AppleTV+ and showrunner/EP Bobs Gannaway (of Monsters at Work) have adapted author Tony DiTerlizzi’s popular books for the new animated adventure series WondLa, premiering Friday June 28th. Gannaway previews the exciting first season and more. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: Congratulations on this. It is incredibly immersive.

Bobs Gannaway: Thank you. Tony DiTerlizzi’s books really launch us into a big world, and we’ve done our best to realize it, as best we can.

JM: The first episode, I feel like, is a movie in and of itself. It’s an incredible origin story of Eva, and how she grows up, and how she gets out into the world. What do you focus on when trying to pinpoint a great origin story?

BG: Well in the first episode, for me, the most important thing is making sure the audience gets it. You’re asking the audience to go on a journey with a character. So in that first episode, you want to make sure the audience connects with that character and connects with the primary relationship — in this case, Eva and the MUTHR robot that’s raising her. So from an origin story standpoint, it’s mostly about learning things through the character, but getting the audience to connect emotionally to the character. Why do I care? And so that’s why we worked really hard on the first episode. And I really enjoy that first episode because it really takes a flip about halfway through. And it’s funny… in some of the earlier versions of the script, there was a lot more that we had of her younger and we really felt like we wanted to sort of pull the rug out from underneath her a little earlier, so we did.

JM: You have tons of great looking characters. What is that relationship like, you and the author (in this case Tony)? And as far as wanting your vision out there, but also his vision, the story’s vision for fans of the book, and kind of that mesh and that blend for the show.

BG: It all begins with why Tony wrote the books. And he wrote the books. He can speak to it more specifically than me, because he wrote the books, so I’ll steal his thunder, but he has a daughter. His daughter is actually similar in age to my daughter, and he wrote the books years ago with the idea that his daughter is going to be going out into the world, and the best he can do as a parent is sort of prepare her for that world. But the world she’s going to go out to is different than the world that he went out into years ago. So I love the idea that he took that idea of, “I’m sending my child out into the world, and all I can do is prepare them with lessons. And then they are going to go out and make decisions on their own. And the world they’re going to go out to is going to be different.” And he took that to the extreme.

So she’s raised in this underground bunker by a multi-utility task helper, robot (MUTHR) to prepare her to go to the surface and be with other humans. And then when she goes to the surface, it’s not at all what she was promised. Tony’s become a very good friend of mine at this point because he and I are like… lost brothers at this point. We’re really connected. I connected with why he wrote the story. And then he was right alongside with us as we evolved it, maybe make changes either to a design or to a story point. He was all on board. For him, it was exciting to get out his toys and play with them again.

JM: Nice. Eva is curious and confident. How do you feel, going on this journey with her, that she is a teenager of today and someone that teens are going to relate to?

BG: Well, that kind of circles back to what I said. She’s a confident teenager. “I’ve got the world figured out.” And you go out in the world and you’re like, “Whoa, I wasn’t expecting this.” That’s a question. I have to navigate this now. So she has to grow up as she goes along. And the theme of this first season is really about family. She’s looking for her human family. And that’s sort of the plot drive. But emotionally, she’s learning to grow up and start to perhaps embrace a found family, or a family she wasn’t expecting to be her family.

JM: MUTHR is voiced by Teri Hatcher. MUTHR gets a new opportunity at life, a new chance to connect with Eva and others out there. Teri Hatcher gets another chance at this [material] because she did such great work doing the audio books for “WondLa”. That’s great.

BG: That was my introduction to the books because — full confession — I hadn’t read the books yet when they approached me about the show. Tony DiTerlizzi gave me the audio books with Teri, and I’ve worked with Teri before. So it was no question at all that she was going to be voicing MUTHR. She’s lovely to work with and so much fun. We had over 250 recording sessions for the show across the whole cast. The cast was lovely.

JM: Brad Garrett, who I just watched on Not Dead Yet, a show I wish didn’t get canceled, voices Otto in this. He’s done a lot of voice work on animated shows and films over the years.

BG: I’ve known Brad… I don’t want to say how long, but I actually worked on the [one of the] first animated series he ever did… years ago at Hanna Barbera. That’s how long ago that was. So I’ve known Brad a long time. So working with Brad is always a joy and a pleasure. We just get in a room together and have fun.

JM: Eva has this incredible training, as we talked about a little bit ago, early on as a child. And she has it from unique friends and characters and kind of a digital world that surrounds her. For you, Bobs, who are the animated characters who trained you when you were young to fall in love with animation?

BG: When I was growing up, back when there were newspapers, my dad would hand me the Comics section. And every day I would cut out the Peanuts strip and I would collect them. So I have this huge collection of all the Peanuts strips that I’d cut out of the newspaper. So Charles Schultz was a big inspiration for me. I went to USC and then I got into animation. I always wanted to be in animation. I always loved animation and got to work with Chuck Jones, Hanna Barbera, Roy Disney, and then here working with John Lasseter. So I’ve been able to work with so many talented people, both veterans and the new generation. It’s great. And you never stop learning. I mean, Jackson, for this show, just so you know, this show was a serialized show. I’ve never done a serialized show… cliffhangers that sort of throws you to the next episode. Every show is a new challenge. Doesn’t matter what it is.

Bobs Gannaway and Jackson Murphy

JM: Wow. And you’re at Apple now, which is the home of Peanuts, so that’s gotta make you feel good too!

BG: Yeah. And actually… I don’t want to date myself, but I was born the same year as the Charlie Brown Christmas special. So I was like that.

JM: That’s heartwarming when that comes on TV and streaming services — AppleTV+ — every single year. Also at Apple is the delightful and heart tugging short called Blush. The composer of that, Joy Ngiaw, does the music for this.

BG: Joy is fantastic. It’s this sort of limited series and this sort of blending of feature and series. The idea that we get to strive for a feature quality show both in storytelling and look of picture. Sound is half the experience. You’re watching images and you’re hearing. So the score is so important. And Joy has been fantastic. She’s great in finding the themes, as we go through the worlds, we try to define the sound of each world, whether it’s a world music element or a futuristic element. As the series progresses, you’ll get more of that. And she wrote a fantastic theme. I like to work with themes. I assign themes to characters and locations and things like that, and she was all into that.

JM: Terrific. So these first episodes, it’s part one of a trilogy event. My gosh — the planning I’m sure that went into staging all three parts of this must be epic for you.

BG: That was the big challenge. And the fun was crafting a large story in three components. But even those three components tying together into one huge arc for Eva… It’s awesome. Tune in!

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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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