Move over diamonds; it seems like Dinosaurs are a girls best friend.
At least, thats the case for Lunella Lafayette (Diamond White) inMarvels Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.
DEADLINE: How did Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur come to life?
MARVEL’S MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR (Marvel) DEVIL DINOSAUR, MOON GIRLMarvel
Did Laurence Fishburne first approach you?
Or did all of you work together to pitch this show to Disney?
STEVE LOTER:It all started with Laurence Fishburne in a comic book store [laughs].
MARVEL’S MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR – “Moon Girl Landing” (Marvel) MOON GIRLMarvel
And everyone agreed, Yeah, this is an amazing idea for an animated series.
So, they just moved forward and said, We need to make this.
DEADLINE: Moon Girl is the first Black female lead character in a Marvel superhero show.
What does that mean for you to bring this iteration of the character to life?
RODNEY CLOUDEN:It means a lot.
Shes a role model someone else can admire and aspire to.
So thats why its really important, especially having her debut during Black History Month.
DEADLINE: Its cool to see that certain episodes center around hyper-specific issues within Black culture.
Can you discuss the balance between making some specific cultural narratives and more universal ones?
LOTER:Starting off, representation matters.
And thats something Laurence said at the beginning of the production that I think resonated heavily, you know?
You cant be what you cant see.
For instance, there is an episode about impatience and another about jealousy.
So her real-world adventures were reflecting her superhero adventures.
CLOUDEN:To add more about the specificity of things, she is a Black girl.
So, its just that its the same story, just in a different package.
I think the specificity is good just because of being authentic in representing a particular segment of society.
Still, the story is universal and relatable to everyone, and I think that makes it work.
Was there a challenge you faced with adapting any particular character?
The work that theyve done was an inspiration and a springboard for the show, obviously.
And we are all huge Marvel fans.
But because weve been fans for a long time, we have a vast knowledge of obscure Marvel characters.
So, if youre into comic books and Marvel lore, hes a big deal.
A little dangerous… the man is dangerous.
He may be fun.
DEADLINE: Theanimationstyle also reflects this energetic vibrancy and graffiti style; what were some of the influences here?
We were looking and asking ourselves, How can we do that?
How can we do our ownSpider-Verse?
But we wanted to have something that stood out from the crowd and thinking about what New York is.
How do we represent New York in the best way?
And then a little bit of Marc Hempel, a comic book artist, and UPA and Saul Bass.
The show has a broad variety mixture of old and new influences.
We think those styles marry each other, not compete against each other.
And adding the modernness of the emoji pop-ups to signify communication was cool.
DEADLINE: What do you hope audiences get out of this show?
LOTER:I love the show, the message, and that families can watch it together.
And I think that the show is really inspirational.
I think that the art style is engaging.
I think the music is crazy good.
CLOUDEN:Yeah, and its Black girl magic.
