School is back in session and Disney has the perfect show to accompany the exciting time. Enter Kindergarten: The Musical, which premieres on Sept. 3 on Disney Jr.!
Kindergarten: The Musical follows a 5-year-old named Berti Benavente as she enters a new environment, aka kindergarten. As she experiences her first interactions with new classmates and her teacher, Mrs. Moreno, she learns how to handle big changes in her school life through Broadway-style musical numbers. Alongside friends such as Radish Ritzal and Rose, Berti learns that kindergarten is just performing on a big stage and being a part of an ensemble is the best part. The series also features songs that help illustrate the different scenarios a kindergartener goes through, which makes the show a great option for young kids to watch regularly if they are about to enter grade school, as they can some of the expected experiences through fun songs and dances.
The voice cast includes Andrea Guzman as Berti Benavente, Zander Chin as Radish Ritzal, Leah Newman as Rose, Shyam Balasubramanian as Tej, Tandi Fomukong as Abigail, Kailen Jude as Kenji, Alice Halsey as Kat and Ellie, Randy Perrine as Jamil, and Gina Torres (Tangled: The Series, Elena of Avalor) as Mrs. Moreno, the children's kindergarten teacher.
The series is produced by Oddbot Entertainment and will air on the linear network Disney Jr. as well as the streaming service Disney+.
The Parent Watch sat down with Michelle Lewis (Doc McStuffins, The Loud House) and Charlton Pettus, the two co-creators of the series. They talk about their long-time friendship, crafting the characters, and how they avoided putting stereoypical tropes into the series' storylines. If you want to learn more about how this toe-tapping show came to be, read on to find out!
You two are co-collaborating on this . What made you want to bring the show to life and how come together to create it?
Michelle Lewis: Well, Charlton and I are co-writers for pop music. We both came to this from the commercial pop and rock world from a long time ago.
Charlton Pettus: Let's just say a very long time ago.
ML: In fact, from when I was an artist and writing music for albums and records. Our collaboration just evolved into things that were longer than three and a half minutes.
CP: Well, the excruciating irony is we were burnt on writing pop songs and thought writing stories and shows is so much more rewarding, and then we don't have to write all these pop songs. Then, as a result, we had to write 150 pop songs.
It's funny! I watched the first screener and the intro, it got stuck in my head. It's a sign for me! 'Okay, if it's getting stuck in my head, then I know it's good.' The introduction of the characters; Everything felt really like it flowed well. Berti arrives at school. She has to learn there's a different set of rules for her in kindergarten. For that beginning scene, after she's not raising her hand and other people are, can you take me through the process of writing that specific song? It really stood out to me.
ML: Oh, that's interesting. It's really life imitating art or art imitating life. These moments, from my experience in writing for children's television, the more real the moments are, and the smaller slice that they are, the more impactful they are. We've all been that kid that's like, 'I just want to talk.' You're just sitting on your hands or you're trying not to do something wrong. Anything that feels so real and so emotional, that's why you sing. That's what inspires you to sing. The reason it stood out to you is because you probably felt that way at some point.
CP: It's also the musical theater magic trick, right? If it was a pop song, it would be after this awkward scene, her sitting, moping, feeling bad about how she was treated. Since it's a musical, we get to do it real-time as she's going through the process of struggling and finally figuring out how she's supposed to act. It's just intrinsic to the genre. You get to be in the story in the song.
As a former theater kid and someone who definitely talked out of turn growing up, it definitely resonated with me. The way the teacher was singing to her. It was almost in a nurturing way, whereas I know from my experience, sometimes if there's someone who speaks out of turn, can be a little harsh or crude, even. That's why that specific scene was really impactful. Hopefully for other people, it's like that as well.
ML: That's what we're also trying to address is any anxiety that kids might be feeling about going to school, that someone would get mad at them or yell or whatever. That's not necessarily what will happen. We want to model that best case scenario.
CP: That's not how we do things in kindergarten.
Charlton, with your experience, you've worked extensively in music. You also have scored feature films, but this is your first animated TV project. Take me briefly through the process of scoring a film versus scoring a TV show.
CP: It's really different. Scoring in general is much more about being impactful without being visible. You're trying to make the visual experience hit you more. You're trying to sneak into the subconscious and just help what's happening on the screen. This has been super fun because it's songwriting, which we've been doing forever, literally, but in this really different way. It's the first time I've done anything in television or film where you're really storytelling with the songs, and that makes the process really different. You're always thinking about how to keep the story moving forward and you're not just basking in some emotional place.
I love scores. Ironic, but another Disney is The Incredibles. That score to me is amazing. I could listen to it all the time. I never really knew how scoring worked so that's really insightful. Obviously, Disney Junior, Disney Channel, very prominent places in the musical world. I grew up watching High School Musical. Being a part of that Disney legacy as well, were you thinking about taking a page out of other shows that have been done before and intertwining that into your process of making the show?
ML: I mean, without infringing.
CP: Naturally.
ML: One of the things that you'll see throughout the series is so many just loving homages to music in general. We do have musicals, particularly some of those Those animated films that Disney has done, and then other musicals, and then just musical genres. We get outside of musical theater altogether and go into our record collections. We just pay so much tribute to music we love, which is pretty diverse. It's all over the place. Absolutely, the Disney stuff falls into that category.
CP: Disney has been doing this so long. We all grew up with it. Our show was influenced by conventions that we all take for granted now that Disney invented like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Sometimes it's real, sometimes it's fantasy; Bed Knobs and Broomsticks, Mary Poppins.
ML: 'When You Wish Upon A Star' and the yearning of the I want.
CP: Absolutely. Those things that we just take for granted now, like you can have a story that's narrative and set in the real world that all of a sudden goes into fantasy without any excuse or explanation. That's Disney. That whole vocabulary is Disney, and we're leaning into it hard.
I mentioned Berti, the star, but there's also an ensemble—All of these different kids and characters who have their own quirks and personalities. Is Berti based off of anybody, or is that like a combination of kids or people that you know. Her personality is so distinct.
CP: She's a lot of people, but she's people we know. She's also people from other stories. Dorothy Gale was always a key touchstone for us because we I want her to be ambitious without being personally vain or selfish. So to me, Dorothy Gale, as a kid, was always the ultimate 'fighting for my friends' heroine, and that's very much where Berti is coming from.
ML: Full disclosure, I was that kid when I was five who would just start singing.
CP: Yeah, that was me too. I didn't know you then.
ML: It was for the best.
All of these characters, they emulate different personalities and people even I know. I can point out somebody else that I can think of that reminds me of Berti or Abigail. That was just really awesome to see. The nuances of picking a seat. It's so cute, but also it resonates regardless of whatever age. There's awkward experiences that happen no matter what age you are, even starting at the youngest age in grade school.
ML: Absolutely. They're totally a combination of kids we know and love, and real kids.
CP: Our children's friends, they're all- They're all in there. People to some extent. The only thing we left out was mean kids. There's no really mean kids.
It might be easy to get into that territory. When she was picking the seat, I was like, 'Oh, no, are they going to conflict?' But, It was just like, 'Oh, I'm here and then you move over.' It just felt very refreshing because I think we're used to the 'mean girl' or the 'mean kid', and then who are you going to root for? There's none of that in this.
CP: That always feels reductive, right? The mean kid doesn't think they're mean. They're being treated unfairly by the world or something.
ML: It's too tropey to go to the 'mean girl' or the 'mean boy'. Kids are way more complicated than that. We didn't shy away from showing those complexity series. To be honest, Disney didn't want to see the trope. They definitely helped us move away from any stereotypes or anything like that. It gives you much richer stories, too, by the way.
It does! I see that a lot. There's so many different shows out there right now. One, just seeing the key art, too, it was so colorful and cute. When you actually watch it, there's a lot of cool stuff going on.
ML: You said you're a former theater kid. That's also probably the familiarity to you, too, is that there's a theater kid pluckiness to all of them: 'We're going to put on a show' It's not literally putting on a show, but getting something done together as a team. There's this great interview with Josh Groban recently where he says this whole thing: You want to get something done on a budget and really quickly, ask a theater kid. Tape and construction paper and a cassette and a boom box, and you've got a show. That's art.
CP: Grandma, what's a boom box?
ML: I know. Well, like something with a speaker!
We still use speakers. It's all good!
CP: Can we just play it on your phone?
A call out that I thought was so cute were the titles of the episodes. Who comes up with the titles? Is it you two?
CP: Generally not. That's generally the writers. Part of their torment as the season gets deeper and deeper is to find an un-utilized Broadway title they can mangle.
'Little Job of Horrors'. That one immediately stands out. I love that one.
This show is filled with teaching moments and opportunities for parents, caregivers, and kids alike to learn from. What do you is the overarching theme of this show, no matter what episode someone may stumble upon or even if they watch it in order?
CP: The big thing is that they see themselves, that they see something that looks like their life, their family, their friends. For some of the audience, it's aspirational. It's a year or two down the road. For some, it's right now. I hope they feel like they're seeing something that feels true to them and real to them and makes them excited about their pending kindergarten experience.
Kindergarten: The Musical premieres Sept. 3 on Disney Jr.