Go, go, go to Disney+! The Disney Jr. series RoboGobo is heading to the streaming platform on Apr. 1! The series premiered earlier this year on Disney Jr. on Jan. 17.
RoboGobo follows boy genius, Dax who adopted five misfit pets and lovingly trained them to become RoboGobo, a team of super-heroes who rescue other animals in need with their super-powered robo-suits: Hopper, Booster, Allie, Shelly, and Wingo not only save other pets in trouble but learn how to become a family in the process. Regular cast members include Ja'Siah Young as Dax, Brayden Morgan as Booster, Gracen Newton as Hopper, Leili Ahmadyar as Shelly, Azuri Hardy Jones as Allie, and Dee Bradley Baker as Wingo and Gill. Recurring include Alan Cumming as Dame Luxley,
Valerie Bertinelli as Chef Polly, Susan Kelechi Watson as Professor Millie, and Ana Gasteyer as Crabitha with Emmy, Grammy, and Tony award-winning actress Cynthia Erivo as one of the many antagonists, The Slink.
RoboGobo was created by Chris Gilligan (Marvel’s Spidey and his Amazing Friends) who also serves as executive producer. The series is produced by Academy Award-winning Brown Bag Films in association with Disney Jr. and is developed for television by Matt Hoverman, with Hoverman, Andy Guerda, and Brandon Violette as story editors.
In this interview, Gilligan opens up about the inspiration behind RoboGobo, the deep sense of purpose that comes from creating this type of series and conceptualizing the characters while exploring the themes of kindness and courage, Chris gives us an peek into the creative journey of bringing RoboGobo’s one-of-a-kind rescue missions to the small screen for both kids and parents. If you're interested in learning more, read on!
What prompted you to make RoboGobo?
CG: Well, there's two bits. One was, I was basically trying to think up a rescue show, and it popped in my head: Rescue pets. What if it was a superhero team, rescue pets that rescue pets? That stands on the shoulders of my kids. I'm from New York so tiny apartments, that's how that goes. I have a son and a daughter, they're two years apart. They shared a bedroom forever. This was a bedtime story time. We always did this thing called 'Story Soup'. I said, 'Just pick stuff from around the room'. It's the two of them and all their toys and stuff are all around. You got a dinosaur over here, you got stuffed animals over here, you got a robot, you got this. We started to mush all these stories together. From that, came this collision of super and cute. You know what I mean? Putting soft and cuddly inside a crazy mechanized suit. Those two things combine and right there, I had the inception.
What I love about this, in addition to being an adventurous show, parents can engage with it! Hearing you talk about how you came together with this with your kids is the icing on the cake. When you were in the process of getting the show [ready] for Disney, how did you pitch this?
CG: Basically, I took that essence. that one sentence, because that's the trick: If you can boil it down to that and pitch it to friends and family, and people are like, 'Oh, yeah, I can see.' That tests it. The next step is to do a one panel pitch! The heroes were a little different then, but it was still basically this idea. Between that and the pitch can only be about as long as this interview: 10 to 15 minutes. That's all you've got. If you don't hook it right away, it's probably too complicated. It's got too many moving parts or it just doesn't speak. At the very beginning, you just start with that nugget. You build from there interesting characters that are all true to the concept, that one piece of art, and then see if people respond, and they did. I love when I see an ensemble of characters that I can pick from, and I feel like there's people who remind me of different characters. In addition to that, the voice cast is insane.. I'm the luckiest guy on the planet.
How is working with the voice cast? They're very unique!
CG: Take your pick, right? Cynthia Erivo is everywhere right now, a fantastic talent, but the material spoke to her. She comes in and feels connected. She plays a very funny villain, The Slink, who's a chameleon, who's all about disappearing and blending and playing tricks, very competitive, but also hilarious. In working with her, she's a collaborator, just like anybody else; A designer or writer. You have this idea of the character in your head when you bring in someone at Cynthia's level, they have ideas and you're open to them. You discover the character, the vocal part of it, if you're lucky enough, and we were early enough in the process, what she brought, just in terms of... Even the way she moved, I'm emulating her because she had this serpentine quality. We were like, This is great. We pulled that into the animation. We pulled the features into the design because it just all starts to synthesize and connect.
It just feels authentic when you do that. If you're lucky, again, with the way your schedule works, you can build all that in. The best way to do animation, everybody knows this, is if you get the vocals early, the animators are inspired by that and then add the physical performance to it. I could go on and on about the entire cast. Everybody brought something really interesting.
Yes! Alan Cumming; Ana Gasteyer; John Michael Higgins. You can pinpoint what from their personality is in [the character]. I do want to talk about the series regulars; The incredible voice talent that is Ja’Siah Young.
CG: Ja’Siah is amazing. You needed an anchor because, again, this is a world of shenanigans. You've got your heroics, you've got your humor, but you have your heart. You need somebody to emotionally anchor that. We were, again, very lucky to get Josiah. He came in and he's got an old soul, you know what I mean? What was great is because he is going to be the leader and caretaker of essentially smaller kids in the pets, he had to have that authority in a way, but also be open-hearted. He just brings that automatically.
It's great to see a show be able to spin off into something else. Testament to the writing and the first episode had four million views! That says something. With the animation design for this specific part of the franchise, how was that process of getting that together?
CG: Well, it's interesting you say that! We had this contrast. You had the soft and cuddly and cute characters that were going to be the hearts, the interior of these suits of armor, essentially. Those had to be cool. Then, we had the pets that had to be appealing. We had to put them both together and make them work. Part of it, you'll notice, is that when the pets are pets, they're anthropomorphic, but they move like animals. Booster is a quadruped, and Allie, etc, Hopper hops, all that stuff. Shelly goes into her shell, Wingo flies. When they're in their suits, they're aspirational, almost adolescent, versions of themselves. The bunny becomes a super rabbit, the puppy becomes a super dog, so they are more anthropomorphic. They're up in their bipeds sometimes. They do go into their animal selves, but Booster, his superpower is speed. He's a speed racer. He has those robo wheels. Shelly has got that removable shell, and it's all about strength. You think about the hard shell of a turtle, it's an extension of that. It all came from character.
It all came from the aspect of the animal that was amplified. If you notice, there's five of them. It's five senses. Each one of them gets a 'robo sense': Hearing for Hopper, smell for Booster, sight for Wingo, et cetera. Pulling all that stuff influences design. You can draw cool suits all day long, but, unless it's an extension of what the character is bringing as a team member, as a hero, that's what you try to explore, and that's what you try to build. The suits transform as well. They go from these characters transforming into these heroes.
I know it's picking your favorite child, but is there a character that you feel like you are like?
CG: Who did you like?
Hopper!
CG: Hopper for me, it depends on the day. Again, you can't really pick one. The truth is, part of the reason that they were explored, and there's that many plus Dax, is there's something for everyone. The idea is that people will pick. It might be [because] of a favorite color, it might be a favorite pet, it might be a favorite attribute. I do have a fondness for Shelly, I have to say, and the Shelly and Wingo pair. Talk to me about any of them. I have a fondness for Allie, I have a fondness for Booster, Hopper, and Wingo. There's a reason they are all there. I basically couldn't choose!
Take a look at this clip of the 'Take A Leap and Try' Song from RoboGobo on Disney Jr.'s official YouTube channel:
RoboGobo premieres on Disney+. on Apr. 1. The series currently airs on Disney Jr. and Disney Jr. On Demand.