Creative Keynote: Alice’s Wonderland Bakery’s Chelsea Beyl

Emmy-nominated writer and producer Chelsea Beyl took TV Kids Festival viewers behind the scenes of the brand-new Disney Junior series Alice’s Wonderland Bakery.

Beyl took part in a keynote conversation with TV Kids’ Kristin Brzoznowski at the virtual festival. You can watch it in its entirety here. The development team at Disney Junior approached Beyl about the idea: “We want to combine Alice in Wonderland with a bakery! I was intrigued by the idea. Wonderland is such a whimsical and clever idea and place, so I knew kids would fall in love with that world. And baking is such a family activity. I knew kids would enjoy learning about how Alice bakes and uses food to connect people.”

On the approach to introducing Alice to a new generation of preschool audiences, Beyl noted, “Our show is inspired by the original 1951 Disney version. Alice in that movie has a very solo journey; she’s going from one place to the next in Wonderland. For preschoolers and our show, we wanted to give Alice a core gang. We aged down all the characters and decided to make Alice and her friends the descendants of the [characters in the] original.”

Beyl continued, “We wanted to capture the essence of those original characters. The wacky, bonkers, zaniness of the Mad Hatter—for Hattie, we gave him a lot of those qualities. At the same time, because this is for preschool, we wanted to give them little quirks and some cultural elements to make them unique for our show. For instance, Hattie is inspired by Japanese culture. Also, just introducing characters like the Cheshire Cat, who is so iconic and playful. So we tapped into his original silliness; he’s mischievous, he’s playful.”

Asked about the show’s core themes, Beyl responded: “Our show is about the power of food. Alice is a baker. She always says, ‘Where there’s a whisk, there’s a way! There’s a recipe for anything!’ Food can just bring a smile to someone’s face. Sometimes, all you have to do is sit down and share a meal with someone and a friendship forms. That is a huge theme of the show. Alice takes food and brings people together and makes friends. Also, food is a way to express yourself, to be creative, which is another core theme we wanted to express.”

Brzoznowski asked Beyl about the challenges of working with such beloved IP. “Because Alice in Wonderland is such an iconic property, and there are many versions out there, the challenge was, where do you start? Some kids might have seen the 1951 feature; others have not. We ended up combining food and friendship and that wackiness of Wonderland in our first episode. Alice discovers the very Wonderland tradition of the unbirthday, and through that, she befriends Rosa, the Princess of Hearts, and in turn, makes her feel better.”

Beyl previously worked on Vampirina and Doc McStuffins—shows that, like Alice’s Wonderland Bakery, had prominent girl leads. “When I was a kid, a lot of what I watched had boy leads. Also, the girls were either princesses or tomboys. There wasn’t much in between. Doc was a smart and nurturing girl who was into medicine and science and taking care of her toys. Vampirina was a funky vampire who believed in being herself. Having a variety of girls is what we should continue to do to show those nuances. I think we’re doing that with Alice. She’s not a princess, she’s a baker. She’s very curious and fearless.”