July 27th, 2021 
Jackson Murphy 
Centaurworld premieres this Friday July 30th on Netflix. The talented Megan Nicole Dong shares how she brought her life passions together to create a series with heroism, friendship, adventure, music and a key sense of belonging.
Jackson Murphy: I’ve enjoyed the series so far. I’ll start right off the bat by saying that Greek Mythology was never my strongest subject in school. Was it a strong one for you?
Megan Nicole Dong: (laughs) I loved Greek Mythology, but you can kind of throw it out the window because we’re not really going… we’re not sticking at all to that!
JM: (laughs) Yeah. Did you always have an interest, though, in centaurs and how you wanted to really start this up? Did it go back to your days in learning about Greek Mythology?
MND: Honestly, I love biology. I love animals. I was interested in marine biology when I was younger. I’ve always loved drawing animals. So having a world that was all sorts of hybrid animals was something that was really fun to me. And of course, Muppets. The look was something that instantly came to me.
JM: It’s fun… and I think you start things off, though, in a more emotional state. I like when Horse and Rider look into each other’s eyes in that key, opening sequence. That’s very effective. What did you want to accomplish with that key moment there?
MND: Horse comes from a world that’s very different from Centaurworld. I wanted her to have some context for music. I wanted music to mean something to her and for there to be a connection with music. Having a lullaby shared between her and Rider, who was her most important… the only person in her life… was important for me. The emotions and relationships between the characters were always… what I felt was going to connect these different parts together for this story.
JM: It is a strong bond through all the characters. And how was it creating the designs of these characters? They’re very complex. What was that process like?
MND: It was really interesting developing looks for two different worlds. In terms of designing everything, I had done some initial stuff at the beginning but really we ended-up working with two different studios: designers here but also two different studios to accomplish the looks of the different worlds. We worked with Red Dog Culture House in Korea, who’s traditionally done more action stuff. They did most of… the world that Horse comes from. And we worked with Mercury Filmworks to do more of the squashy, stretchy, Centaurworld stuff. And that was really fun. Most of us on the series have never really worked on a show where we worked with two entirely different studios and meshed those two styles.
JM: But it works. And I like that the Rainbow Road is a focal point. There’s always something about a rainbow, whether it goes back to “Wizard of Oz” or people having this spirit when they see a rainbow. Why did you want to make that a focal point for the show?
MND: Well you mentioned “Wizard of Oz” and that was definitely an inspiration and influence. For Centaurworld, I really wanted to create an environment that felt inclusive. All the characters are colored differently. They’re shaped differently. They’re different species. That road being a rainbow felt like it was something that really fit with the world and the message of it.
JM: And exploring the outdoors and going outside is such a big thing right now with what we’ve all faced the last year and a half and wanting everybody, in nicer weather, to get outside safely. How does that theme speak to you with this show and with everything going on right now?
MND: We started making the show pre-pandemic and then we continued to work on it when we went in. For us, we all went through something really heavy and really intense together. And working on the show was a really nice escape. It was a really joyful experience for all of us. I hope it’s the kind of content and kind of story that would appeal to a lot of people. For us, it was a nice escape. We hope that other people experience that as well.
JM: I think it is. It’s uplifting. And the music helps with that. What were some of your goals in wanting to incorporate some songs in this?
MND: The whole thing was inspired by me ending-up in Show Choir and really getting into musical theater when I was younger. I am really passionate about musicals. I knew that I wanted to… have the songs be at the center of it. Have the songs be narrative and, in addition to comedy, really express the characters’ viewpoints and be a big part of the meat of the storytelling of this. That was always a huge priority. I wanted to make sure the songs were telling the story for us.
Megan Nicole Dong (left) and Jackson
JM: You accomplish that. You’re very much into musicals. I’m sure you’ve been following the re-opening process of Broadway and that coming alive. Do you have a favorite Broadway musical memory from when you were younger – your favorite show or experience?
MND: Honestly, watching the 10th Anniversary “Les Miserables” concert on PBS when I was younger. Seeing that was really huge for me. I remember recording that and watching it over and over and over again. Seeing Lea Salonga play Eponine. And we were really lucky to get Lea to be on “Centaurworld”. That was something that was really special for me, and I’m so excited for everyone to see the role that she plays on the series!
JM: My first Broadway show was “Beauty and the Beast” when I was four or five because [the 1991 animated version] is my all-time favorite movie. And just seeing the giant versions of the characters but yet still the intimacy – that’s what a great musical can do.
MND: Yes. And we really wanted to get some of the spirit of the live stage shows in there. Our art director Kim [Knoll]… referenced a lot of stage lighting and other things for some of those musical moments, which was a lot of fun to incorporate into animation.
JM: You were a story artist at DreamWorks Animation on “How to Train Your Dragon 2” and “Captain Underpants”. How did your experiences on those movies prepare you to take-on a series like this?
MND: I was lucky in my career to work on those feature films and also to get the experience of working at Nickelodeon on series. I really wanted to incorporate all the different experiences I had into this. I wanted to bring everything that I’ve learned. We have this big, long story that we’re tracking in “Centaurworld”. Being around those directors, artists and storytellers, learning about… cinematography and how to build a big storyline was something that we brought into the show. And it also helped us in writing all the songs and incorporating the music as well. There were so many moving parts but instead of it just kind of being purely episodic, it is a big story. And I think all the time I spent at DreamWorks certainly helped me prepare for this.
JM: Nice. You’re allowed to take your time more when you have the freedom to do that. Could you really feel that when you were working on these episodes? “Let’s leave a little breathing room. Let’s take our time. Let’s feel this out so the viewers can experience how I feel this should be told.”
MND: Yeah. Definitely. We definitely took different considerations when it came to the pacing of it. We wanted to make sure we were servicing the story and the characters first. We were tracking the characters and their emotional journeys and their progress first and foremost and building the songs and the episodes kind of around that.
JM: I think young girls are going to be inspired by you and by these characters. What were some of the animated characters that really inspired you – got you into this world and excited you? (Like how I think some young girls are gonna be excited by the characters they see on “Centaurworld”.)
MND: That’s a great question. When we were making “Centaurworld”, I really wanted to have a lot of cool female characters, especially action characters like Horse and Rider. They’re tough action heroes but they’re also girls. I wanted female friendships to really be featured in this. For me, “Princess Mononoke” and a lot of the [Hayao] Miyazaki films… I love the female characters, like “Kiki’s Delivery Service”. But also, I think the movie I fell in love with really early on that… shaped a lot of my interests was “The Little Mermaid”. I remember watching that over and over again. Like I mentioned earlier, I was interested in marine biology. I was interested in musical theatre. And then I ended-up being interested in animation as well. So I think that movie had a huge impact. And I just loved Ariel and her inquisitiveness and independence.
JM: She’s one of the strongest animated female characters of all-time. You’ve been able to combine all of your passions!
MND: I did! (laughs)
JM: That’s the dream, right? To combine everything you loved when you were younger and make it happen as you continue on with the rest of your life.
MND: Yeah. I always love being able to figure out ways to combine genres or sort of push things and try to figure out how to make all of that work. And yeah, if you have different interests, why not combine them all?!
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