Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1525032
It's never too early to introduce kids to the arts. That's the thinking behind Disney Jr.'s new series Kindergarten: The Musical, which aims to adapt Broadway-style song and dance numbers for the preschool set. The show follows 5-year-old Berti and her kindergarten classmates as they start school for the first time at Porter Elementary. The goal was to create a series that could speak to kids about kindergarten and how fun it could be. But doing this came with numerous chal- lenges for making sure the show would be accessible to the young age group. Kindergarten: The Musical has a cast of nine kids, a teacher, and a guinea pig—all needing their own screen time. As well, each 11-minute story, with two stories per episode, is packed with theater- inspired dance numbers and alternating 2D and 3D animated sequences. They include at least three original songs, with each song needing to be choreographed and staged, making it "probably the most difficult thing I've ever worked on," says Supervising Director and Executive Producer Tom Warburton. Because Kindergarten: The Musical alternates between two different dimensions—the 2D imaginary world and the 3D real world—the design team had to establish markedly different looks for each to keep its viewers from getting lost. "Young children like consistent visual cues," explains 3D Supervising Director Guy Moore. "You have to figure out how to make [things] visually understandable to them." Art Director Edgar Carlos and his team were tasked with creating many of the 2D renderings, including props, design elements, and 2D versions of each character. On top of that, if the students were doing something like drawing self- portraits in class that day, Warburton says that Carlos would have to make FALL 2024 33 Images courtesy of Disney. WITH BIG, CHOREOGRAPHED DANCE SEQUENCES, THE FIRST YEAR OF SCHOOL GETS THE BROADWAY TREATMENT IN DISNEY JR.'S KINDERGARTEN: THE MUSICAL. BY SONAIYA KELLEY