It’s the End of the World and She Knows It!

Creators Devin Bunje and Nick Stanton take us behind the scenes of their colorful new Disney show Hailey’s On It!

- By Ramin Zahed -

Aresourceful, but very cautious teenage girl has to save the world from destruction after she meets a time-traveling messenger from the future Earth. That was the initial idea conceived by longtime writing and producing partners Devin Bunje and Nick Stanton (Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything, Turbo FAST, The Replacements) about four years ago for their new animated show. The result is Hailey’s On It!, a highly imaginative and addictive new show premiering on Disney+ and Disney Channel in June.

Bunje and Stanton, who have written for shows as diverse as Packages from Planet X, Phineas and Ferb and Zeke and Luther, took the idea to Disney Television Animation, the studio where they first began their careers. “We were attracted to the initial idea, which was to have a professor from the future visit this regular girl who has this list of to-do things in an almost Seinfeld-ian level. That’s how her life gets complicated by this huge responsibility of saving the world,” says Stanton. “We both loved the Bill & Ted movies growing up, where two average guys face huge ramifications for their little actions. We thought we could have a lot of fun exploring this idea.”

Ready for Great Things!

“Hailey’s character is the perfect fit as she puts off everything from trying a new toothpaste to bungee-jumping, because in her mind they’re big deals,” adds Bunje. “So, the show offers character dynamics and growth for her. One of the things we wanted to do was send this message out that anyone can make a big difference and accomplish great things. Where she starts off in the series, Hailey would never imagine that she’s capable of so many of these things.”

Picking the lead actress for the show proved to be quite an easy task for the duo. “Early on, we got a bunch of auditions, but we quickly fell in love with our lead voice actress Auli’i Cravalho (Moana),” recalls Stanton. “Then, everything shut down because of COVID and we ended up doing a scratch version of the pilot with people who happened to have the equipment at their homes. A wonderful benefit of that was Gary Anthony Williams (The Boondocks) was one of the people we brought in, to play Beta (an A.I. operating system from the future). We just knew he had to be Beta.”

Manny Jacinto (Nine Perfect Strangers, The Good Place) who voices Scott, Hailey’s best friend, rounds out the cast. Howy Parkins (The Lion Guard) is co-executive producer and supervising director, Wade Wisinski (The Owl House) is producer, Karen Graci (Tuca & Bertie) is story editor and Lee Ann Dufour (The Breadwinner) is art director. Korea-based Rough Draft Studios and Saerom Animation handle the production of the show’s 2D animation overseas.

One of the big selling points of the show are its beautiful designs, appealing color palette and its San Diego backdrop. Stanton and Bunje praise the talents of art director Dufour, who is responsible for the eye-pleasing visuals.

“We wanted to present a beautiful world worth fighting for,” says Stanton. “Aesthetically, we loved the idea to present the world as a positive, vibrant place. We are both from colder climates. I am from a small town in Minnesota and Devin grew up in the Northern California foothills (between Lake Tahoe and Sacramento). So for us, stuff that was set near the beach always seemed really fun and attractive. Those were the places we gravitated towards as kids, and so we built Hailey’s world around that.”

“If you’re going to spend half an hour watching something, don’t you want it to be full of eye candy?” asks Bunje. “We would always be amazed at what Lee Ann Dufour, our art director, would come up with. Hailey would be staring at the ocean out of her window, and I’d be like ‘Wow, I could just watch that!’”

Stanton and Bunje met as undergrad students in USC’s screenwriting program. “It was a very small program, and we immediately became good friends,” says Bunje. “We were the ones who goofed around in the back during our first class, so for the next three years every teacher made sure we were in separate classes.” Adds Stanton, “And here we are … we made a career out of goofing around.”

When asked about the animated shows that made a big impact on them, Stanton mentions the classic Disney Afternoon shows. “We’re not just saying this because Disney signs our paychecks,” Stanton asserts. “The original DuckTales was a go-to afterschool show for both of us. We also liked a lot of the Nickelodeon shows like Doug and Rugrats.”

The duo, which has an equal number of liveaction and animated show credits are happy to be back in cartoon land. “You can do a lot of things in animation that are simply not possible in live action. It’s fun to go to a town in the Old West and the switch to the beach in animation,” says Bunje. “Our last two shows were both multi-cam sitcoms, where we had two main sets and then one swing set. You’re limited by the cost of construction. We can have so much visual and aesthetic fun in animation that you can’t do with anything else.”

They also appreciate the diversity of their new show’s crew and key characters “We’ve always been a big proponent of diversity. Everyone on the team is a storyteller,” says Stanton. “At the end of the day, we’re all building this world together. Our art director Lee Ann Doufour, and directors Leslie Park and Cat Harman just hit it out of the park every time.”

“The stories we like to tell are very universal,” Bunje points out. “They are very relatable to our very diverse audience Our kids both go to schools that are very diverse. We’re not making a show for any one demographic. In a way, it’s representative of what we consider Southern California’s greatest asset, which is its diversity.”

Positive Role Models

Stanton mentions that as a father of five- and seven-year-old Asian American boys, he takes great pride in the Asian representation on the show. “You know, there has been this history of Asians not being depictured as romantic leads, so it was very important that my sons could see a character on the screen that looked like them,” he mentions. “I love the fact that they are dialed into the character of Scott. They are big fans of the show and think Scott is very cool.”

He concludes, “The world that we build in the series is a feel-good place. It’s really important to us that the show has a positive message. With so much cynicism in our world today, we just wanted to create a safe space. I love watching the show with my kids and seeing their faces light up.”

“The ultimate message is that you can be the change you want to see in the world,” Bunje chimes in. “That’s something that is very important to us, and hope our audience is inspired by Hailey going forward.” ◆

Hailey’s On It! premieres June 8 on the Disney Channel and June 9 on Disney+.