Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1343869
SPRING 2021 15 While working on Adventure Time, Ito created a short film called Welcome to My Life, based on a student film she'd made her senior year at CalArts. It generated buzz, and not long after she left Cartoon Network she was hired by Netflix to develop her own show. Originally, she hoped the appointment would involve developing Welcome to My Life into a series. Instead, she created a different show, "but with the same kind of feeling and storytelling." A hybrid documentary/animation series about a group of kids who learn about their city's past through its diverse ghost population, City of Ghosts is inspired by Ito's experience growing up and "hearing people describe L.A. in this way that wasn't recognizing the culture here, and wanting to be like, 'No, it's awesome! You just have to dig in a little bit.'" City of Ghosts also touches on the city's rapid changes. "I wanted to document what's behind [gentrification] and what existed in these places [that has] people riled up about them changing into these slightly homogenized neighborhoods." She also hoped to show "how different neighborhoods, specifically Boyle Heights, have dealt with gentrification, and what it's like when a community pushes back." As a mother of two young children, Ito created the show with a specific audience in mind. "I wanted something for my kids because they are kind of sensitive when it comes to movies and TV, especially my son," she explains. "I felt like there wasn't really a ton of gentle, sensitive storytelling for somebody like him. That's how I was too as a kid. I was easily scared over random things." In this way, Ito's career has brought her full circle, but now, instead of drawing mice in little houses as a way to express her own feelings, she draws the environment she grew up in, helping children like the one she used to be feel more comfortable in the world around them. — Sonaiya Kelley T H E C L I M B