The Angry Birds burst onto the scene in the popular games and then two hit movies from Sony. Now there’s a new hand-drawn animated series that will get you into the summertime spirit. Angry Birds: Summer Madness premieres this Friday January 28th on Netflix. A quite proud Rob Doherty (executive producer) and Scott Sonneborn (head writer) discuss the show with me. (This interview was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: It’s summer camp and the teen versions of these characters. So Rob, what was the appeal of showing the teen versions of Red, Bomb, Chuck and Stella?

Rob Doherty: It came from the fact that when we took the license from Rovio… We’ve been working with Rovio for quite a long time with Angry Birds and other content and distributing their short-form shows. And when the opportunity to take a license for the long-form TV show came-up, we jumped at the chance. We were looking for a hook for the show. What we were trying to do was steer away from the movies / not clash with the movies. There was a new movie coming out at the time [“The Angry Birds Movie 2”] as well, so we wanted to make sure we were separate from that. We wanted to steer clear of the shorts and what they were doing. We knew we wanted there to be speaking characters. But we wanted to make sure we had our own little world that we were building — that could stand alone but within the metaverse of Angry Birds.

Rob Doherty: Summer camp… when we latched onto that idea… I think that’s when everything fell into place. And then of course making them young teens also takes you away from clashing with anything to do with the movies. We can start to build more of a backstory with the characters. And what I think Scott and I definitely tried to do was give a little bit more reason as to why the characters — Red in particular — is the way he is later in life, but see him at an earlier age and see that young formation of the character that becomes Red later. So in our show, he’s pretty optimistic. He wants everything to be right, but it should be right for the right reasons. So he gets righteously angry. Obviously the Red that you see in the movies is a lot grumpier. It’s almost as if he’s been ground down by the world and has given up trying to fight the good fight.

Scott Sonneborn: When Rob and I were developing the show, one of the things we keyed on is: Red is the angry bird in Angry Birds. He’s the one who’s angry. We were just thinking about, “Why do people get angry all the time?” People get angry all the time when other people are jerks or bullies or telling them to do things that they don’t want to do. And basically: when you’re an adult and those things happen, you can do something about it. If you’re an adult and your boss is a jerk, you can quit. If you’re an adult and your neighbor is a bully, you can move. But when you’re a kid (or a young teenager as our guys are — they’re mostly 12 or 13), you can’t do anything about it. You get angry. People in authority over you are telling you what to do and they’re telling you the wrong thing. They’re being jerks about it. They’re being bullies. When you’re a kid, that’s what would make somebody angry.

That’s what we need to find for Red is a place where he can be in a position where: someone’s an authority over him, telling him what to do, there’s a bully next door who he can’t get away from. And he’ll get mad, and when he gets mad he can’t help but get even. And that was where we came from when we decided to make these birds kids in this version. And then it was really Rob and his brilliant insight to make it a summer camp. We were looking for a place where Red and his friends would be where somebody was in charge over them. And where would be a fun place for kids?

RD: It was kind of one of those moments where things clicked into place. I was in the office at CAKE with our CCO at the time, and we were on the phone with Rovio discussing some of the ideas we were having — and nothing was really fitting. And then for some reason I remembered my time at camp. I think we were talking about the fact that we wanted it to be a microcosm, and suddenly something clicked with me. I did summer camp one year… and I realized not only do we have that little microcosm of a world there that you can then explore, you have it fit into the Angry Birds world. It’s activities all the time. That’s what they’re all about: being slung, flung, thrown, smashing and crashing.

Suddenly everything started clicking into place along with all the teenage angst — all the stuff they’re going through. And it pushed our gang closer together as well. We were able to delve much, much deeper into all of those characters and give them backstories as well. Red and Stella, in our show, have a history beyond camp. They grew up together and they sort of hint at that in their relationship as well. When they come to camp, these four get together and they’re tight.

JM: You’re right that it’s interesting to watch these character dynamics. Scott, I want to ask you about playing the Angry Birds game for the first time. Can you take me back to that?

SS: My dad was actually really into Angry Birds. He was the one who introduced me to it. And then my whole family got into it. He had it on his phone and I didn’t know what it was, and I was like, “Oh wow. This is super cool.” The thing that got me immediately was this really kinetic, fun, flying through the air and smashing into things. That was what we really grabbed onto with our show as well. What would be the Angry Birds summer camp?

In archery, you shoot your friend at the target and they crash into the target. Tennis: you get inside this giant ball and these giant racquets whack you back and forth. It was immediately a very perfect Angry Birds world. And that’s what Angry Birds is all about — and what Netflix was really grooving on — dumb, funny bird fun. And that’s really what Angry Birds is all about. And putting Red, Bomb, Chuck and Stella as younger versions and also seeing what Mighty Eagle is like in this world as Red’s counselor. The other fun thing is that Rob and I came-up with a couple new birds that I hope people will come to love as much as some of the classic birds everyone has grown up with.

JM: Nice. You wanted to make this distinct and different from the movies, but having this on Netflix… I remember looking at the Netflix page for so long over the past couple years and The Angry Birds Movie 2 was so popular. Always on that Top 10 list. Rob, that had to feel good to know, “Hey — we’re in the right place because this movie is connecting with families.”

RD: Absolutely. At CAKE we distribute the other short-form content. We know just how good and popular it’s doing on Netflix and the movies too. The whole brand does so well on there. The movies demand repeat viewing all the time, and hopefully the series does too. It is a very gag-filled show, visual and verbal. So we’re hoping that it bears repeat viewing. It has that currency about it. Netflix has done a great job of taking the footage that they have currently and making a trailer. They’ve really encapsulated what the show is all about.

JM: Scott, are the pigs vicious — or are they just misunderstood?

SS: Well I don’t want to spoil too much because we kind of get to know the pigs. Our shows takes place at Camp Splinterwood, which is a bird camp. All birds, although that does change over the course of the season, too. But we do get to know the pigs. There is a pig camp. At first, our birds are definitely a little frightened about the pigs — mostly because they’re so rambunctious and messy, and they’ve got all these great contraptions. They’re great builders. By the end of the episodes that we’ve just finished, you will get a much better sense of who the pigs are. We’re spooning that out slowly over the course of the first season.

RD: There’s definitely a rivalry between the two camps, as you might get with any camps in certain situations on the same lake.

JM: And fun challenges. Rob, you’re the SVP of Production at CAKE. And one of the episodes I like involves Bomb’s Dream Bake-Off Cake.

RD: (laughs)

JM: Your nods to the bake-off TV shows. That’s a fun and nice episode. It’s about somebody setting out with a goal and a dream and wanting to accomplish that.

RD: Thank you. There’s a huge amount of heart in this show. What we didn’t want to do is just be just crazy crashing bird fun. That was part of it, obviously. But what we’ve done and what we’ve nailed really well is the heart of the show and the friendships at the heart of it. Camp is one of the most special times you can have as a kid. That really comes through in the writing and the relationships. And you see hidden sides of them, like Bomb in the Cake-Off. You see this caring side. He has other hobbies that he likes outside of the friendship group and then they fully embrace it with him as well. It’s lovely. I’m glad you picked up on that. That’s nice.

SS: That’s one of our very best ones. That was written by Megan Atkinson, who’s one of our very best writers. She did a great job with that one. I love that one because it shows this side of Bomb that maybe you don’t expect. But it does a British Bake-Off in a very Angry Birds way. It has a little twist in the middle but that’s a very Angry Birds take on a bake-off.

JM: You got that right. And this is premiering in January, but it’s obviously about summertime. So it’s sort of summertime escapism in winter. Is that how you sort of see it, Scott?

SS: It’s a lot of things. Netflix is launching this all over the world in pretty much every single country. So in some places it’s summer in January.

JM: That’s true. Rob, you’ve worked at Aardman and Disney and iTV throughout your career — a lot of iconic places and places that provide quality family entertainment. What do you look for in a property that’s going to have massive family appeal, and how did you see that with Angry Birds?

RD: You kind of know when you see something. If you’re working with a company like Aardman or CAKE or Disney, you’re surrounded by other people that share that outlook already. The chances are: one of you will call it if it’s not right. So you’re in a good team already. Talent attracts talent, doesn’t it? And it’s the same with Scott. When we got together with Angry Birds, it wasn’t the case of, “Oh my. What can we do with it?” We knew there was an existing brand here that we knew we had a great platform to work from already. Now it was finding that idea. That idea being camp and as teenagers, everything fell into place. And then you’re in the hands of a writing team, and at the beginning you’re as good as your writing team. When it’s led by someone as Scott, and Paul McKeown, who’s our script editor, then you’re off to a great start.