Gorillaville (USA), features three goofy gorillas as they wreak havoc on their wildlife preserve, with one thing on their minds: having fun!
Creator and Show-runner Ron Yavineli brings us behind the banana-fueled shenanigans of the titular gorillas.
How did the characters and setting take shape?
It all began with a trip to a unique zoo in Miami called “The Monkey Jungle”. I had gone there many times as a child and on one of my visits to Miami many years later, I went back there. This time there was a Gorilla living there named King. He was the most relaxed, easygoing Gorilla I’d ever seen. The zookeepers told us he had been with the circus before coming to the Monkey Jungle, and the people running the circus had removed his fangs to make him look “less scary”. That gave him this underbite which made him look kind of goofy. I immediately became a fan of his and filled a sketchbook with drawings of him. I drew him in all kinds of different situations. I did one sketch of him as a door to door salesman. I did another sketch of him as an astronaut planting a flag on the moon with the word “Gorillaville” written on the flag.
I didn’t think anything of it until an executive from a large entertainment company (which shall remain nameless) was looking through my book and saw that sketch of the Astronaut Gorilla and said “We can make something of this!” So from that sketch, I started fleshing out the idea and made it about 3 characters rather than just 1. I’ve always been a fan of classic comedy teams like the Marx Brothers and the 3 Stooges, so writing for a team like that came naturally to me.
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I did a lot of research into different types of apes and monkeys, and what their personalities are like. And as exaggerated as the show got, I always tried to work actual scientific facts into the show somehow – even though the characters do things that apes can’t do in real life (such as talk) I still wanted the show to have a foothold in reality. Anyway, I developed a different version of the show with that big entertainment company, but the executive I was working with left, so I didn’t end up selling it to them. When that happened I went back to the original version of the idea, and pitched it around Hollwood. Eventually DreamworksTV bought it and the rest is history.
What were the main inspirations for the visual style of Gorillaville?
My main influences have always been the classic cartoons from the 1930’s and 40’s. I love squash and stretch, and that style of humor. But I had to make it work within the budget and time frame I was given so I modified the style to work for that as best I could. Wherever possible, I also tried to base the images – even loosely – on the real animals and people that the characters are based on.
What is your favourite part of the series?
I don’t know if I have a favorite episode. I love
them all…though I definitely like some episodes more than others. My favorite thing about the series was that I got to make it at all. Not only that but DreamworksTV gave me creative carte blanche. As long as I could get it done on time, under budget and within the parameters I was given, I could make the show exactly the way I wanted to make it. And I did.
If they only took one thing, one message, what would you like the audience to take away from the series?
I’ll answer that this way: You know a series is successful when the audience walks out of the theater (or away from the computer) singing the song that was featured in the episode, or repeating the jokes from the episode, or imitating the characters. I’ve been very gratified to see audiences doing exactly that.
How did you use music in your storytelling?
I always had very specific ideas for how I wanted the music to sound in the episodes. And of course there are several episodes that are musical from start to finish: Unga Bunga Boogie, Maestro Bobo, and the most popular episode: The Quinoa song. I worked with a terrific composer: Max Repka, who totally got what I was going for musically, and always made it work.
What was your greatest challenge in creating the series?
There were many but probably the greatest challenge was working with a team that was spread out all over the world. We live in such amazing times that you can work with people in another country who you may never meet in person, all from the comfort of your own laptop. If I had to do it all over again though, I definitely would.
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