Jennifer Oxley was born in Hollywood, California and caught the filmmaking bug early – she made her first film at the age of seven. Since then she’s created loads of short films with her production company SNOWFLAKE FILMS NYC, including segments for Sesame Street and an adaptation of Spike Lee’s children’s book, Please, Baby, Please. The Museum of Modern Art acquired her latest film, The Music Box, for their permanent children’s film collection. In the kids TV world, Jennifer won her first of 4 Emmy awards for her role as director on Little Bill. She later went on to create the look and animation style of the critically acclaimed series The Wonder Pets. Most recently Jennifer re-developed Clifford the Big Red Dog for TV, and cocreated the hit PBS Kids animated series Peg + Cat!
A conversation with Doug Vitarelli
The reboot looks great, congratulations. How did it come about? Did you pitch Apple TV?
When Nickelodeon approached me and asked if I’d be interested in developing a spin-off of the Wonder Pets, I was a mix of surprised, thrilled, overjoyed and totally freaking out! How would I create something that lived up to the charm and heart of the original, while bringing a fresh new take to today’s audience. But I love the show, loved being a part of it, and I especially love the team, so I agreed.
I started by pitching a bunch of concepts to the folks at Nickelodeon, that we eventually pitched to Apple. The idea that we landed on was – what if our original Wonder Pet’s weren’t alone? What if there was a vast network of singing animal-saving teamwork-loving classroom pets all around the world? And for this spin-off, what if we get to meet a whole new team of Wonder Pets who live in a brand-new city location. This new series introduces, Izzy (rocking guinea pig), Tate (lovable snake), and Zuri (silly bunny). Alone these three classroom pets have no real superpowers, but when they come together and work as a team there’s nothing they can’t do!
So when you got the green light, what did you do? How did you update the style and animation and yet keep it true to the original?
Yeah, you know, that was one of the first questions I asked Nickelodeon when they reached out. I wondered if they wanted an updated CG look like some of their other recent reboots. But I was happy to hear that this wasn’t what they were looking for. They wanted to stick with the original photo-puppetry style that helped make the show a success way back when. And they wanted to stay true to our mini-operetta music format.
You didn’t use any of the assets from the other show?
On the original, the pets live in a quintessential red schoolhouse in the country. But for this new concept, we have a brand-new trio of classroom pets, who live in a jazzy new city location. It wasn’t possible to use any of the old assets, because all the characters and locations are new. The resolution of this spin-off was also at a much higher quality, so that also prevented any reuse of old assets.
What software?
We use real photographs to create digital puppets in Photoshop that are then rigged and animated in After Effects.
Now, I’m guessing from looking at the opening of the show that you live in Brownstone Brooklyn. I totally got that if she’s overseeing this, she’s got to live in Brownstone Brooklyn.
Yes, good guess!
Sticking with the animation style, I have to say that technically the head rotations are fantastic. Can you talk about the technical aspects of that at all?
Just like the original, real animals are photographed in a sort of stop motion way and rigged like very complex paper dolls. On the original, we could only get so much flexibility with head turns and positions, so the range of motion was limited. But for this new series the team created more advanced features that allowed animators to get a variety of different angles and more subtle facial movements and expressions.
I was especially blown away by the animation we were able to achieve with Tate, our new snake character. I wanted to introduce a snake as one of our three new Wonder Pets because this animal was a natural fit for where we hoped to take the new concept, highlighting deeper story telling with diverse and inclusive themes. I thought a snake character would naturally spark great “don’t judge a book by its cover” messages. Plus, snakes don’t have hands or arms, also leading to some powerful storylines.
But snakes are very hard to animate, especially in our photo puppetry style. I was initially worried that the snake’s animation could appear choppy, and more limited than our original. We wanted this new spin-off to push the boundaries and look better, not go backwards. But my team of geniuses (Rob Powers, Zach Deckter, Andrew Roberts, Sal Iaccarino) figured it out and the end result well exceeded my expectations!
I’ve been in this position before a very few times. I know as an independent animator, which is where I would put you, as an independent animator…you sort of want to do it like a lot yourself, but then when you work with someone else and they do it so much better than you ever could. Ah, I love that feeling.
It’s the best. I think we were also able to push the boundaries creatively because so many of our amazingly talented artists from the original team returned for this new spin-off. I honestly don’t think we could have done it without them. I couldn’t be happier with the people that I was able to work with on this spin-off, they truly are the best of the best!
Well, the end product is fantastic.
Let’s talk about production. I was looking at the credits and you have Snowflake Films NYC and Kavaleer Productions. How did it work with a combination of local talent and an overseas studio? Was everything remote or do you have a physical space?
Snowflake Films has a physical space here in Dumbo. For the series the studio produced music, lyrics, storyboard, character design, rigging, key prop and background design, some key animation, edit, sound effects, and final mix. We worked with Kavaleer, an animation amazing studio in Ireland, who produced episodic design, animation, and final post.
You talked about budget and in this issue, we talked to Susan Godfrey about New York State Tax credits for film and media. In the credits there was a logo of New York state tax credits. Did you have anything to do with that? Or was that more Nickelodeon?
The New York State Tax credits are great because they allow small studios like Snowflake Films to hire more people here in New York and Brooklyn.
Did you incorporate any AI into the production?
No.
Did you find it more freeing to work for a streaming platform or do you prefer the structure of TV? For instance, did you have a hard out at 11 minutes or you can go like 11 minutes and 10 seconds?
This series adhered to the structure of traditional TV packaging, with a set running time. So there really was no difference being on a streaming platform.
Because you finished the season, are you using this time to create something new or experiment in any sort of animation while you wait for the next thing to happen?
Yes, for sure! I have two projects that I’m actively developing right now. I also have an original idea that I’m super excited about and am planning to produce at the studio as
more of a solo Snowflake Films endeavor (no Broadcaster). I’m eager to see what this next new chapter brings. The industry is experiencing some big changes at the moment, so it’s hard to predict what’s next. But one thing I know for sure is, kids are always going to want to be entertained and be inspired by great new content!