I interviewed the talented Jack Thomas in 2019 for Dragons: Rescue Riders. Now he’s back as executive producer and showrunner of another fun DreamWorks series for families. Team Zenko Go, about a group of kids doing good deeds for others, premieres this Tuesday March 15th on Netflix.

Jackson Murphy: How did the core theme speak to you as you were developing this?

Jack Thomas: You know what I really loved about it? The very specific idea [of] doing good deeds and not trying to get credit for it. In this world where everybody’s always on TikTok or Instagram and they’re showing the things that they’re doing, these kids are doing the opposite of that. They’re doing great things but they’re not taking the credit for them. That really spoke to me. I thought that was a great lesson to teach.

JM: I completely agree with you. I was going to ask you about recognition and this concept of that. What you’re teaching young kids is that: Look, you don’t have to be the center of attention all the time. It’s not total participation trophies and rewards and all of that. [By] doing good deeds, you feel the reward inside… internally. I think that’s great.

JT: Yeah, and I think that’s at the core of the show. You do the good deeds for the sake of doing the good deeds. And we have fun with one of the characters. Niah wants to be an actress, so she wants to be in the spotlight. But here she’s on this team of secret superheroes doing the exact opposite of that. She’s trying to hide all her big successes and all the things she does.

JM: You brought-up superheroes. You must have a love of spy and superhero movies because the music in this show is so spot-on and kind of nostalgic to James Bond, Mission: Impossible and Get Smart — all those great spy series and films.

JT: Yeah. We had a long talk with the Chan Brothers, two great composers DreamWorks uses, who happen to be Canadian. They just got my sensibility right away. A lot of our temp music was from a 1960’s TV spy show called The Man from U.N.C.L.E. And they just sort of caught onto the motif that we wanted. In a way, it’s almost like Mission: Impossible sometimes for these kids, right? They’ve got this mission and they’ve got to figure out this way to do it so nobody knows they did it. I’m so glad you caught on to that sort of spy / superhero music motif because that’s exactly what we went for!

JM: You’re very successful with that. Jack, you wrote Ep. 1 of Team Zenko Go, which is “Welcome to Harmony Harbor”. I really like the episode. And why did you feel it was important to show Ari join Niah, Ellie and Jax, as opposed to just all of them being established right out of the gate?

JT: Well, the funny story is: [in] our original Pilot, they were all together. And we felt like it didn’t really serve as a Pilot. With a first episode, you try to hit the ground running and a lot of times you put in a lot of backstory and do a lot of explaining and it takes away from the plot. So after we had written a couple episodes, I went back and said, “You know? What if we introduced the show by introducing a new character?” And that’s where we came up with the idea of “What if the other three kids were doing it all by themselves and then this kid figured it out?” We had great fun with that.

And it also allowed us to introduce one of our favorite characters, Rodney, the kid who shows up and is banging on the door of the food truck. He becomes a big part of the show. He’s a kid I love in shows who’s reach exceeds his grasp. He always wants to try big things and that causes him a lot of problems because he doesn’t necessarily have the talent to pull off what he’s trying. And then he needs to be rescued or helped and the kids show up a lot.

To go back to your question: It just seemed like this was the best way to… not just show what the premise of the show was, but then to show how cool Ari was. He figured it out, and he wasn’t trying to bust them. The twist is he wants to be one of them because he loves superheroes and his mom owns the comic book store.

JM: Right. The excitement he has really comes through. I’m glad you made that decision because it works as an excellent first episode. The noodle truck serves as the team’s cover. What is the go-to food truck for you?

JT: My favorite food truck is a lobster food truck that makes these lobster rolls. Although, I wouldn’t mind trying [Auntie] Yuki’s because she can pretty much cook anything. She’s known in town for cooking her noodles, but you’ll find as the series progresses that she can cook just about anything she needs to for the kids or whatever situation they’re in.

JM: Absolutely. Ponzu the Flying Squirrel — I love his look. Tell me about creating that character and the value Ponzu brings to this show.

JT: Ponzu is comic relief, for the most part. This allows us to put in some silly side gags from time to time. And he’s also sort of a skeptic. He’s sort of critical of the kids. It’s funny because in a show that’s pretty relentlessly positive… even Yuki, who’s their leader and sends them out on the missions, is pretty positive even when they do wrong… you have this one irascible little character who runs around and is critical of what they do. He’s an animal, so he wants what he wants. If he’s hungry he wants to eat. But he also will go on missions with them. He’s a great little comic foil for us.

JM: He’s fun. Obviously in the first episode Ari has to prove himself to be a part of the team. The whole team has to prove themselves constantly. How did you want to prove yourself when you got into this animation industry?

JT: (laughs) You know, I don’t think I ever have proven myself. Every time I turn in a script, I have to say, even if I’m the showrunner, I think this is gonna be the one where they figure out I’m a fraud. No matter how many good scripts I’ve turned in, you always have that little piece of you that goes, “Okay this is the one where they go, ‘This guy can’t write. What’s happened to him?'” So I don’t think you ever really prove yourself because you’re always trying to do the next thing and write the next story and create the next show or character. I’ve never totally proven myself, and I’m trying to teach that to my daughter. You’re always proving yourself every day.

JM: I think you’ve had a major impact on the animation world, Jack, with all the shows you’ve been a part of — and especially with this consistent theme: whether it’s this, Dragons: Rescue Riders or your work on The Fairly OddParents… about these extraordinary kids doing extraordinary things. Is that always something you’ve thought about — that you wanted to attach yourself to projects involving these extraordinary, talented kid characters?

JT: Yeah. If you’re in kids animation like I am, you’re trying to teach kids that the possibilities in their lives are really unlimited. And if they use their imaginations, they can achieve just about anything. Of course, we have to… symbolize that by having Timmy Turner with his magical godparents who will give him what he wants and maybe teach him that he should be a little less selfish. (laughs) Timmy is one of the most selfish kids characters ever created. And in Dragons: Rescue Riders, these kids have this ability to help people. It’s a good thing to do it and rescue people and even treat your enemies… with a certain level of respect and compassion. And I hope every show that I do is about kids realizing that they can do more than they originally thought they could do.

JM: You’ve done a lot of good for animation. I think this show is gonna do a lot of good for families. Before I let you go, tell me about the strengths of the team that you worked with on Team Zenko Go.

JT: We had fantastic artwork from the people up in Mainframe [Studios]. Mike Sutherland, who’s the head of design, created a city… Harmony Harbor, where the kids live… everybody sees it and says, “Man, I wanna live in that town.” It looks modern and clean and yet classic and it looks like it’s got some good history to it. The execs at DreamWorks were incredibly supportive. David Wiebe is someone I’ve always wanted to work with. I knew him back at Nickelodeon back in the day and I never got to work with him until this project. He’s the best kind of exec: totally supportive and he’s also super funny. He’s a really funny writer himself. So when he gives you notes you really have to go, “I really need to think about this because Wiebe’s a good writer.”

Everybody up at Mainframe. Karen [J. Lloyd], who’s the supervising director, was just fantastic. Sometimes I feel for them. They get the scripts and we ask for these incredible things like, ‘Ari is dressed like a giant lemon’… and then they have to figure out how to do it! They make some real miracles happen. The show wouldn’t be anything without them.