cage say?, answer: that Academy Awards are "not as important as children and making them happy." | question: Which actor voices the character Speckles in the film G Force?, answer: Nicolas Cage | question: Whom does Nicolas Cage voice in "G-Force"?, answer: Speckles the star-nosed mole | question: What character does Nicolas Cage voice in the film G Force?, answer: Speckles the star-nosed mole | question: What did Cage say?, answer: that Academy Awards are "not as important as children and making them happy." | question: What does Cage do?, answer: acting | question: What kind of movies does Cage like?, answer: animated