8 minute read
Desirable Mutations
Socially Responsible: Chris Nee’s new anthology series We the People uses music and animation to inform younger viewers about civic issues. Segments are directed by the likes of Peter Ramsey, Trisha Gum, Tim Rauch, Jorge Gutierrez, Daron Nefcy and Everett Downing.
A Dynamic Force for Positive Change
Award-winning creator Chris Nee talks about Ridley Jones, We the People and Aida Twist, Scientist, three of her amazing shows for Netflix.
We all knew that great things were going to happen when Doc McStuffins creator Chris Nee inked an overall deal with Netflix back in November 2018. This summer, we’ll get to see the first of many projects that the Emmy, Peabody and Humanitas Prizewinning kids’ entertainment icon has been developing, producing and overseeing at the streamer when Ridley Jones premieres in early July.
The show, which is produced in collaboration with 9 Story Media Group’s Brown Bag Films in Ireland, is an action-adventure preschool targeting series which centers a fearless six-year-old girl named Ridley Jones who is a protector of a natural science museum, along with her mom and grandmother. Of course, the animals and creatures on display come to life after the visitors leave the building!
“I have to say that I’m really proud of Ridley Jones, because I applied everything that I learned from doing Doc McStuffins and Vampirina through the years,” says the talented creative. “It’s a project that I made 100 percent for myself. This is the kind of show that I would have loved to watch as a young girl, as it has messages about female empowerment, the importance of community and how we live together and take care of each other despite our differences. I can’t wait for audiences to meet Ridley, who is a smart, bold, adventureseeking girl who is also a great caretaker of the other characters.”
Interestingly enough, Ridley Jones was the last idea she pitched to Netflix. “This pitch was just sitting in the car, since I had a lot of ideas for things that I wanted to do after Vampirina,” admits Nee. “My mom worked at the Museum of Natural History as a docent and my son and I could go and visit her. She would give us a tour of the place when it was empty. We would all sit on the floor, and she would make the artwork feel real.”
Living in Harmony
Nee says the unique setting also allowed her to address how we can bring different communities together, for example, one storyline looks at what would happen if the elephants wanted to have a dance party, which would be really hard on the ancient pottery exhibit. “Plotlines like that help us talk about how to bring together different communities that might have different needs, which is something we really need to do in our current political climate,” she explains.
The creative team wanted to portray the museum as a bright, colorful place, full of light and excitement, so they used the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis as a source of inspiration. “We have five main characters which belong to different parts of the museum, and the designers and animators really nailed the look and feel of the backgrounds as well as Ridley and all her friends,” notes Nee. “The CG animation really captures the details of fur on the bison, the feathers on the birds, everything looks really fantastic in great detail.”
The acclaimed children’s show creator says she loves to surround herself with a group of trusted collaborators. Having worked with the Dublinbased Brown Bag team on her previous shows, Nee welcomed teaming up with them. “They do such amazing work, and we have a short-hand way of communicating about our projects now,” says Nee. “I am really happy to have Chris Dimond and Michael Kooman, who did the music for Vampirina, as well. I really have the best of the best people working with me on this show.”
Animation Super Stars and Civics
Nee is also spearheading We the People, another fantastic project that is by far one of the most interesting and bold animated undertakings of the year. It’s a collection of 10 three-minute music videos that aims to educate younger viewers
Exhibiting Excellence: Chris Nee’s new show Ridley Jones follows a smart young girl who is the protector of the museum she calls home.
— Show creator Chris Nee
about civic lessons. Top-notch animation directors such as Peter Ramsey (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse), Trisha Gum (The LEGO Batman Movie), Jorge Gutierrez (Maya and the Three, The Book of Life), Daron Nefcy (Star vs. the Forces of Evil) and Everett Downing, Jr. (Hair Love) tackle topics such as active citizenship, the Bill of Rights, immigration and the First Amendment. Nee also tapped amazing musical artists such as H.E.R., Adam Lambert, Cordae, Lin Manuel-Miranda, Brittany Howard, Brandi Carlile, Andra Day, Janelle Monáe and poet Amanda Gorman to create the soundtrack to these short animated gems.
“I was feeling that our country was in such a divided space and many people have developed this fear for politics,” says Nee. “I felt like we needed to introduce a common language, where we can all feel this bond as Americans. Civics is not partisan. In 2015, I felt like we needed something like Schoolhouse Rock, which was a work of genius.”
Nee says she started pitching the idea for this project back in 2016, but it was a hard sell. “Nobody was that interested in doing a show about civics,” she recalls. “They would say, ‘Yeah, but we really like that other show with the singing and dancing characters!’ I happened to be talking to Kenya Barris (black-ish) about this idea, and we met early on when I started at Netflix and decided to team up to make this happen!”
The third addition to the team was none other than former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle. “Working with the Obamas was extraordinary,” says Nee. “Mr. Obama was so much more hands-on than I thought he would be. We figured out what the 10 topics for the shorts were going to be. We then decided to age the target audience to be about 14 and 18 — the generation who is just beginning to understand the state of the world around them, and maybe is overwhelmed by it all. Our exciting challenge was, how do we tell this generation to get involved socially and politically?”
To make this project even more iconic, Nee aimed for 10 different animation directors and 10 different styles and pipelines. “We went for 50 percent men and women, with people of color and LGBTQ artists represented. This wasn’t going to be the ‘dead white men’s’ point of view. This was ‘we the people.’ Eight of the 10 directors were established and renowned animation directors, and for the other two, we went with up and coming talent who were in the beginning of their journeys.”
The new helmers Victoria Vincent and Mabel Ye were quite surprised when Nee reached out to them to offer them this amazing opportunity to be part of the show. “When I called Mabel, who is a 20-year-old student, to tell her that we’re offering her the same job as Peter Ramsey, she was still living in her dorm room,” Nee recalls. “She asked me, ‘But what about my senior thesis project?’ and I assured her that since I was a professor at her school [CalArts], she didn’t need to worry about that!”
The show’s animation production was split between the artists at Titmouse and Buck studios. “It was one of the most challenging things that I had done, but it’s something that I’m the most proud of as well,” says Nee. “The hope is that kids are going to find it first, and then it can be used to teach civics at schools as part of the core curriculum. We’re especially pleased to have Amanda Gorman featured in one of the videos, because she is the perfect spokesperson for that generation we are trying to reach — kids who have watched us screw everything so much. We want to tell them it’s important to double down, re-engage in politics. This is your country!”
Scientific American
Before we let Nee go back to her super busy schedule, we had to ask her to give us the details of her third new project of 2021: Aida Twist, Scientist. “I’m really excited about this show, which is based on the book series by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts about an eight-year-old, smart, Black girl scientist who wants to discover the truth about everything. Her friends are a boy who wants to be an architect and a girl who is an engineer. It’s a celebration of both science and scientific thinking. We partnered with the Obama team and our showrunner/co-exec producer is Kerri Grant (Doc McStuffins). Exec producers are Mark Burton (Tallulah), Tonia Davis and Priya Swaminathan (Crip Camp, Becoming) and Beaty and Roberts. Brown Bag is doing the animation, which is gorgeous. They nailed the illustrations’ gorgeous sensibility and translated it to a stylized 3D space. That’s why it doesn’t look like any other show.”
Looking back at her insanely productive last couple of years, Nee is both grateful and optimistic about the power of children’s entertainment. “It wasn’t easy to leave Disney, but what Netflix did was tell me that they believed in me 100 percent. I care about the work, and I am also thrilled that I can help grow and train the next generation of storytellers for kids. That I can find and empower voices that haven’t had the chance to be included. That’s how we put together the all-Native American writing staff for Karissa Valencia’s upcoming new show Spirit Rangers. She is 100 percent the showrunner on that show, but I’m there to help and to advise her if she needs me.”
The brilliant woman behind Doc McStuffins, one of the most popular and trailblazing preschool shows of the past decade, says she’s grateful to be able to spotlight new visionary voices. “I know that the last few years have been difficult in so many ways. I’m just happy that I get to work every day to solve the problems and make those changes. That is a real privilege.” ◆
