Netflix and Learn: Interview With StoryBots Co-Creator Gregg Spiridellis
We spoke with the co-creator of StoryBots about the future of educational content.
Quality screen time can be educational. If you have a toddler or elementary school aged kid and also have Netflix, you probably have heard and watched the show StoryBots. The show has a catchy theme song and teaches kids about robots, technology, and science.
Between working at Netflix preparing for the next episode of StoryBots and managing his kids education in the pandemic, StoryBots co-creator Gregg Spiridellis took some time to answer some questions about his popular Netflix show as well as the future of education.
Did having kids of your own inspire you to create an educational kid show? What was the state of educational content back then and how has it evolved?
Absolutely! In 2011, when we decided to develop a kids’ property, my brother and I had houses full of little ones. Our kids ranged in age from 1 to 6 years old. Our experience, as parents, was that there was nothing on TV that we were excited to sit down and watch with our little ones.
Pixar and Dreamworks had made films that appealed to kids and parents in theaters, but no one had accomplished that on television. On top of that, most of the shows were designed from the ground up to sell toys. We thought there was a wide open opportunity to create something that was not just entertaining for kids and parents, but also educational. That was the motivation for StoryBots.
Do you have any tips for parents on how to maximize their children's exposure to content and how to reduce consumption of junk content in favor of more educational content?
It's hard because the vast majority of content out there for kids is designed to either serve as a babysitter, sell toys, or both. There are not a lot of options for content that is both entertaining and educational. That's the gap we set out to fill. As a practical matter, as a parent I have always found Common Sense Media to be a good resource for discovering and evaluating content for my kids.
What’s the creative process like for an episode of StoryBots?
It's changed dramatically over the years! At the beginning, it was me and my brother brainstorming ideas, writing scripts, scratching dialogue and doing animatics. Today, my brother and I have set the stage, and he has built an immensely talented crew that is involved from the inception of the ideas through the execution. Our goal is to bring in more talented people than us to ensure StoryBots is bigger, better, and lasts longer than what we could do if we remained at the reigns ourselves.
How long does it take to create it from writing songs, the script, doing the research, to creating the animation?
There are so many different formats that are a part of the show that it's hard to give one answer to this question. Shorts can be done in as quickly as a couple of months, while episodes of Ask the StoryBots could be in development and production for a year or more.
How do you create characters? Do you have a favorite one?
In the beginning, the characters were created by me and my brother and they were designed to have a range of personalities that kids could relate to.
The cheerleading leader (Beep). The hyperactive goofball (Bing). The happy go lucky laid back StoryBots (Bang). The emotionally charged StoryBot (Bo). And the grumpster (Boop).
Today, the amazing talent that is on the team is expanding the universe with great, new, hilarious characters.
How did you come up with how to mix animation with real footage?
Mixed media is baked into the DNA of what my brother and I have built. In the early days of JibJab (our prior company) we used mixed media to deal with the limitations of bandwidth constraints. My brother geniusly figured out a style that would work with repeated use of the same images so that they could be delivered over a 56k modem. In time, it just became a lens on how we saw creative opportunities. The lack of a house style on the show is one of the things that we are most proud of and something we think will give the show a very long shelf life.
For parents who are looking to use StoryBots to enrich or supplement, what’s the best way to show their kids StoryBots?
The best place to go deep with StoryBots is on Netflix. There, parents will find episodes that teach kids very complex ideas, like why the sky is blue, or how cell phones work. They can also find over a hundred StoryBots shorts on YouTube.
What does the future of educational content look like? Now that a number of children are attending Zoom school all day or some other at home schooling options due to COVID-19, do you think we will get more creative about how children learn?
I hope so. The tools to create next educational content that engages and educates are all there. What's needed is the creative energy of artists and educators, paired with parents who are willing to pay for content that supports their kids' development. Business models for this type of content are very tough, but I am confident that by the time my grandchildren are in school, the digital experiences available to support their learning and development will be leaps and bounds beyond what is available today.
At Smart Kid Mag, we highly recommend using StoryBots as a supplement to science class-at-home. The other day, we asked our son what the internet is and he started to quote lines from this episode:
As we all navigate the changing educational content during the pandemic, one thing is for sure, you can trust StoryBots for educational television for your little ones.