Adam Reed has taken his popular holiday book Reindeer in Here to the screen, with a new one-hour animated special premiering Tuesday November 29th at 9pm (right after Rudolph) on CBS. Reed serves as executive producer, and Lino DiSalvo (head of animation on Frozen) is the director. They join me to discuss how they collaborated on one of the season’s must-watch family programs. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: Adam, this special is based on your holiday book that came out just about five years ago to the day. How does it feel to see your story come to life in this way?

Adam Reed: It’s very surreal. I’m a television producer by trade, but I had never done animation before. So Thank God I had Lino and our incredible team directing us the entire way. It is surreal because when I started writing children’s books, as a hobby… to see what it’s become… It started as a Christmas tradition for my own family. I couldn’t find a Christmas tradition out there that I felt was positive and didn’t stress me out as a parent during the holiday times. So I said, “I’m gonna create one!” And “Reindeer in Here” was born. Thrilled. We’re very, very lucky. The level of talent is, far and away, more than I could’ve ever wished for this project. It’s very exciting.

JM: It’s such a good quality product, this special. It’s airing right after “Rudolph”. Lino, how did that special inspire you when you were growing up, along with all the other classic animated holiday specials?

Lino DiSalvo: Listen, there’s no pressure, right? We’re just coming after one of the greats. Between The Muppets and the Rankin-Bass specials, they were pretty influential. I have really fond memories of just sitting there and looking at the magic — being pulled into this story. Subconsciously it was in there. And I was drawing those characters when I was young. They may be some of the first characters I was drawing. And now to be involved in a Christmas special… Come on, man! It’s amazing. It’s super cool. And I’m really happy you think it’s a very high quality craft of animation because as someone who’s coming from features, I very much wanted something that looked hand-crafted and very high quality.

AR: When we got together and we brought the writers on board, I said to them, “We’re looking to make something that outlives us all.” I remember as a child… and I now watch Rudolph with my kids… that was always the bar, from the writing, directing and crafting of everything. And what Lino and the entire Jam Filled animation team were so brilliant at doing was: if you look at the “Reindeer in Here” book, there’s a classic kind of quality to it. Classic but contemporary. It was Lino’s idea to go, “How do we make this feel more CG-feeling but have a hand-crafted, hand-painted look?” And for us, we didn’t want to be sitting here 20 years from now going, “Oh, this feels outdated.” We wanted this to feel like, “I haven’t seen something in this fashion before.” Lino elevated it to a level I never, ever, ever could’ve expected.

LDS: I appreciate that.

JM: You’re right. All the craftsmanship in Santa’s Workshop and other places… we get all those little details. A boy named Theo and his new reindeer friend Blizzard are on a quest to save Christmas. Adam, what were your goals with what you wanted to show with this really sweet friendship?

AR: The real message behind “Reindeer in Here” is that being different is normal. Our main reindeer, Blizzard, has one antler smaller than the other. He’s always felt different. And Theo, being in this small town and moving from city to city because his parents are always going into new jobs, always felt different and an outsider too. This is a story of belonging. It’s okay to feel different. We all feel different at some point in our lives. And if you look at all the characters, they’re all “different is normal” characters. We have a pink reindeer named Pinky. We have a snowgirl with a candy cane nose named Candy.

Beyond trying to create a Christmas classic and looking at the theme of “different is normal”, what we really set-out to do is create something (as many of the Pixar and Disney films have done over the years) that you can watch as a family. It not only has a ton of heart and a ton of comedy and emotion but at the same time works on both levels for kids and parents.

JM: And that was one of my favorite lines. At one point Blizzard says to Theo, “Different is normal. It isn’t something to hide.” Lino, what did you want to express — and how did you want to present — these emotional, core themes that we get from lines like that?

LDS: That’s a great question. As a feature guy coming into this space, to TV and having 44 minutes, you’re moving faster through production. I had to figure a way of, “This has to look great. I have to take what I’ve learned and I don’t want to just speed through it.” The emotional crescendo of every sequence, we basically would put all of our efforts around those shots. And then the further away you got from that emotional crescendo, those were the shots where if they felt a little bit like connective tissue, then we would [get to] those shots a little bit quicker. But the emotional shots are very pivotal, and we animated them as if we were making a feature. Hopefully when you watch it the emotional parts of the movie really come through.

JM: In the opening credits, you see one comedy heavyweight name after another. Adam DeVine, Jim Gaffigan, Melissa Villasenor, Donald Faison, Jo Koy, Candace Cameron Bure… Adam, how did you assemble this comedy dream team?

AR: And don’t forget the incredible Henry Winkler.

JM: I know! I know!

AR: He is funny, funny, funny. Had this been an hour and a half or two hours, we could’ve released this in theaters. It’s that great of a cast. You don’t see this level of a cast in a TV animated special. To be very clear, not revealing too much, the actors were not paid a lot of money for this. They did this because they all reacted to the message that being different is normal. Henry Winkler, who we adore, was the first actor to sign on board. Henry has been dyslexic since he was a kid and has always felt different. He read the script and fell in love with it. We put a list together of our first choices for every role, and we were so lucky to get every first choice of every role we went out for. And [the actors] understood and reacted to the ability to be involved in something that truly could be a Christmas classic and tradition that could outlive us all. When they read the script, from our writers, Greg Erb and Jason Oremland [of “The Princess and the Frog”], they responded to the heart, the humor and the emotion.

JM: And the opportunity for this to be on CBS — the home of “Rudolph” and “Frosty” for decades. And I wanted to mention Henry Winkler because he won an Emmy for his voice work on “Clifford”. He’s been on “Monsters at Work” and “Rugrats” recently. So it’s really cool, Lino, that he cared so much about this role of Smiley, and the depth he brings to his voice performance is fantastic.

LDS: So good. Working with him and him having a take right away — so good. Amazing.

AR: He plays a 500 year old elf. There had to be depth to this character. Henry called me when he got the role and he said, “I just want to talk through Smiley. I want to understand him and his backstory.” Lino and I talked about it and really worked with him. He came in with such an amazing take. We were going back and forth going, “Can we give The Fonz notes? He’s so good. You can’t really give Fonzie notes.”

JM: Since this is on CBS, who came up with the idea for the newscaster to be Walrus Cronkite?

AR: That’s the writers.

JM: It’s great. And Lino, since you said you drew some of the classic holiday special characters when you were young, getting the opportunity to create a North Pole and that environment / atmosphere must’ve been a dream come true. What were some of the intricacies and challenges you faced when bringing the North Pole to life?

LDS: We wanted to do something unique. We brought up all the past projects that were about Christmas and had the North Pole in there. We wanted to make it very specific. You’ll notice in a lot of the little design language, there’s antlers. The roofs come to these apexes, and there are little antlers to reinforce the idea that there are reindeer working and living their life. We wanted to make it feel populated but still cozy. And when you start going down the creative path of, “So all the animals in the North Pole are living in apartments”, now you have to start thinking about what size doors they’re using. How many? The ramps. Walruses need to go up ramps and slide down them. The little mice have little doors. If you re-watch it many times, you’ll catch all of those little, really specific things. And working on a Christmas project, it was wonderful.

AR: And when we set out to do this… you’re dealing with Christmas. There are some real absolutes about Christmas that you cannot mess with. But you don’t want to not innovate. We had an opportunity to innovate here. We had conversations of, “What are the things of Christmas that you cannot mess with and what can you tweak a little bit?” There’s a moment where Blizzard and Donner meet up for a very funny, quick exchange. You’re giving a nod to Donner because he’s always gonna be there. A lot of animated movies in this space play with Santa and the elves, and outside of Rudolph (the king of all), there was not a lot of mythology and movies about reindeer, so we had an opportunity to build that out.

JM: You do a great job with it. The special is complete. It’s about to air to millions of people. It’s a special about wishes and wishes coming true. For both of you, what is your biggest wish for this holiday season? Adam, I’ll start with you.

AR: That’s a good question. I created this tradition for my family, and I never anticipated it becoming what it has become. So my big Christmas wish is that families gather around the TV set (or the flat-screen) and watch this and enjoy it for everything it is — and let it bring some light, heart, comedy and fun to their lives at the most magical time of year. It’s a story about wishes because all wishes can come true. You see that with Theo and Blizzard. And although this is a holiday movie, that’s a message we can hang onto year round. To bring some joy and magic to families… man, we’re in a tough time in the world these days. That’s what I hope for.

JM: Absolutely. Lino, what about you?

LDS: I’m not following that up. Listen, whatever Adam said I feel exactly the same way! (laughs)