Star and creators of Gabby's Dollhouse discuss Season 10 and the upcoming feature-length film

Gabby's Dollhouse is getting a whole lot bigger! The DreamWorks live-action/animated series is heading into its 10th season which premieres on Aug. 5 on streaming service, Netflix. The series has become incredibly popular with a feature-film adapatation on the way (more on that later!) The series, about a girl named Gabby and her cat friends called the Gabby Cats, who go on adventures in her dollhouse, was co-created and executive produced by Jennifer Twomey and Traci Paige Johnson.

For those who may be unfamiliar with what the series entails, Gabby's Dollhouse premiered in 2021 and had garnered a Kidscreen award nomination in the same year. Each episode in the series begins with the live-action version of Gabby playing in her bedroom. She then unboxes a mini package received in the Dollhouse Delivery. Gabby then puts on her cat ears headband and shrinks down with her stuffed toy Pandy Paws, who comes alive to surprise Gabby with a "hug attack". The Gabby Cats in the show include Carlita, Cakey, Daniel James "DJ" Catnip CatRat, Pillow Cat, Kitty Fairy, and MerCat, Baby Box, Mama Box, and Benny Box. In this latest season, a new Gabby Cat is revealed in the form of Marty Cat!

The Parent Watch sat down with star of Gabby's Dollhouse Laila Lockhart Kraner and the show's co-creators Jennifer Twomey and Traci Paige Johnson. Read on to get an inside look at who the new Gabby Cat is and learn more about the upcoming feature-length movie!

Laila, Season 10 has arrived. Congratulations, first off! You probably have a little bit more time to film more episodes, but I'd love to know, how does it feel to have portrayed Gabby for over 60 episodes so far?

Laila Lockhart Kraner: It feels surreal. I can't believe it because I've grown up doing the show so I have been able to play Gabby throughout that period of time. It's been really cool to see [the] subtle changes in Gabby, a little bit more mature and more of an older sister, older babysitter figure for the Gabby Cats to look up to, also for the kids watching to look up to. It's been really amazing to see that.

Since there's been so many episodes, there's been some recurring moments. What do you love most about the message of the series, and what have you learned that you could apply to your own life?

LLK: I've learned so much, but Gabby's growth mindset and always trying things. 'Let's give it a go', was a saying. 'We haven't figured something out...yet.' All of those moments of positivity in the face of some troubles, I think it's been really impactful for, I'm sure, the kids, but also me, because now I find myself in times of where I'm struggling. I'm like, 'I don't know this. I don't know this.' and I just hear a little voice in the back of my head going, 'You don't know it..yet! Let me try this. Let me try that way.' That's such a good thing for anyone to learn but especially kids at such a young age to have that.

Exciting time, there's a new character, Marty the Party Cat. I love that name. What was your first reaction to hearing about this new character coming in?

LLK: I usually do the voiceover portion of episodes first, so I'll have the script before we do the voiceover, and I'll read it through. When I saw the title was like 'Marty the Party Cat', I was like, 'Oh, who's this?' I'm reading the synopsis, and it's like a new Gabby cat. I'm like, What? That's crazy. As I read the episode, I just found myself smiling. He's such a fun and playful energy and because another big message of Gabby is keeping the play alive and always being imaginative and all of that, Marty definitely brings the play. He brings the party, which is just so fun, and it fits in with all the Gabby Cats.

I love to hear that! Darren Criss voices Marty, which probably super cool, too. I'm excited to hear his voice and to also just see the new episodes as well. There's so much positivity going on, and there's so much that viewers who are younger can get from it. Have your parents or any adults, even, have they said out loud, 'I've learned something from it'. Have you heard of any more grownups who have been impacted by the show?

LLK: I hear it all the time. With my parents, because my mom's always there for records [recording sessions], and whenever we're doing that, she's learned. Whenever we do it for the voiceover, all the sound engineers are starting to catch on with it. I hear it all the time with them. They're like, 'I thought it was just a kid's show, but I ended up really liking it'. I hear that from parents a lot, too. It's one of my favorite shows that kids watch because I get to enjoy it, too. I start singing along the songs with them. It definitely reaches out to more than just a kid audience because those messages, it's important to learn whether you're 3 or 30.

Not to reveal any spoilers, of course, I just revealed that there's a new character. Is there an episode that you know or you can recall that you remember shooting that you feel encompasses this upcoming season?

LLK: Well, definitely the Marty episode is a very big one, and that was really fun to shoot. Getting to see a new character for the first time, like a new Gabby Cat, was very fun. You'll just have to see. I can't say too much. It was fun filming.

From the very first season when you first got that you were going to be Gabby, what was your initial reaction? I always love asking actors when they start a show to now with 10 seasons, what was it like in the beginning?

LLK: I was excited, of course, to have a role, especially my first ever lead role in anything, because this is my first ever doing that. I wasn't aware of how big it would become or how impactful. I was just like, 'Yay. I get to work! There's a kitten on site. Yay, let me do that!' I was really excited because I love cats so I was ready for this. From then, to see the impact and how much it's exploded with kids everywhere, it's been just unbelievable to see. I can't even imagine that little me with a tooth missing was going in her first time I'm on a big set. I was the only one on set. I felt really nervous, too, because I was like, oh, my gosh, I'm lead. I need to do good to have come here now with this show. It's amazing.

Traci, Jennifer, what a feat in today's media landscape. Now that you're in the 10th season, how has production evolved from the inception of the show to now?

Traci Paige Johnson: I think we're certainly a more well-oiled machine, and we know the characters and the landscape well, and that actually gives us more creativity to bounce from. Now, we know the rules, but now we have fun breaking them of bringing in, in this new season, we have grandma cat rat who's coming in, and we've established all the doll house, and now we're going to reveal what's up in the upstairs, on top of the roof of the dollhouse. We're getting into more creativity of exploring what we haven't done yet and tickling all those questions that kids and parents might have, too.

Jennifer Twomey: We're a well-oiled machine now. Season 1 of any show is crazy. This show in particular because it is DreamWorks' first live-action series and animation with comp work and 2D mixed with 3D, it was a very challenging show to get up and off the ground. Season 1, we just felt like the train had left and we were running behind it. By about season three, we were fully on the train. Now, we might even be able to get a snack from the snack cart on the train. It's running well!

TPJ: It's true. It is a luxury, and we love it because we get more marinated and the characters and our staff does, too. Everybody brings fun ideas of how to push the stories and push the characters.

JT: Adding on to what Tracy said about pushing the creativity, now that we have been in the dollhouse for so many seasons, we always love how quirky the show is, and that's one of the tenets of the show. In the writing, we always push, 'Keep it quirky and irreverent.' That really challenges you. 'Where else can we go?' It was that line of thinking that opened up the party room in the top of the dollhouse. That was exciting.

TPJ: 'What was in there?' We didn't know when we created it, but now we do. Now, there's a world too.

I know the show in general was inspired by your love of dollhouses growing up. What was your relationship to dollhouses or just the idea of play and imagination?

JT: When we sat down to create it, we took all the things that we loved as kids, and one of them was doll houses. It's just the idea. I had just a very plain, maude, empty, raw wood dollhouse. It was just such a great play space that I could bring other toys into and make up stories and set up rooms. For me, it was just so immersive. The idea that we could create a show where we could bring kids with us and shrink down and play. As kids, you feel like they're alive and they're playing. It's taking that fantasy of playing in a doll house, but actually going in and playing.

TPJ: Wish fulfillment. The other thing [is] we always reach into our of what inspired us as kids playing, and the other was the miniatures. Just loving making and putting little miniatures in your dollhouse or anything mini was just so special and magical.

JT: I remember I had a collection of little tiny glass animals, and I would put those in the doll house and play with them. It's fun. It's such a creative open box play space.

I love the different Gabby Cats. It was on a thread and someone said, 'How many Gabby Cats are there?' Marty, the Party Cat is a new one played by Darren Criss.

TPJ: I know. He's great. He was really excited. He's like, 'I am Marty, the Party Cat!'

Coming up with that new Cat, what was that like, doing that introduction? He's a really big, goofball-type of cat.

JT: What do we have? Nine Gabby Cats! Bringing another cat, we really wanted to take our time and thinking about him as like, what can he bring that's not already there? Him being an adult, he's really brings super high-edge enthusiasm and the physical comedy. In [Marty's] design, he's a puff ball covered in confetti, and he loves hula-hooping and making balloon animals.

TPJ: He's like that fun uncle who comes to visit and who leads the charge.

JT: He's so excited to come live in the dollhouse, and then he gets to know everybody and really cares about them and just wants to make sure everybody's celebrated for who they are and their uniqueness, which is what we love about the party room. It's this cool open space and the roof rolls back and you've never seen it before and it has neon, and you can roller skate, and there's all these cool things in there [such as] Marty's party tail. He can 'ding' and change the theme to anything you could imagine. It's a donut theme, a space theme; safari theme; an underwater pirate!

TPJ: That element of surprise is always there and we're really heavily into that.

This is the new addition to the family, pretty much. Getting into the 10th season, did you come across any challenges, or was it smooth sailings after season three?

TPJ: We push ourselves a lot. 'Oh, we could do this and this.' Our sequences out in the live-action have gotten so much more complicated. We have to pull it back a little bit because it's fun. It's so creative to think of new ways for the characters to explore in the live-action. That's one of the big hits of the show is that mixed media and that 'magicalness' of the characters coming out. That's what we call 'the fantasy'.

TPJ: Not only can you go into the dollhouse, they can come out into your world. We've really done a lot more with bringing characters out. They're playing hide and seek. They come out in the [upcoming] Grandma Cat-Rat episode. They make a colorful roller closer and it comes out into Gabby's bedroom. I do think that heightens the sense of this [so it] seems like it could be real. I could look around and see a Gabby Cat run across my floor. That feel [of] the fantasy.

JT: The live-action was something that we felt very comfortable with. What we love about it is, it's different than the rest of what we do. When we shoot, we get to just shut down all the other gears about the show that are turning and just focus on Laila and her performance and all our amazing crew and all the tiny little miniatures and the props and the unboxing boxes. It's just one of our favorite parts of making the show is the live-action.

With this show, it's very unique with the music that's being put on. In these upcoming episodes, was there any type of change? Do you have anything that was like, We want to do this differently than we've done in seasons' past?

TPJ: Well, certainly with each new character, they have their own theme or their own party.So it was really fun experimenting with what the sound of Marty the Party Cat would be in his dance song.

JT: At the end of the show, there's a Gabby Cat of the Day. When we first started season one and two, every character had a Gabby Cat of the Day song that was really express their personality. So that was really fun to get to work with our composer, P. T. Walkley. He's amazing.

TPJ: Since day one, he's an O. G.

JT: He's just amazing, the stuff that he comes up with. It was fun to work with him and get to discover and create Marty's sound, his vibe, and who he is. Then, Darren Criss came and just brought so much more. He was like 'Wait, let me try this way!'

JT: He loved the character right away. The music is super important to the show. We worked with P. T. Walkley even before Gabby's for years and years. He's someone we always want on our team.

TPJ: We love exposing kids to all types of music, and he's so versatile. He can do the dance groove, the '50s vibe. We get some sentimental sweetness.

JT: The quirkiness, he gets too.

TPJ: Keeps everything fresh.

I definitely can sense that! How much can you share about Gabby's Dollhouse movie?

TPJ: We have the date, September 26, 2025.

JT: The movie is going to be the insane. Gabby goes on a road trip to visit her grandmother. Right as she gets there, she's parked on a hill in Cat Francisco, and the dollhouse rolls away. It's Gabby and Pandy to the rescue as they go on this epic adventure to save the doll house and all the rest of the Gabby cats. There's some amazing talent and special gifts.

TPJ: It's a surprise!

JT: It's going to be big. It's going to be huge!

TPJ: It's expanding that wish fulfillment; That magical fantasy we're talking about of the characters in the live-action world. The whole adventure takes place at the dollhouse. Just great moments and talking about really celebrating and bursting with creativity. The mixed media [and] the live-action animation is going to new heights.

JT: That's one of the things we love is when we hear feedback. Going back to the music; When we're just looking on different chats and stuff, so many parents are like, Those songs are bangers. We love that music. For the live-action, there's all these conspiracy theories like, 'Does Gabby ever leave her bedroom?' 'Where are her parents?' It's going to be so cool just to see Gabby open her bedroom door and walk out into the world and we go with her. That'll be fun.

Cat Francisco, I want to go there.

TPJ: So do we! It was fun brainstorming the movie.

You two are making me more and more excited, especially when I saw the announcement that [the film] was going to happen. All the positive news with Gabby's Dollhouse and hope for many more seasons!

The Parent Watch also has two exclusive clips to share with our readers! This first clip showcases a Memory Game called Match the Cards. Check it out below!

This second clip is a song from the upcoming Marty the Party Cat episode! Have a listen right now!

Be sure to catch episodes of season 10 of Gabby's Dollhouse, which premieres on Aug. 5 on Netflix!