Matt Fernandes is the creator of the new animated family series Dino Ranch. It premieres this Monday January 18th at 12:30pm on Disney Junior. Fernandes discusses inspirations (including some you may not expect) and why this is the perfect time for an animated series that brings two big worlds (westerns and dinos) together.

Matt Fernandes: I grew up in the country. Even though I live in the city, I’m a country boy and I grew up around farms and ranch country. I always wanted to do a family show about a ranch because the thing about ranches and farm life is that it’s all about family. It’s about the strength of family and the family unit. Ranches really rely on the kids being involved – for them to have big jobs, just as much as the adults. And I love dinosaurs. As soon as you’re born, it seems like you automatically love dinos. When you’re a kid, you love the idea that there are these giant creatures that once roamed the earth. There was sort of this white space where no one had really done ‘cowboy western and dinosaurs for kids’ and put them together. So I just started doodling and drawing and these characters came alive. As soon as I drew the first picture, I saw the whole show. Past experience and passion came together.

Jackson Murphy: That’s very nice. And that must be a cool feeling to envision the whole show right then and there.

MF: It’s always amazing when you sit down and do your first drawing of any show. This is my ninth show I’ve created. I always look back on that first drawing I do. It comes alive and the characters speak to you.

JM: What were your goals in wanting to design the ranch?

MF: We were trying to give this an authentic country feel – like a real, lived-in family ranch with all the textures and the big sky and all the outdoors. And how does the dinosaur design influence the architecture? When you go on the ranch, you see that each barn… the influence of the dinosaur shape is in the architecture. The barns have a bit of a dinosaur feel to them. The roofs have sort of dino scales on them. We have such a great design team and crew that they took that concept and elevated it.

JM: And you have such a catalogue of dinos.

MF: Oh yeah. When we got into this, we realized we were gonna have to have a lot of dinosaurs. You start with the ones that the kids can recognize and are kids’ favorites. And our main dino rancher kids that ride their dinos, they’re like horses and puppy dogs mixed together. And then you try to find the fringe ones. There’s so many dinosaurs that you can include and there’s only so many that you can include in the first season. But definitely we want to get more in there.

JM: You mentioned the authentic feel of the show and I felt that right away in the music – that classic western music. Were you directly inspired by classic film scores?

MF: Absolutely. We even leaned in on old shows like Bonanza. When I was a kid, I used to visit my grandmother and her favorite show was Bonanza. She lived in the Bronx. Classic westerns and these big sweeping romantic classics. We really wanted to bring that feeling back because it felt fresh for this audience. They don’t grow up watching these old cowboy classics.

JM: I think kids will like learning that Ma’s medical vehicle is a stagecoach and that this is what people drove back then and, in this case, to get medical equipment and assistance.

MF: We had a lot of fun… designing the dino-powered vehicles. A little bit of a tip of the cap to The Flintstones, the way they incorporated dino power and the technology of the time.

JM: And you have this narration that Pa does, bookending each episode: teasing and summarizing… but also offering a little perspective. Why did you decide to frame each episode like that?

MF: To be honest, the influence was The Dukes of Hazzard. When I was a kid, I watched Dukes of Hazzard, and they always opened with that narration dropping you in. I leaned on that. But I also felt like it’s this really warm, welcoming… a way to introduce kids to the story and then wraps it up in a nice bow. There’s something nice about narration in a show. Kids are used to having adults read stories to them and narrate. It gives it a quality of warmth and connection. But the real answer is Dukes of Hazzard.

JM: (laughs) I did not expect that to be the answer, but that’s good! In the episode “Stop That Spinosaurus!”, you show that every day is different. I firmly believe that when it comes to my life and I would like to think the same thing applies to the creator of an animated series.

MF: 100%. Whenever you’re dealing with other human beings and you’re working together, every day is different. With production and animation, you have this battle of creative vision meets budget meets schedule. Every day is a challenge. You kind of go to school with every production. You’re re-learning things and you think you got something figured out and then there’s a new challenge that shows up the next day, whether that’s creative or technical or HR. Every day… you’ve got your goal and vision and there’s always these obstacles that get thrown at you. And every production is different than the last. You can use your experiences to navigate but every one of them is a challenge.

JM: But you get through them and make it happen!

MF: Right.

JM: In watching this, kids are able to learn great life lessons. And in this time we’re in, parents… may be paying more attention to programming for their kids than ever before because so many kids are at home watching shows every day. Did you think about that at all in putting this show together?

MF: Obviously when we started this show, it was pre-COVID. We had no idea what we were about to face. But as COVID started to happen and everyone started working from home, it absolutely was on the table as we were continuing to write stories. Kids are trapped inside right now and one of the great advantages of our show is that it’s all about rough and tumble play outside. Kids being outside in the great outdoors. It’s escapism for a lot of kids who can’t go outdoors. And we’re all stuck with our families, so the idea of having to work with your family and the importance of family… the core values of the show were really relevant to what a lot of families are going through now.

JM: They’ll enjoy this. And you’re part of the coveted Disney Junior lineup. What does this mean to you?

MF: It’s incredible. It’s a dream. You pinch yourself. Just growing up and getting into animation… that’s the top of the mountain. To even be amongst that lineup is just a surreal, incredible experience. They’ve been amazing partners and have really helped us shepherd this brand to make it feel like a real, proper Disney brand. We really looked back on a lot of the old classics in the Disney catalogue. They did a lot of westerns and that Old Frontier. If you go to Disney World, there’s Frontierland. We really leaned into that as inspiration to make sure that it fit in the Disney jewel. I couldn’t be more excited.

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Jackson Murphy

Jackson Murphy is a movie critic and entertainment columnist. He is the creator of the website Lights-Camera-Jackson.com, and has made numerous appearances on television and radio.

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