{"id":23360,"date":"2022-06-24T08:50:04","date_gmt":"2022-06-24T12:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2022-06-27T09:20:28","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T13:20:28","slug":"disney-juniors-eureka-centers-inventiveness-imagination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/disney-juniors-eureka-centers-inventiveness-imagination\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney Junior\u2019s Eureka! Centers Inventiveness & Imagination"},"content":{"rendered":"

At a Dublin coffee shop on the back of a piece of paper, Niamh Sharkey and Norton Virgien jotted down a concept that would eventually become Eureka!<\/em>, a music-filled preschool series that made its debut on Disney Junior earlier this week. The series\u2019 creators and executive producers, who had previously worked together on Henry Hugglemonster<\/em>, an animated program based on a children\u2019s book Sharkey wrote and illustrated, had been searching for an idea that would enable them to team up once more\u2014and were inspired by the influence of Disney Junior\u2019s Doc McStuffins<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe character ended up touching so many people and inspiring little girls to dream bigger than they might have on their own to grow up to become doctors,\u201d explains Virgien, who directed Doc McStuffins<\/em>. \u201cWe were getting very positive feedback about all that. We started thinking about what would be a similar character who fell in love with science and inventing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharkey had been working on an idea for a short film about a prehistoric couple. \u201cWe kind of just went: What if these guys had a kid and this kid was the smartest kid and she invented the wheel?\u201d explains Sharkey. \u201cWe just had this \u2018eureka\u2019 moment, where we said, she could be called Eureka! We got excited about having that untouched world and having this 8-year-old kid inventor at the center of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Eureka!<\/em>, the titular character, voiced by Ruth Righi (Sydney to the Max<\/em>), uses her creativity and critical thinking skills to make innovative contraptions for the good of her hometown of Rocky Falls and the world. She\u2019s supported in her endeavors by her parents Roxy and Rollo, voiced by Ren\u00e9e Elise Goldsberry and Lil Rel Howery, and accompanied by her best friends and pet mammoth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a revelation for me, as one of the directors, to work with an amazing voice cast that has brought such uniqueness to the series,\u201d says Virgien. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to see that chemistry develop. Both characters in their different ways just love their little girl and are inspired by her, [and Righi] just brings so much energy and fun to it that the animators can\u2019t help but get some juice from that, some excitement, and we\u2019re thrilled with what we put together as a cast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Virgien also notes that each episode has its own pop song that helps to move the story along, with Kari Kimmel serving as the series\u2019 songwriter. Among the songs featured in the series is \u201cYou\u2019ve Gotta Fail It to Nail It,\u201d which underscores an important lesson in Eureka!<\/em>: It\u2019s OK to make mistakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to make [Eureka] perfect,\u201d says Sharkey. \u201cKids watching will see that sometimes she fails, but she tries again and she might fail again. In the end, I think that\u2019s an important thing to show kids. Don\u2019t be afraid of trying things, you never know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featuring STEM\/STEAM elements, another goal for Eureka!<\/em> for Virgien and Sharkey was to show how the worlds of science and engineering can be fun. \u201cMy own father is an engineer and I have two brothers who are engineers, but I was always more the \u2018imagineer,\u2019\u201d says Sharkey. \u201cWe were very excited that Disney got excited about mixing imagination and engineering and STEM. With Eureka, she\u2019s exploring those ideas. You know those types of kids, you get to meet them and they\u2019re always drawing, always coming up with ideas, trying things out. That\u2019s what we wanted to embrace in her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharkey and Virgien also wanted to reach kids who are hesitant to show the world just how smart they are. \u201cEureka is not only the spark, the brightest one who has so many great ideas, she\u2019s also the leader of her little bunch of friends and respected throughout the town,\u201d says Virgien. \u201cYou can be smart and popular at the same time. That\u2019s one of the lessons of our show. It\u2019s cool to be smart!\u201d<\/p>\n

As an 8-year-old girl who invented the wheel\u2014so that she and her friends could get around via skateboard\u2014Eureka, with her fun, out-of-the-box thinking, is a natural role model for young girls.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe thinks differently than anybody else who\u2019s in Rocky Falls and anybody else who\u2019s been in the town before,\u201d says Sharkey. \u201cShe sees things differently, she sees the opportunities. If a meteor lands in the town, she\u2019s not afraid of it. She\u2019ll come with curiosity and try to figure out: What is this thing? What is it for? And she always tries to bring her friends with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Virgien and Sharkey believe that not only will Eureka!<\/em> resonate with young girls around the world, but with young boys as well\u2014and even perhaps entire families.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are as many cool boys in the cast as there are girls, and they get along great and they have a good time together,\u201d says Virgien. \u201cThe mammoth and the dinosaur and the unspoiled world to explore and the surfing at the beach and skateboarding around a world that has no roads, no traffic, nothing to worry about, is going to be idyllic and exciting for all the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharkey adds, \u201cAs a picture book creator, as a show creator, I want there to be universal appeal. I don\u2019t want it to be a show for girls or a show for boys. I think it should be a show for everybody. Your hope, always, with these shows is that people will sit down as a family and watch it together. Maybe the older siblings will get something from it, the younger siblings will, too. It\u2019s that idea of sharing it together [that is] really appealing to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kids around the world stand to be inspired by Eureka!<\/em>, believes Sharkey, who points out that it\u2019s all about a child devising inventions to make her world a better place while embracing new things. And as Virgien notes, the series takes place in a world of endless possibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it\u2019s a prehistoric world, it\u2019s not bound by the way we live in modern times,\u201d says Virgien. \u201cKids can run free, they don\u2019t have to worry about crossing the road. It\u2019s like going to Neverland or someplace. Anything is possible in Eureka!<\/em>\u2019s world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Niamh Sharkey and Norton Virgien, creators and executive producers of Disney Junior’s Eureka!, talk about the music-filled preschool series that follows the titular 8-year-old inventor in a prehistoric world. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1033,"featured_media":23361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,21],"tags":[112,6563],"class_list":["post-23360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-disney-junior","tag-eureka","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nDisney Junior\u2019s Eureka! 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