Toonz partners with renowned American actress Janet Hubert for new animation project

Toonz Media Group (TMG) is partnering with Daytime Digital Emmy nominated actress Janet Hubert for a new animation project that has the potential to break stereotypes in children’s programming by focusing on representing kids from diverse backgrounds. The project titled ‘JG & the BC Kids’ is about a young lady superhero whose travels around the world nurturing special kids from multicultural communities.

Toonz Media Group (TMG), Elijah Rock Productions, and Ericka Nicole Malone Entertainment have started preproduction on a feature length animated movie, which will be followed by a TV series.

Conceptualised by Ms Hubert, the project was born out of the need to represent kids from all backgrounds and cultures in mainstream children’s content. Ms Hubert, who is an African American mom herself, says that even before her son was born she knew that she would never find the kind of toys, accessories or even story narratives that truly reflected who he was. In a world where his identity was starkly under-represented, Hubert wanted to create something to inspire him, and millions of other kids like him. And so, JG & the BC Kids was born. Ms Hubert is a co-producer of the project.

The lead character of the animated feature is Janet Granite aka JG, a super intelligent and athletic scientist and inventor who travels the world to find special kids. JG shows these special kids to be confident about who they are, no matter what they look like or what their interests are. A group of talking dinosaurs with their own superpowers helps her as she works with these kids and fights off the evil Dr. Zandor who wants to control Earth. JG & the BC Kids encourages kids to embrace differences, to find their own strengths, and to be confident and courageous in life. 

JG & The BC Kids, targeted for 5-9 year-olds, will be produced in vibrant 2D animation with an energetic, diverse and ethnic underscore. 

Apart from Janet Hubert, who starred in 90s hit sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel Air among others, the award winning team of the show includes actor Raven Goodwin (voice of JG), animation director Ron Myrick (Animation Director) and award-winning composer Wendell Hanes.

Actor, writer, producer and directorEricka Nicole Malone (Executive Producer) and Philip Robinson are co-producing JG and the BC Kids along with Toonz. Malone was the inspiration for Hubert to bring JG back to the forefront. Ericka Nicole Malone Entertainment stands for principle and family values and in JG and the BC Kids, that is what she saw.

P. Jayakumar, Chief Executive Officer of Toonz Media Group, says the studio is very excited to partner with actor, producer and creator Janet Hubert andEricka Nicole MaloneEntertainment: “We feel it is high time that such stories were told, especially when the world is striving to move towards greater equality and justice. The targeted age group for this series is also important, as these are the formative years when children pick up and nurture values for life. We are thrilled to partner with Janet Hubert to bring to life this film and TV series.”

Ms. Hubert emphasized that the series will reflect diversity in the real sense and will have characters from many ethnicities: “I knew that Toonz would be the perfect partners to understand and bring to life, JG who is a strong and super smart character. You can be both. It is past time to bring street smart kids and book smart kids together to create ‘life smart’ kids and do it in a fun, exciting way.”