Tramm Wigzell

April 2008

Tramm Wigzell has spent his entire career in the entertainment industry, starting as a production assistant on James Cameron’s Titanic, then becoming a production supervisor at Stan Lee Media. Today he is the director of development for original series at Cartoon Network and has overseen Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, Teen Titans, The Batman and the feature-length The Batman vs Dracula: The Animated Movie. While all of these have been successful, his breakout hit came with Ben 10, the series about an ordinary 10-year-old, who, after being hit by an alien pod that falls from space, discovers inside a watch-like device, the Omnitrix, which gives him the ability to transform into numerous aliens, each with a special set of powers. The show was an instant hit both in the U.S. and around the world. Wigzell talks to TV Kids about Ben 10 and the work he loves.

TV KIDS: I understand that a number of people were involved in the creation of Ben 10.

WIGZELL: Yes, the show was created by a group of writers and artists called Man of Action. Even though it’s called Man of Action, there are actually four of them: Joe Kelly, Joe Casey, Steven T. Seagle and Duncan Rouleau. They came in and pitched the initial idea for Ben 10. Over a period we developed the show and we really figured out the mechanics of the Omnitrix and the whole back story with the grandfather, Max, who is part of a secret organization. All of these things weren’t in the original pitch, but that core idea of one kid trying to get to ten different superpower beings was always there and that is what really excited us because it was a great idea. It had a real wish fulfillment sense to it that we felt kids would relate to and aspire to.

TV KIDS: What made Ben 10 such a hit show?

WIGZELL: Again, I think it is because there is a wish [that so many kids have] to be bigger and faster and stronger and different and be able to do things. And Ben has the ability to not just have one power or be one thing, he can be ten things and then more things as he unlocks more aliens in the Omnitrix. What kids get from that is a real sense of, “Wow, I wish I had the power to be able to have all these choices to make.” I think choice is another huge reason why it works. We [often see] Ben wanting to be one thing, but because the Omnitrix happens to malfunction, it gives him a different alien. We see Ben having to use his smarts to use the powers [he is given] when they weren’t the powers that he wanted to get. His powers aren’t perfect, and I think kids like to see a hero who is faced with challenges and that he can step up to [them] and make these decisions on the fly. It is a very exciting thing for them. Ben is 10 years old, he’s not a bad kid, but he’s also not this super goody-goody, so he’ll use the watch to make faces at kids. It’s fun and kids like that, too, that he’s got imperfections and uses the watch in a way they would use it. That’s a very big part of it, too. There is a real humanity to Ben. And kids are connecting to the fact that he is a 10-year-old boy. If he were an adult with a watch, it wouldn’t have the same impact.

TV KIDS: Some people think animation is easier than live action because you don’t have to worry about finding a person to cast in a certain role.

WIGZELL: I actually disagree. It’s so important, especially when you have a kid lead character, to find a voice that is relatable and sounds real. When you are doing live action and you are filming on the spot, there is so much subtlety that you can get out of it. Animation is so much about making sure that that’s all figured out right from the get go, that casting is super important because that’s where you are going to get a lot of the emotion and inflection in the voice performances. We were extremely lucky to get Tara Strong to [do the voice of Ben] because she really made that character work and also because of the nature of the show. We have ten different characters and over the course of the series [they become] almost 20 different characters who all have to be Ben. So Tara established this character and then all the other voice actors had to imitate her in their alien voices to keep that illusion that this is all one character in different shapes and forms. So that was really difficult. That was a big part of what makes the show work. If we didn’t have that it wouldn’t have clicked with the audience in the way it did and it would have been very hard for people to understand this is supposed to be the same character no matter what he looks like. That was a huge challenge, and again I would say that animation is just as difficult in [casting] as live action is.

TV KIDS: How many projects do you have in development at any given time?

WIGZELL: It depends. On average I am working on seven or eight shows, development wise. That is not the whole development department. That’s on action-adventure series. I am very careful about the types of shows that I look for because it’s easy to find an action show that is about toys first or an action show that’s about the action first. I really look for things in the spirit of Ben 10, which is about a great character built around a really strong concept that lends itself to multiple episodes, not something that’s going to wear itself out within two or three episodes and then you’re stuck wondering, “OK, we played that out, now what?”, because it’s really about the story.

TV KIDS: How do you get the best out of the people who work with you?

WIGZELL: You just let them do their thing. We very strongly believe in creator-driven shows and we wouldn’t get involved with creators or shows if we didn’t have confidence in them. It really is about letting them know when they do something great and telling them to push and try something different and not think about the types of shows they might have worked on at other networks. At Cartoon Network, we want you to go further, we want you to think in different ways, we want you to come up with cool twists, we want you to not hold back, and that’s in script, in design, in execution, in animation. That’s ultimately why we get, particularly in action-adventure, these very interesting shows that don’t feel like what you’ve seen a million times on other channels or in the past because we’re really not looking to do what everyone else is doing. We’re looking to always be that one step ahead of the curve.

TV KIDS: What do you enjoy most about what you do?

WIGZELL: I get to make cartoons! I get to have arguments about what an alien might do. That ultimately is the fun part. My job is really about working with extremely talented people and encouraging them and getting to sit around and have these discussions. For me, growing up and being such a fan of animation and comics and movies, to actually be a part of that now and to know that these shows ultimately are going to be things one day adults will be sitting around saying, “Boy, I used to love Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. I used to love Ben 10.” The exciting thing about it is we are creating [pop] culture for another generation, the same way that I fondly remember TV shows and movies in my life. To be able to have a small impact like that on people’s lives, especially kids’ lives, is really exciting. There is nothing more thrilling to me than meeting somebody, or getting a letter or a piece of fan art from a kid who talks about how much they love the show. That’s the best reward because sometimes you can feel like you are operating in a vacuum and when you get that sort of feedback you go, “OK, we are doing something right here. We’re making an impact.”