New hand-drawn series Chip ‘n’ Dale: Park Life premieres this Wednesday July 28th on Disney+. For series director Jean Cayrol (based in France), it’s a dream come true to create fun, zany and heartwarming adventures for these beloved characters.

Jackson Murphy: What are your earliest memories of watching Chip & Dale?

Jean Cayrol: That’s a good question. I would say it’s probably… the old episode with Donald Duck, Chip & Dale and the tiny train model. I saw that episode a million times when I was a kid. (laughs) I must have the videotape!

JM: And did you think back to that as you were starting to create some of these episodes – your childhood memories of watching these characters?

JC: That’s a great question, Jackson. Actually that’s how we started to form Chip ‘n’ Dale. We knew somehow we wanted to base our version on the old short animated shows. But it’s not really an imitation. We didn’t want to make it exactly the same. We wanted our show to have its own flavor and identity. What we did: instead of watching all the episodes again, we just built our show on the memories we have of Chip ‘n’ Dale. That’s how I wrote the first episodes and that’s how we built their personalities. And that’s also how I started designing the new Chip ‘n’ Dale.

JM: What do you love the most about animating their facial expressions? As I watched these episodes: they are so expressive and amazing.

JC: (laughs) Thank you. That was great because I’m working for Xilam Animation and [they’re] mainly known for 2D hand-drawn slapstick comedy. I have been trained the ancient way, as I like to say, with paper and pencil, back in the ’90s… back in the last century. (laughs) Disney, very early on, knew they wanted to do a 2D animated version of Chip ‘n’ Dale, so that’s why they came to us and asked us to do the show. You imagine how excited I was when they said, “Okay, we’re going to do Chip ‘n’ Dale. YOU’RE going to do Chip ‘n’ Dale. And it’s going to be hand-drawn like the old way.” I was like, “Are you kidding? Yes, please! Let’s start now!” I think you can feel that joy of drawing the emotions and the characters and how they look at each other when they’re jealous or scared. That really translates well to 2D animation. There’s such a special flavor that 3D is not yet able to reach. 3D’s great, but I love 2D.

JM: And the music is bouncy and timed so well to their movements. And then there are a lot of pauses in key moments. Was it tricky timing that all out?

JC: Yes. Music editing is always tricky because that can pretty much say the opposite of what you try to do if it’s not done carefully. It is very tricky. But luckily I worked with composer Vincent Artaud. I did a couple of shows with him for Xilam and that guy is a genius. He can do a beautiful classical piece of music – or the next day he’ll create an extreme heavy metal kind of song. And the next one is intricate modern jazz. He’s really amazing. For a non-verbal character, usually what you do with the music is you try to stick with the movement. If a character is running, you play fast music. If a character is tip-toeing into the room, you play slow, sneaky music. But for Chip ‘n’ Dale, we wanted to actually illustrate their emotions instead of the rhythm. The image is strong enough. They’re on screen so much that you want to double that with music. We decided to dig into their emotions. So when Chip is running, the question was, “Is he running because he’s scared or because he’s unhappy?” The music is different in that way. That’s why we had to have someone who was able to jump from one style to another. The music range had to be super-wide on this show.

JM: That’s a different way of doing it but it’s very successful. Also with Chip ‘n’ Dale, there’s Pluto. How did you want to incorporate Pluto into this series?

JC: We knew from the beginning that we wanted Pluto in this show because Pluto always had been a big part of Chip & Dale’s life. He’s not in every episode, but we knew we wanted Pluto in a few episodes. For an animator, having to draw Pluto and having to stretch and squash him: he’s so organic. His design is so organic that it’s just a constant joy to draw that big yellow dog. That’s why we didn’t try to change too much of his design. We went really new and fresh for Chip & Dale, but for Pluto we tried to stick a little bit to the old Pluto. He’s great like that. You want to animate Pluto as he is.

JM: This show is set in modern day because Chip & Dale are watching videos on YouTube. Did you know you wanted to make it modern? Was there any temptation to set it several decades ago?

JC: No. We wanted from the beginning to set Park Life in the 21st Century. Very early on we also understood there was a potential non-stop gag source for us to have iPhone and iPad material. Because Chip & Dale are so tiny, everything’s about scale. Everything’s a possible big adventure or comedy situation to them. An iPad is a gigantic TV. Crossing a bush in the park is exploring the jungle. Swimming in the duck pond is all of a sudden a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea kind of adventure.

JM: I was gonna ask you about size proportions because yeah, you can go from how tiny Chip & Dale are seeing something to a wide shot to an even bigger wide shot. You seem to have a lot of freedom with these episodes – and the fact that it’s mostly dialogue-free. A lot of freedom all around!

JC: Yeah! Right! And actually it was great to work with Disney on that because they let us do whatever we want to do. And they were a big part of it. They were really supportive. Sometimes you bring an idea into the room and you think, “Oh, maybe that’s too much.” And actually Disney was like, “No, that’s a good idea – but maybe you can do better. Let’s try to dig deeper into that idea!” That was really great.

JM: Was it challenging to… figure out and organize all the story ideas for all the episodes?

JC: No…we didn’t really write all the episodes at the same time. We had a writer’s room with four or five writers and they would start to work on their episodes. And then the week after that we would have five more writers. We didn’t plan-out a full season as a single piece of stories because you can watch every episode independently. There was no problem with doing it like that.

JM: I read that this [series] was announced more than two years ago. What does it mean to you that finally, after two years, you get to share these with the world?

JC: I’m super, super excited. I’m kind of freaking out a little bit… (laughs) …that this is really happening now. People will be able to see Chip ‘n’ Dale at last. You know what? I can’t wait to sit on my sofa with my wife and daughter, open Disney+ and see the small Chip ‘n’ Dale thumbnail. That will be a mind explosion. (laughs)

JM: Your creation is there in the Disney+ catalogue. And I will never go to a park and think about it the same way again. I will always be looking for Chip & Dale. I’m sure you will be too!

JC: Yes! I already do! And true story: I actually have two squirrels, not chipmunks, but two squirrels in my garden. And guess what my daughter named them? Chip & Dale!

JM: That’s perfect! I’m in Upstate New York. I have in my backyard lots of squirrels and a groundhog – and deer and turkeys come by… and all kinds of creatures!

JC: Really?! (laughs)

JM: Yes! We get our fair share of creatures and characters that come by.

JC: That’s amazing. So maybe you wanna be a writer… (laughs) …and share some animal stories.

JM: You know what? There are a couple based on what’s about 100 feet away from me that are in my head for someday. I would love to be able to do that.