DreamWorks Mighty Monsterwheelies (a collaboration with Lemon Sky and Doberman) morphs classic movie monsters and monster trucks, creating a fun group of characters and episodes for families as we approach Halloween. It premieres Monday October 14th on Netflix. Kyel White developed the series and serves as story editor. Stephanie Simpson is the four-time Emmy-winning executive producer and showrunner. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: Stephanie, your credits include “Arthur” and Dr. Seuss shows. “Octonauts”. I watched “Postcards From Buster” when I was younger. “Hilda”. You have been in children’s entertainment for a long time. What has this aspect of animation and entertainment given you? And now here working on this “Mighty Monsterwheelies” show.

Stephanie Simpson: First of all, I love the kid audience. I think it’s the most important audience because you are definitely entering their imaginations right at the beginning. You feel like they’ll return to the things that they watch that you create for the rest of their lives, hopefully, for inspiration, for remembering things that made them laugh. Fond memories of their childhood and then to share it with their own kids when they get older. And on “Mighty Monsterwheelies”, the thing that’s been so fun is I’m a huge Universal monsters classic movies fan. So I didn’t think I’d ever get to, in the preschool world, honor my love of those monsters, but getting to work with Kyle on this show to bring those monsters to life for a really young audience and be the very first introduction to them was so much fun. And then to do it with all the action and the heart — it was really a joy.

JM: It’s monster trucks in Motorvania. Kyel you developed this series. I love the look of these characters. The fact that classic movie monsters serve as inspiration is awesome… for the kids and for the parents and other family members who are watching.

Kyel White: Yeah, it’s great. And it’s so fun to be able to be the entryway point to these characters and also classic movie tropes. That was a big thing in all of our episodes. What does “Speed” look like in Motorvania or what does Indiana Jones look like in Motorvania? Pulling from some of our favorite movies and genres and framing them in the world of Motorvania with the Monsterwheelies and introducing those types of stories to kids that way was super fun.

JM: Miss Buster, the school bus. I watched that episode. Oh my gosh. Stephanie, it is “Speed”. It’s “out of control!” as Regis used to say.

SS: It is completely out of control. I hope that children will not be afraid to get on a school bus after watching this episode. The animators did an amazing job of keeping the action rolling, no pun intended.

JM: These monsterwheelies are in this town to protect the town — to save the day when other vehicles are in trouble. Kyel, how do you want these characters to be looked at by children as heroes?

KW: What’s great about these characters is that they all have childlike hearts. There’s something in each of them that a kid can relate to and identify with. One of the things that we love about the show is that there’s no way a hero looks, so these characters are not traditionally seen as heroes, but in this world they are, and for kids, if you’re small, you can still be a hero in your own way. I think that’s a super, important message.

JM: Yes. You’ve got characters like Bolts Frankenstein, the Invisible Van, Mayor Van Helsing. Stephanie, tell me about the designs and the work that went into how great they do look.

SS: It was so much fun. One thing I love that Kyel had done in the writing is he connected the type of truck with something that related to the original character. So Bolts as a fire truck, since we know that Frankenstein has always been afraid of fire, that was a fun remix of the Frankenstein character. And then to find the iconic design elements of each monster, but then translate them into the truck did take a long time. We did a lot of experimenting. Making a lot of design decisions… to get the maximum expression from the characters. How expressive these square faces are. Lemon Sky did an amazing job in the animation. They were incredible. Each character we went through this process of, “Well, how do we translate the original quality into a design? And how do we make that design maximally expressive?”

JM: It’s functions and it’s powers and it’s lessons that kids can learn about those different powers, which is great. Mayor Van Helsing is voiced by Weird Al [Yankovic]. Kyel, If I want a mayor of a fun town like this, I’m going to want Weird Al to be the mayor. It’s perfect.

KW: A hundred percent. And he was such a blast to work with. He came in and he got it immediately. It’s exactly what you want. The mayor is such a lovable character that kids are going to love and that adults are going to love to listen to. Al was the best.

JM: Stephanie, over your career, there have been many generations of kids who have grown up and watched different programming. What have you seen as far as the kids of today versus the kids when they were watching some of your shows in the earlier part of your career? Are there similarities? Are there differences? Are there different things you look for in targeting as far as the messaging or the qualities of what a show should be?

SS: Yeah, I feel like there are similarities and differences. I think the similarity that is always there is kids are such open minded audiences. They all want to laugh. They all want to be transported to a place. That they’ve never seen before. I think that what’s different now is I feel like kids are more sophisticated earlier. I think they’re watching more, there’s more available, and they are wandering into the room more often when older brothers and sisters are watching Marvel movies. And they’ve got a pretty sophisticated palette, even by the time they’re four. So you have to really bring it with these kids. You’ve got to keep their attention and you have to keep the story moving. They’re very sophisticated visually. And also from a narrative standpoint, they get it. So I would say that’s different. Stories have to roll out a little faster and they have to have a little more sophistication.

JM: And I think they’ll be impressed with the architecture of the town that you see in this show. Kyel, it’s that old fashioned, old timey town, and it works really well.

KW: That was one of the things early on… It took a while to nail down what exactly this town was gonna look like because we didn’t want it to look like “Cars”, and it wasn’t “Halloweentown”. It was a very specific aesthetic that we were going for. I agree. It works so well as an homage to those movies. But also, it’s contemporary, and it just really fits and makes it feel real, like you want to visit Motorvania, except maybe not, because a lot of things go wrong.

SS: A lot of things go wrong, man! (laughs)

JM: But the Monsterwheelies are there!

KW: Yeah. (laughs)

SS: That’s true!

JM: Kyel, you’ve worked at DreamWorks, including on the “Abominable” television series. What have you seen in your time at DreamWorks as far as the quality and what they bring to family entertainment and, and how “Mighty Monsterwheelies” fits into what DreamWorks stands for?

KW: I think that the quality of stuff that we make is always pretty top notch. Especially on “Abominable”. I remember watching the first episode back and I was like, “This isn’t a feature, we can get this on TV? It looks so beautiful.” A similar thing with “Monsterwheelies”. It looks so cinematic. You could see it on the big screen. That’s a testament to the people at DreamWorks, and people like the people at Lemon Sky that we work with, who care a lot about animation, and about children, and about storytelling.

JM: Stephanie, these characters could become instant Halloween costumes for kids. How does that make you feel?

SS: Oh, it makes me feel so happy. I can’t wait. I think it would be so fun at Halloween. I feel like every kid is trying to find that costume or that character that really expresses who they are. We have so many characters in this show that they’re going to have a very wide range of options. So I can’t wait to see which kids pick which character because you can’t always tell. Sometimes the quiet kid wants the really loud guy and the loud guy wants to be under wraps. So who knows what we’re going to get? But I really do feel like this is an opportunity for the little ones to enter the world of dressing up like a monster, but in a way that they’re going to have fun with and feel comfortable. Halloween can be really scary when you’re little and you kind of want to be part of it but you also don’t quite know where your entry point is. So I think “Monsterwheelies” is going to be the first monster that a lot of kids… little ones… ever dress up as.

JM: And that works because the messaging of your show is “Have no fear.” These Mighty Monsterwheelies are here.

SS: That’s right.