{"id":23200,"date":"2022-06-09T08:01:49","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T12:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/bruce-w-smith-reviving-proud-family\/"},"modified":"2022-07-08T11:23:47","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T15:23:47","slug":"bruce-w-smith-on-reviving-the-proud-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/bruce-w-smith-on-reviving-the-proud-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruce W. Smith on Reviving The Proud Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bruce W. Smith told TV Kids Summer Festival viewers about reviving the hit series The Proud Family<\/em> for Disney+ and discussed his wide-ranging overall deal with the company.<\/p>\n

Smith is a creator and executive producer of The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder<\/em>. The creative keynote interview with TV Kids<\/em>\u2019 Kristin Brzoznowski, which you can watch here<\/a><\/strong>, began with Smith discussing how the revival came about.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had been in touch with the folks at Disney throughout the years, talking about actually bringing the show back. The answer was always, bring us something like The Proud Family<\/em>. And so Ralph Farquhar [executive producer] and myself brought them something like The Proud Family<\/em>, and they loved it. But in that meeting, I guess it was another agenda to say, How would you guys feel about bringing The Proud Family<\/em> back though? We always knew that we weren\u2019t necessarily finished with the first run. We said, Let\u2019s tweak some characters and we\u2019re good to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cIt just made sense to have our African-American culture on display and in a celebrated way. It made sense for us to jump back into the zeitgeist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The original show worked, Smith said, because \u201cwe had laughs and we had some really great characters to have those laughs with, but we always centered it around cultural content. We were telling stories that matter to us, and when it mattered to us as a people, the outreach went right into the mainstream. We knew that was a formula that worked best. This time around, we talk about a lot of topical subject matter that happened in the African-American community. We visit Suga Mama\u2019s history. We do a deep dive into some of our characters that really had lots of dimensions that we didn\u2019t get a chance to dive into the first time. Our show was laid out to fundamentally include everyone. That sense of inclusion is what we\u2019re proud of most in this version of the show. We don\u2019t have to necessarily skirt around and hide around matters. We didn\u2019t want one character to represent the fullest rainbow of the community. We brought in a few characters under that umbrella. We brought in a same-sex couple. You\u2019ve got this nice diaspora of characters\u2014we think that is one of the reasons why our show works so well. There\u2019s not a burden of one character that has to represent an entire community of people. There\u2019s more than one voice that matters on our show. That\u2019s one of the things we really wanted to update, to give you the truest sense of who our characters are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith then discussed the process of updating the show\u2019s character designs. \u201cIt has a really rich dimensional look, but it still is very 2D in its approach. It doesn\u2019t look like a 3D Disney film, intentionally, but it\u2019s sort of 2.5D is what we like to call it. We play a lot of things cinematically that we probably didn\u2019t do the first time around. We added a nuanced approach to some of the acting and the timing and comedy and everything. It\u2019s is a lot of ingredients that really make the show shine brightest.\u201d<\/p>\n

On how the animation business has evolved in its portrayal of Black characters, Smith noted, \u201cWe still haven\u2019t seen much! We\u2019ve got us. You\u2019ve seen The Boondocks<\/em>. Maybe The Cleveland Show<\/em>. There\u2019s really nothing out there. The atmosphere is ready and ripe for any renditions of us to come on the screen. It\u2019s certainly been my goal in this business for a long time to drop us into as many missing genres as possible. We always position The Proud Family<\/em> as not being a children\u2019s show\u2014it\u2019s a family viewing show. Therefore, we get to tell more honest and truthful stories and deal with content that matters to us as a people.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the upcoming second season, Smith said, \u201cWe\u2019re going to be talking about a lot of things that you don\u2019t see many live-action Black shows talk about amongst these teen girls. The first time they\u2019re going to experience racism within their own crew. We\u2019re going to talk about reparations. We\u2019re going to get into Juneteenth. All these episodes are really important and the subject matter is really important among us as a people. It\u2019s the first time you\u2019ll see an animated show handle such heavy content in a way that\u2019s very believable. Kids can tell you a whole lot. That\u2019s been our assignment with this show, and I think we handle it pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the benefits of being in a streaming environment on Disney+, Smith noted: \u201cDisney+ allows us a wider format. When we were a Disney Channel show, we were more of a tween model. But we\u2019ve aged the crew up two years. We\u2019re now dealing with the truest form of teen issues now. Penny is 14. We take you through those formidable years. There\u2019s so much to chew on that we felt like that was the perfect age to take our kids to. The Disney+ platform allows us to really lean into those aspects of growing up that we think are important. We see our show of the 8 to 80 variety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith then talked about his overall deal with Disney Branded Television across live action and animation. \u201cWe have our own shingle within the Disney studios called BaR Productions, basically Bruce and Ralph! It sets the bar for what we\u2019re actually going to do. The mission is to serve up family entertainment but also put us in genres that you really normally don\u2019t see us in. From an animated standpoint, there are so many different things that I always desire to do based on stuff that I grew up watching. We have a plethora of projects from an animation standpoint\u20142D, 3D, stop motion. Just a wealth of ideas that we really get to discover and drop our culture in. We want to include ourselves in lots of different storytelling ideas and aspects that you don\u2019t normally see us in as people of color.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bruce W. Smith told TV Kids Summer Festival viewers about reviving the hit series The Proud Family for Disney+ and discussed his wide-ranging overall deal with the company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":23211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[6534,5614,5973],"class_list":["post-23200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","tag-bruce-w-smith","tag-the-proud-family-louder-and-prouder","tag-tv-kids-summer-festival","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nBruce W. Smith on Reviving The Proud Family - TVKIDS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/bruce-w-smith-on-reviving-the-proud-family\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bruce W. Smith on Reviving The Proud Family - TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bruce W. Smith told TV Kids Summer Festival viewers about reviving the hit series The Proud Family for Disney+ and discussed his wide-ranging overall deal with the company.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/bruce-w-smith-on-reviving-the-proud-family\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-09T12:01:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-08T15:23:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2022\/06\/bruce_Smith-TVKSF-0622.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/bruce-w-smith-on-reviving-the-proud-family\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/bruce-w-smith-on-reviving-the-proud-family\/\",\"name\":\"Bruce W. Smith on Reviving The Proud Family - TVKIDS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-09T12:01:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-08T15:23:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/bruce-w-smith-on-reviving-the-proud-family\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/bruce-w-smith-on-reviving-the-proud-family\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/bruce-w-smith-on-reviving-the-proud-family\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Bruce W. Smith on Reviving The Proud Family\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\",\"name\":\"TVKIDS\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\",\"name\":\"Mansha Daswani\",\"description\":\"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. She can be reached on mdaswani@worldscreen.com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/author\/mdaswaniworldscreen-com\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bruce W. Smith on Reviving The Proud Family - TVKIDS","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/bruce-w-smith-on-reviving-the-proud-family\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bruce W. Smith on Reviving The Proud Family - TVKIDS","og_description":"Bruce W. Smith told TV Kids Summer Festival viewers about reviving the hit series The Proud Family for Disney+ and discussed his wide-ranging overall deal with the company.","og_url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/bruce-w-smith-on-reviving-the-proud-family\/","og_site_name":"TVKIDS","article_published_time":"2022-06-09T12:01:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-07-08T15:23:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":360,"url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2022\/06\/bruce_Smith-TVKSF-0622.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Mansha Daswani","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mansha Daswani","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/bruce-w-smith-on-reviving-the-proud-family\/","url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/bruce-w-smith-on-reviving-the-proud-family\/","name":"Bruce W. Smith on Reviving The Proud Family - TVKIDS","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-06-09T12:01:49+00:00","dateModified":"2022-07-08T15:23:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/bruce-w-smith-on-reviving-the-proud-family\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/bruce-w-smith-on-reviving-the-proud-family\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/bruce-w-smith-on-reviving-the-proud-family\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Bruce W. Smith on Reviving The Proud Family"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website","url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/","name":"TVKIDS","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad","name":"Mansha Daswani","description":"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. She can be reached on mdaswani@worldscreen.com.","url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/author\/mdaswaniworldscreen-com\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}