July 9th, 2018 
Jackson Murphy 
Peter Hastings is the 6-time Emmy-winning animation writer and producer of Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs and the Kung Fu Panda series. Now, he soars to new heights as the executive producer of DreamWorks’ The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants, premiering this Friday, July 13th on Netflix.
Jackson Murphy: When you initially found out you were going to be a part of this series… Captain Underpants is one of the happiest characters ever… did you just jump for joy?
Peter Hastings: I did. I’ve known about Captain Underpants for a long time. It’s always been a special property because it’s fun, clever, creative and charming. I was introduced to it as a parent. And I’m very happy to carry on with all the creative zaniness of Dav Pilkey.
JM: He’s also an executive producer on this series. What’s it been like working with him?
PH: Dav has been amazing. He’s just really gracious and appreciative. And he really embodies the spirit of those books. I just knew – if I could make something that Dav liked, I know I’m in the right spot, which is what’s happened so far.
JM: For the kids who have read the books – and those who saw the movie last year – what was your ultimate goal with this show? Did you want the tone to be similar to the books and movie or a little bit different?
PH: Definitely similar in tone and spirit. I think underneath some of the more obvious things in “Captain Underpants” – there’s just this tremendous creative drive that’s happening. The characters themselves are creative. George and Harold make comic books. But the kind of storytelling that Dav did was really inventive and creative. He used different ways, in the form of a book, to be entertaining – to be… just creative in his whole approach. And that was the thing that really attracted me to it and that I really wanted to run with – because it was really an invitation with “Captain Underpants” to kind of go a little crazy. So that’s what we’ve, basically, been trying to do.
JM: And there’s a lot of different animation styles on the show, besides the hand-drawn we see the majority – inserted are other styles. How did you pull-off the puppet sequences?
PH: It was as complicated as saying, “Let’s do something with puppets.” In the book, there’s a very popular section called “Flip-O-Rama”, where you actually flip two pages of the book back and forth and create a very simple kind of animation. And to me, it was sort of like, “What if everything we can do… ‘filmed entertainment’… to do that same kind of thing?” Puppets is one that came up, stop-motion animation, paper cut-out things. We’ve done many different kinds of styles of animation on the show. And all of it comes out of this idea of hand-made, creative expressions that are part of the story.
JM: And I love the laser-light sequences. Those are fun!
PH: (laughs) Yes! With Flip-O-Rama [on the screen], we can’t turn a page back and forth on TV the way a person is interacting with it. But we can do all kinds of other stuff. So instead of just Flip-O-Rama, we’ve come-up with other O-Ramas (as we call them) for every single episode. There’s a different one in every show. Some of them are just 2D animation, some are with puppets, some are stop-motion. They’re just all different styles: all of them, again, expanding on… what I sort of discover when I go through the books.
JM: George and Harold are lovable, mischievous boys. Are there any similarities between your grade-school experiences and theirs? Any stories from your elementary school days that got into these episodes?
PH: Oh, I definitely spent some time out in the hallway, which, as Dav Pilkey will tell you, is where he was drawing. As a kid, [he] was drawing things like Captain Underpants. Honestly, the animation world is completely full of people who are making a living off of what they got in trouble for when they were kids. It is a very common kind of thing. Dav is really a champion of kids who are not the perfect standardized testing kind of people – people who are maybe a little more fringy or maybe find their strengths in other venues besides straight-up schoolwork, which was certainly my thing too. All of my endeavors in school were creative, and that was kind of what I got in trouble for most of the time, so I can relate to that.
JM: You came-up with the theme song for the show. How long did it take you to craft this?
PH: (laughs) When I get the opportunity to do a theme song, basically what I do is I do it out loud in the car while I’m driving around.
JM: Wow.
PH: I don’t think it really took too long to do it. Again, it’s when you have the point of view – when you know what the point of view is – and you know what kind of information you need to deliver – it doesn’t take too long. Also, my background is all in music. I went to school for music, and I was working as a musician for many, many years, so I’m very comfortable working with music.
JM: Does anybody ever see you? There are always those scenes in movies where someone’s at a red light, and they’re jamming out to a song, and people in other cars notice them – and it’s kind of embarrassing. Has that ever happened to you?
PH: Oh, yeah. All the time.
JM: But you’re good with it?
PH: It’s not so odd now that we all have the Bluetooth in our cars. I’m not necessarily playing drums on the steering wheel, though.
JM: (laughs) And on the show, you’ve got Sean Astin as the narrator. Tell me about working with him.
PH: I love working with Sean. I’ve worked with him on other shows. When I decided that I wanted the show to have a narrator, I knew that it had to be somebody who is likable, friendly – like George and Harold grown up. I just immediately thought of Sean because he’s had that spirit. Not only has he had that spirit, but he’s played it multiple times, in movies. He’s totally into it and is really fun – and we always have a good time.
JM: And Nat Faxon is the voice of Principal Krupp and Captain Underpants. Did you give him any guidance on how to voice these characters, or did you say, “Just go at it!”
PH: What I tend to do with the actors is that I let them go with what they are thinking or feeling, and then I make adjustments afterwards if necessary. And I really didn’t have to make any adjustments with Nat. He has such a great voice. As they say in the voice world, his voice prints really well. It leaps out of the speaker. He’s a very funny comedic actor, and it’s just a joy when you write something and then the actor takes it and makes it twice as good through their performance. He does that all the time.
JM: I feel like Captain Underpants is going to live on – with this series and with so many more incarnations. Do you feel like this character is gonna be around 20 or 30 years from now?
PH: Well, he’s definitely gonna be around. I’m constantly talking to people who are 25 and 35 years old and parents – and you just mention Captain Underpants, if they’re familiar with it, their face just lights up because they got it. They got the jokes. They got the spirit. They got the fun. And they know, kind of, how great it is. So, there’s no question for me that Captain Underpants, is gonna live on. And we hope to make as much as we can… and he’s not going anywhere.
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