The World Cup is just a week away. What better way to get families excited than a new animated series with a Soccer-esque game at its core. Dragon Striker, from co-creators Sylvain Dos Santos and Charles Lefebvre, premieres next Wednesday June 10th on Disney+ and Hulu. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity. Images Courtesy: Disney)

Jackson Murphy: Sylvain, Key is a young man who’s so excited about this soccer-like game called Gorotama. How did you really wanna show his enthusiasm as he’s on this epic journey?

Sylvain Dos Santos: I think you can tell from the beginning of the first episode to the end of the last episode that he’s really, really into Gorotama. He’s just realizing his dream. He was a huge fan of Gorotama. It was all of his life. But he didn’t know he was in fact a potential Dragon Striker. So his enthusiasm will grow along the story, but of course there will be setbacks because… the first day at school won’t be a dream. So yeah — enthusiasm and a lot of challenges in the story.

JM: Definitely. Charles, you do a great job setting-up the atmosphere and showing the friendship Key has with Ssyelle. What was important to you about showing that friendship?

Charles Lefebvre: The friendship is one of the keystones for the story. We build the story around Key as the hero, but actually Ssyelle is really the co-star of the show. The two are going to do their journeys through the school. They’re going to go through the same events [with] different outcomes. It’s interesting to see their evolution at the end.

JM: I like seeing their dynamic. The animation is so scenic and gorgeous. Charles, what were the highlights of creating this beautiful look?

CL: That was the challenge of this project — to try to be the most cinematic and [like] a feature, but for a series. That was quite a challenge. It’s not the same time / minutes of animation to create per episode. We did a different situation, some animation in-house, some we sub-contracted, and at the end we completed in-house to make sure we can keep the quality and the excitement of the animation.

JM: The quality is there. Sylvain, these epic games of Gorotama — such an immersive atmosphere.

SDS: The idea was to create a new genre of anime, injecting magic and superpowers. Super effects are on other sports shows… but it’s never in the universe. You never have a reason why this guy is shooting penguins or fire or dragons. It’s like everybody’s okay with that but nobody talks about it. So the idea was to create this show with a good reason for them to have magic powers.

JM: And it’s also about discovering your strength and how important that is. Charles, what does that theme mean to you?

CL: If I have to do a parallel, it’s the same thing with the team… everybody has different strengths to do what they know and what they’re good [at]. Knowing what you’re good at doesn’t mean you have to be strong about it. But you bring about what is your quality and how to make it to the surface to something bigger than you. It’s what we tried to do in the production and showing it in the project.

JM: I love that.

SDS: It’s also about finding your place — inside the team, inside the school… Inside this universe, Key needs to find his place. You have Ssyelle, all the knights from the different origins, and they all need to find their place. I think that’s a very good message for kids. You can feel bad right now, but you will find your place. You will find what is your capability and everything will be okay. You just need to find it.

JM: That’s fantastic. The fact that this is debuting on the eve of the World Cup. Did you always have that timing in mind or did it sort of work out that way?

CL: I think it really worked out that way. That wasn’t the plan. We had a little bit of [time] in the schedule to keep the quality in check. It’s really good.

SDS: For Charles and I, the show represents a lot of hard work for us and for the team. We are really, really proud of the team because the show is amazing. Animation is also a sport — a collective sport, a team sport. We are planning the wrap party right now, and there’s almost 300 people in Paris working on the show. That’s crazy. We really hope that people will like the show because there is a lot of love inside. Now everything is done. Disney is doing an amazing job in promoting the show. We did the best we could for the show. Now we just need to wait and see if people will like it.