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Don’t dumb down children’s shows

SINGAPORE — Don’t dumb down TV shows for children. That, said Nancy Kanter, is one of the factors to Disney Junior’s success. The channel, previously called Disney Playhouse before being rebranded worldwide as Disney Junior in 2011, was recently voted the No 1 pre-school TV channel in South-east Asia. It’s no mean feat, considering the plethora of programming that’s out there for children aged two to seven.

Disney Junior’s Nancy Kanter says compelling stories and characters are what keeps young viewers — and their parents — engaged. 
Photo: Christopher Toh

Disney Junior’s Nancy Kanter says compelling stories and characters are what keeps young viewers — and their parents — engaged.
Photo: Christopher Toh

SINGAPORE — Don’t dumb down TV shows for children. That, said Nancy Kanter, is one of the factors to Disney Junior’s success. The channel, previously called Disney Playhouse before being rebranded worldwide as Disney Junior in 2011, was recently voted the No 1 pre-school TV channel in South-east Asia. It’s no mean feat, considering the plethora of programming that’s out there for children aged two to seven.

“You can tell a pretty complex story,” said Kanter, the executive vice president of original programming and general manager of Disney Junior Worldwide. “I mean, they can sit and watch a Disney movie like Frozen that runs 90 minutes or more and they’re able to grasp that story. We’re not going to do a show simply about, say, a flower that blooms. It’s got to have a bit more to that story. But we do get pitched like that, because people say, it’s for three-year-olds, how complicated can you make it?”

It’s not just a matter of telling stories that engage the young viewer — you need to engage parents as well, said Kanter. “If we can create shows so that parents say, ‘I’m going to take time and watch this one with my child’ ... that, for us, is gold. It not only allows for that shared experience between parent and child, but opens up possibilities for conversation about what they’ve seen. That’s a way to have parent-child conversations — which can be about social behaviours, respect and all that — based on characters and shows they’ve seen.”

Disney Junior’s global reach isn’t just a result of being in one of the being entertainment companies in the world, but it’s also due to the fact that the channel, despite being essentially an American brand, has managed to come up with programmes that resonate with people all over world. These include titles such as Jake And The Never Land Pirates, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Doc McStuffins and Sofia The First, which was the most-watched series among younger girls in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines and the most-loved character among girls aged two to seven in Singapore.

“Our hope when we launched Disney Junior three years ago was that we would build is as global brand and it would be as powerful and meaningful outside the United States as we could make it,” said Kanter. “It’s something we are always cognizant of, when we’re conceiving the shows or taking the pitches for the shows. We’re not just thinking of the US market. Obviously, we know that the characters — because of how they’re designed — may not look local in any one territory, but we make sure that the characteristics and the story are just restricted to any one place.”

What’s interesting, she said, is that shows that work well in the US work well elsewhere too. The Disney movie, Frozen, for example, has worked well wherever it has played. “It’s the storytelling,” said Kanter. “If you tap into the right elements in a story, that story is going to resonate wherever you are. It’s reassuring to us that the content we are making and providing ... touches audiences no matter where they are.”

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