“Miles from Tomorrowland” is getting Disney Junior viewers excited about the science that powers space flight

Jim Hill

10 years ago

So how does Sascha Paladino — the creator and exec producer
of Disney Junior‘s “Miles from Tomorrowland” — measure the amount of time &
energy that he’s poured into the
development of this popular new animated series? Oddly enough, Sascha doesn’t
use miles as his unit of measure. But — rather — the ages of his twin boys.

“Back when I first pitched ‘Miles’ to Disney Channel
executives, my sons were only three months old,” Paladino recalled during
a recent phone interview. “By the time that our very first episode debuted
on Disney Junior last month, my sons had just turned five. So this show’s
journey from original concept to finished product took — what? — 4 &
3/4rds years? Wow.”

And why exactly did it take so long for “Miles from Tomorrowland” to move through
Disney’s development pipeline? Because Sascha was looking to do something genuinely
ambitious with this animated series. Which was find ways to get pre-schoolers
excited about the science & technology that makes space flight possible.

“When I and the ‘Miles’ development team were still in
the research phase for this Disney Junior show, we got to visit NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Lab in Pasadena. We also
got to tour that privately funded space company, SpaceX. And you know what we
learned as we talked with the rocket scientists who worked at these places?
That they were all inspired to pursue the jobs that they have today because of
the movies & the TV shows that they had watched when they were kids.
Programs like ‘Star Trek‘ and films like ‘Star Wars,’ ” Paladino continued.
“That’s when we realized how important ‘Miles’ could actually be in the
long run. Which is when we became determined to make this Disney Junior show as
entertaining & informative as it could possibly be when it came to explaining
the science that powers space flight.”

Mind you, given that the target demographic for Disney Junior is kids 2 – 5,
putting together a new animated series that would then try and explain key
scientific concepts & principles to pre-schoolers in an entertaining way
initially seemed … Well, impossible. But Sascha and his team persevered.

“Miles from Tomorrowland” creator & executive
producer Sascha Paladino. Photo by Craig
Sjodin. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All rights reserved

“I won’t lie to you. There were days during the development
process where working on ‘Miles’ felt like we were juggling flaming knives. I
mean, our goals for this show were multi-fold. We were trying — above all —
to be entertaining. But at the same time, we wanted to introduce kids to aspects
of the sciences in a non-didactic way. And if that wasn’t already a tough enough
nut to crack, we also wanted ‘Miles’ to be very much be in the grand tradition of
Disney storytelling. Which meant that this new Disney Junior show had to have
great characters with lots of humor & heart,” Paladino explained.

As I noted at the top of this article, it took a number of
years to get the balance of elements just right. But in the end, Sascha &
Co. came up with the Callisto clan. This family of space travelers — Mother /
Captain Phoebe, Father / Engineer Leo, 7 year-old Miles and his big sister
Loretta — who all work for the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, this galactic
transportation corporation which is determined to connect the universe through
science & technology.

“And what’s great about this set-up is that — because
each episode of ‘Miles from Tomorrowland’ is then made up of two 11 minute-long
stories — as Miles and his family explore strange new worlds, we then get to
take our young viewers on an adventure which features at least one space
flight-based or science fact per episode. Take — for example — our ‘Journey
to the Frozen Planet’ episode — where we talked about exoplanets. Which are
these planets that exist outside of the solar system,” Paladino stated.

“Journey to the Frozen Planet” is actually an
excellent example of what a truly difficult juggling act “Miles from
Tomorrowland” can sometimes be. Especially since this particular episode tries
to get across the importance of two distinctly different scientific principles
within the confines of a single 11 minute-long story.

“What we were looking to do with ‘Journey’ was demonstrate to our viewers
that while — when it comes to science — it’s usually crucial to follow
instructions exactly, it’s also equally important to sometimes think outside
the box,” Sascha said. “Now you’d think — given that this animated
series is being put together by artistic types like animators, designers &
writers — that this episode would then come down on the ‘Think-outside-of-the-box’
side of the fence. But that’s where you’d be wrong. Because when it comes to
science, you really do need to follow the rules or you’re probably not going to
get the outcome that you were looking for. So the real challenge with ‘Journey’
was to give equal weight to both sides of this argument.”

Given that some of the subject matter that “Miles” was going to deal with did
sound awfully dry, Paladino knew that he needed a top notch cast of voice
actors to put this material across. Which is why one of the very first people Sascha
hired for this Disney Junior show was Tom Kenny of “SpongeBob Squarepants” fame.

“But given that — when we produce TV shows here at Disney — we want to
make sure that these programs are not only entertaining for kids but also have
something for Mom & Dad … Well, we thought that it might be fun to include
some performers from the ‘Star Trek’ & ‘Star Wars’ universes to help round out
our vocal cast,” Sascha enthused. “Which is why we reached out to
people like Mark Hamill, George Takei and Wil Wheaton. We even got Bill Nye the
Science Guy to come voice a character on this show.”

“And what I really love about being able to do that is since it was these
performers that helped inspire the current generation of scientists who are now
pursuing goals like space tourism and the first hotel in space. Which — if
what the folks at SpaceX told us proves to be true — that’s in our immediate
future. We’re just four years or so away from that long-held dream becoming a
reality,” Paladino continued. “And if we’ve done our job correctly
with ‘Miles’ … Well, who knows what the future generation of scientists —
who hopefully will be inspired by our show — will then be able to
accomplish?”

And speaking of accomplishments … Given that “Miles from Tomorrowland” — when
it debuted on Disney Junior back on February
6th — reached 2 million unique viewers and 697,000 children ages 2 to 5, eventually
becoming that week’s No. 3 cable TV series among kids ages 2 through 8, it’s
clear that Sascha & Co. created something that really resonated with this
show’s target audience. More to the point, Disney Stores across the country are
reporting that they’re having trouble keeping up with consumer demand for Miles
from Tomorrowland-related merchandise. Which suggests that the Mouse may now
have a new sci-fi hit on its hands.

So if you’d like to check out the program that’s getting
pre-schoolers all excited about the science that powers space flight, the Disney
Channel is staging a “Miles from Tomorrowland” programming event this morning.
Where — starting at 9 a.m. ET / PT —
they’ll be airing three full episodes of this new animated series back-to-back.

This article was originally posted on the Huffington Post’s Entertainment page on March 20, 2015