LBX 2019: A Report On New & Returning Animated Netflix Shows

Netflix develops quality programming for their streaming service in many different areas including animation. During LightBox Expo this year, they held a panel spotlighting several of their upcoming and returning shows.

Executive Producer, Stanley Moore, spoke how he transitioned from Pixar films to his new show, Go Go Cory Carson. He found a more limited budget and a faster pace dealing with the episodic nature. It was also the first board driven project he’s worked on. However, it was needed because the target audience are preschoolers and they are more visually based than story driven. Go Go focuses on a child car and all the family moments he experiences while growing up. For the aesthetic, Moore was going for something familiar that looked handmade. It was even made in stop motion style to further enhance the handmade feel.

Showrunner, Megan Dong, discussed her recently announced, Centaurworld. It was inspired by her younger years when she was set on an academic path bout somehow found herself in show choir. The cartoon is a Sci-Fi musical about a war horse who is transported to a different world and finds silly singing centaurs everywhere. Friendship is one of the big themes and Dong wanted to populate the cast with characters she would want to hang out with.

Green Eggs and Ham has been a four-year endeavor for executive producer, Jared Stern. Based off of the popular Dr. Seuss children’s story, Stern described it as an odd couple road trip tale. The two leads are an old curmudgeon who is afraid of change and a silly guy who loves experiencing new things. They set out on an adventure to save an endangered species. It is hand drawn to separate it from the CGI movies and will capture all the goofiness from the original book. There is also a star-studded cast including the likes of Michael Douglas, Diane Keaton and Keegan-Michael Key.

Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett represented the only returning program of the group. They are the co-creators of Big Mouth, which chronicles young boys dealing with puberty. Unlike the other shows, this one is made for adults and the speakers hoped people could relate to the embarrassing situations the characters encounter when they were growing up. Levin and Flackett also enjoy the freedom that animation allows them so they can experiment with things like the Shame Wizard and Hormone Monster.

All the guests agreed about working for Netflix. Since the company doesn’t have a brand like Disney or Adult Swim, they can do all these different genres of animation and take more risks. Levin and Flackett added because there is no standards and practices to censor them, they can push the envelope more to make Big Mouth funnier.