‘The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder’ creative team on reboot: ‘This show is going to be amazing’
EXCLUSIVE: Creator Bruce W. Smith and executive producer Ralph Farquhar break down the updates to the beloved series
The Proud Family is days away from coming back, and theGrio has an exclusive first-look clip with the creative team, who talk all things The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, and why they decided to bring it back for a new generation.
One of Disney Channel’s staple shows, The Proud Family originally premiered in 2001 with a relatively new concept: an animated show centered on a Black family.
Now, over 20 years later, Disney has revived the series for Disney+ as The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, with the original creative team and voices. Creator and executive producer Bruce W. Smith shared in the clip, “I am thrilled that The Proud Family is coming back.”
Smith continued, “This show is going to be amazing this time around. We brought our original cast back in its entirety.”
That case includes Kyla Pratt as Penny Proud, Paula Jai Parker as Trudy Proud, Tommy Davidson as Oscar Proud, Jo Marie Payton as Suga Mama, and Karen Malina White as Djonay Jones.
Executive producer Ralph Farquhar talked about what the show’s creators were thinking when they first brought the series to life in 2001.
“When we originally debuted, I think our focus was that we wanted to be unapologetically Black. At the time, oddly enough, there were no Black family animated series…it had a very profound effect for people because they got to see themselves.”
But what makes the revival of the series ‘louder and prouder,’ as the new title suggests?
Smith explained, “We’re living in the age of social media and those things impact kids…how kids are growing up nowadays was very different in this twenty-year span than it is today and we talk about all of it in our show.”
The Proud Family reboot also makes even greater strides in representation, specifically with gender identity and the LGBTQ+ community.
“We come up with our topics based on everything that we sort of see our own kids live through,” Smith added.
“Same-sex parents was something that not even as early as 10 years ago was an eyebrow-raiser, but now you see it every place.”
As theGrio previously reported, the series added Billy Porter and Zachary Quinto as gay couple Randall and Barry Leibowitz-Jenkins, “the mixed-race adoptive parents to 14-year-old-activist Maya Leibowitz-Jenkins,” voiced by Keke Palmer. EJ Johnson also joins as Michael Collins, one of Penny’s best friends, who is described as, “a non-conforming trendsetter.”
Despite all these exciting updates, the core essence of the show remains the same, Farquhar explained. “We believe that people love The Proud Family because it’s an honest, funny portrayal of Black family life,” he said. “As long as we stay true to that, that’s the secret sauce.”
The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder premieres Feb. 23 on Disney+.
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