***This article originally appeared in the Sept./Oct. ’22 issue of Animation Magazine (No. 323)***
Creators of stand-out animated shows for younger kids have to make magic happen on many levels. They have to deliver engaging animation, present solid stories that can be quickly grasped and weave a meaningful message through all of it. Craig Gerber, executive producer and creator of Disney Junior’s Firebuds, comes to this new show with years of experience of doing just that.
Gerber was executive producer and creator of Elena of Avalor and executive producer of Sofia the First. He’s also an Emmy winner for the Sofia the First theme song. After many seasons of working on shows geared toward the preschool set, he found himself inspired once more by his own sons to create a new series that would speak to them.
“My youngest son is now seven, but when he was three he was obsessed with fire trucks,” says Gerber. “He would carry around a fire truck, almost like you would carry a puppy, and put on a fire chief outfit. It got both me and my wife thinking that we should do a show about a family of fire trucks. I always want to try to do something that I haven’t seen before so I thought about a show with a kid and his best friend that is a fire truck. So, that led me down the road to kind of come up with a world of Firebuds, where there are people and they’re talking to vehicles and they live as equals.”
Lifesaving Adventures
The main human character, Bo, is the son of two first responders and the show focuses on the life-saving work done by them. Gerber wanted to show children the heroic nature of first responders who put others first and come to the rescue of people in their community. Gerber’s own grandfather was a police detective in New York and he feels a special connection to first responders through him. Bo is also part of a blended family that includes a Filipino father, and Gerber worked closely with cultural consultants to include representation of Tagalog in Firebuds.
The cast of the show includes Lou Diamond Phillips, Yvette Nicole Brown, Lily Sanfelippo, Jecobi Swain and Declan Whaley as Bo. The show’s impressive list of guest stars and recurring cast for Season One also includes Padma Lakshmi, Oscar Nuñez, Patton Oswalt, Lisa Loeb and “Weird Al” Yankovic.
Gerber was sure to invest time developing the design of the fire trucks and their backgrounds as well. He knew they needed a distinct look for all of the elements to fall into place for their audience.
“It’s been a huge design challenge, to be honest, to create a world where we’re a tiny little kid and a giant fire truck can actually be in the same room together,” says Gerber. “We have a great design team and when you get to give the designers and the artists that challenge to create a new world, that’s half the fun. To have the windshield wipers (of the fire trucks) be the eyebrows was really a special moment for me because it helped create that eye frame and make the fire trucks really feel like characters.”
“A lot of different folks contributed to the look and design of everything,” he continues. “We actually looked at a lot of vehicles that were out there and there were very intentional decisions made to try to create our own look for these vehicles. Ultimately, we decided in the case of the cars, we need to put the eyes on the windshield because that was the most pleasing place to put it. That happened early on.”
The staff of the show is made up of five writers who write the 11-minute episodes. Locally, there are also 40 to 50 crew members at Walt Disney Television Animation working on the Firebuds. ICON Creative Studio, one of the largest independent animation studios in Canada, also works on the show. Due to the pandemic, Gerber hasn’t been able to travel to Canada to meet their crew, but hopes to do so soon.
All the Right Notes
Gerber, who is a pop music fan, wants the music and songs in the series to be appealing to all ages so he’s incorporating different musical styles and keeping his eye on avoiding anything monotonous. He hopes that parents and older kids will also be able to listen to the music, like the theme song “Firebuds Let’s Roll,” written and performed by Beau Black, multiple times without it being tiring. This philosophy dates back to his work on Sofia the First.
“My goal has always been to create shows that the whole family can enjoy together,” says Gerber. “When it’s time for the younger one to get their choice, I want it to be a fun experience for the entire family across a variety of ages. It makes it a little trickier because you’re trying to include something for everyone. But, the reward is great because it means that the whole family will look at that time as a fun time spent together.”
Firebuds premieres September 21 on Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney+.
