Rich Magallanes, Executive Producer, Nickelodeon Dora!

 

Welcome back friends to our podcast on locking your world of creativity and today our world of creativity is the world of animation and more specifically kids show animation and all the branding the producing the streaming the channels and

we're going to talk about all those topics with my terrific guest, Rich Maga Yanis. Rich, how you doing?

I'm good, how are you? It's good to be here, thank

you. we're catching up with Rich in his office working on a brand new show, bringing Dora back in a whole new way.

, Dora's coming back. We're doing the CG reboot. She's been away for a couple years, but she's always been beloved by the families and the industry and all around the world. It's something that's never really lost its steam.

And at the same time, we're reintroducing her in a brand new way. That's again, CG animation refreshed a whole new look lots of updated music. That's much more entertaining for today's audience, much more engaging. We're stretching our stories quite a bit taking her into new areas that we haven't been before.

And we still have all the the integrity of her as a character. Living in the rainforest we're bringing in mommy and poppy and the entire family with abuela and her little twin and all the usual cast in terms of boots and Tico and Benny and Isa and even swiper.

Yeah. I love

that. Yeah Rich is the executive producer at Nickelodeon for a lot of these kids programs. But as you mentioned to me at the outset, Rich, when you executive produce, you've got the one show on your mind all the time. And just as you were describing, I think about character development. I think about story development.

It must be quite a constellation of thoughts. You have every

day. Yeah, you're constantly evolving. And experimenting and executing , your characters, your thoughts, , everything , that goes into the stories.

You think you write a script and then you just go into boarding or creating it, animating it. It's not. Really so true. Constantly, it's an evolution step by step process. And so Dora or any show that I've worked on before in the past. Your growth you're constantly growing it testing it.

Sometimes you realize oh, it'd be better visually this way That's where the board artists, really have a lot of fun We encourage them to take the reins and follow the script the guidelines But if you have a different way of doing it this way or something, we were open minded to that kind of stuff.

But yeah it's all consuming. It's nonstop. Yes.

You've worked on a lot of these properties that have broad awareness. What were the particular challenges as you said? Oh, we're going to take Dora to a whole new level to a whole new audience as beloved a character as she already is.

It's interesting because you never know how things are going to land, especially in today's world. There's so much content out there. And so in brainstorming about, Dora and, how do we take this to the next level? That's where I really feel like that's the important part.

You have to ask yourself, what is new about this? What's exciting about this? What is the next step? It can't just, the answer cannot just be, Oh, she's in CG. thAt's a great thing. But what are we doing now? And how are we getting there? And how are we going to be in her footsteps, following along with her on the ropes, on the floor, on the ground level running through everything.

So it's really it's all about storytelling. And it's really about her relationships, with the other characters and how she interacts with them and how they react to her. And then also Door is a very tricky show. There's a lot of rules involved that get really complicated and at the same time so simple.

But there's a lot of interaction. Looking at camera, she never forgets the audience is there with her. She invites the audience in on the ride. She will actually help for their ask for their help to resolve some challenges or obstacles. And then there's the Spanish. Or she introduces Spanish and, the repetition of that.

So it's a very and she's always, she's always got to be in lead position too. And and there's lots of wins and there's lots of heart and there's lots of comedy and there's lots of adventure. It's all that rolled into one good ball of goodiness. Yes,

exactly. And you've earned the trust of taking care of Dora having done Rainbow Butterfly, Unicorn Kitty, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, SpongeBob SquarePants.

These are the classics. What were some of the lessons learned now that you're bringing into this

project? I think one of the biggest I, I learned a lot, Spongebob was like part of my upbringing at Nickelodeon, I started out at Nickelodeon as a little, we, nobody, I was actually, you were

just happy to have a

key to the front door and I was an assistant.

And then I eventually worked my way up to, very long story short to being senior vice president. of the current series production department. And Spongebob was always part of me doing that. I worked on Spongebob again, on a lower level, but coming out of season one. And I learned so much integrity about that character from the late, great Steve Hillenburg.

He really had integrity for Spongebob, the character and the show in general, and just so many. Golden nuggets that I learned from him and, and that team about comedy and timing and again, just integrity of a character. And then there's. Other shows like to jump many years later where Nickelodeon had purchased Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and that was another reboot, a giant one, and that was literally hitting that reset button, doing something new on a new level, and at the same time, keeping that integrity of all the characters.

So I think when I think about turtles and then, and relate that to completely different show than something like Dora, but how do take it to the next level? How do reintroduce these characters that some people, love and they don't want you to change them.

But what are those things that people have always wanted to see that maybe you can reintroduce or play with and you got to push it to a certain level without losing, who they are without losing their identity and go to those areas of exploration and fun that people will come along with you on the ride for very tricky to do, but I'm very

tricky and I was thinking about, how do we learn this?

Are there principles, are there yardsticks, are there templates, are there, practices that sort of you, it's just like we've been talking about running as a hobby, but it's like you got to build the muscle, you got to build the endurance. So in judging and deciding what's creative, what fits, what does this character really mean?

What are some of the guideposts that you

use? I Really just allow myself freedom to go to areas that maybe not may not be the best, and then to back it out or to go there and just not judge yourself, don't be afraid. I, it's a lot of times in the writers rooms and so forth.

People throw out ideas. We do it all day long. And then you realize halfway through your comment or your thought, this is really sucks, or you're like, this isn't really well thought out, but it's okay, it's conversation. And I think, when you're in a writer's room, a really good writer's room, that you have freedom to do that.

Those are the best situations because. You're allowing yourself to throw it out there, but somebody might, glob onto that, and then add to it, and next thing it's like this Lego thing, where it's, you're building this creature, or this content, that came from a little nugget, and then you might just take it all apart again, but then you might rebuild it, so there's allowing yourself the freedom to actually flow with stuff, you And not judge yourself, not censor yourself and to keep moving forward.

I think that's it forward, backwards. I don't care, whatever it is. Yeah. You just keep playing and playing like Play Doh, and keep throwing things on the wall. Eventually something will stick and sometimes you get it right away. And sometimes, sometimes it takes a long time, for you to come back and go, I got it.

Yes. So when you're speaking about the team, just in the writers example, but boy, you look at the credits on almost all of these animation products, whether they're, TV, whether they're movie. They go on and on hundreds of people involved in the production of these.

And you find a way to be the glue in all that. What is your. Secret and advice for us, in our building teams that, really helps keep these moving, but moving in the right direction.

Yeah, I love this question because it's funny for me. I've always been a creative, a storyteller and a writer and so forth.

And then I found myself, at Nickelodeon is where I grew up in the animation industry and started out, on the writing side of, being a freelance story consultant, et cetera, and then went over to the network side. And as a network executive I had to really Find myself once I became a an executive in charge of a production, who am I, what am I going to do and how am I going to be a leader and all that?

And I realized. Early on, I couldn't be like my boss, who she was this way. And then my other boss, who is that way I had to be myself. And I have a little bit of a rule of that. If I'm not having fun doing something, I don't want to do it. So I just realized I'm a little bit of a jackass, I'm in the room.

I like to play, but I like to do things and get things done. I had to allow myself to be myself, first and foremost, and I'm also a people person. The way I talk to you might be some way, somewhat different than how I talk to someone else. It's not because I'm being fake or phony, it's because I need my message and my communication to be clear to you, so that you can understand what I'm saying, so that you can actually react to me.

Without being, offended or, putting up walls and blockers and so forth. I love having creative conversation. So I think part of it is be a good person, like literally and be open minded. And when someone's saying stuff to you that you don't like, try to get down that wall that you're putting up so that you can just hear what the content is.

Because then you're able to respond to it. And if you can get other people to do that back to you, then you're having a good creative conversation.

Yes. My guest is Rich Magallanes. And he's at Nickelodeon right now, executive producing Dora the reboot as we've been talking. Rich you've talked about your sort of career upbringing and the mentors and bosses that you've had.

When we met a few weeks ago, you've been talking about. Connecting people to that. There's so much, especially in your business of connecting and networking and who knows who and who needs to know someone else. What would have been some of the things that you've tried to do, and bring back, people helped you.

Now you want to help other people.

Yeah, I'm a big, advocate of helping people today, I'm meeting with people later, and I'm, yeah, I got several people on my calendar this week that I don't know who've introduced me through, Hey, you should meet rich, Hey, somewhat annoying sometimes just because of my time, but but I love doing it and I love helping people to achieve their goals or just take the next step or put them in a direction where they can go.

I think part of that is, you got to get out there in the world and you got to get into these communities, whether their community is like there's, Latino communities that I belong to, that they're very specific ones, for your identity people can do that.

And then there's also there's just animation groups, and getting on LinkedIn, put your file together and get on LinkedIn and then. Start, I get, invites and requests all the time. I don't take them all, but if I see you're an artist and you're connected to other people and you start to build your your own portfolio, your own profile and it really, I think helps.

And that's what we were talking about a couple weeks ago is after the pandemic, I was. Getting a little bit of the, there's this giant animation market, everybody goes to, and I wasn't able to go and I thought, I'm stuck here in town. I'm going to just get people together at a bar and see if they want to come.

I'm just going to tell people I'm over here. And next thing I knew it was. A hundred people showed up, I, they, they told me beforehand, thank God, but I called it the animation shindig. Yeah. And I thought, Oh no, now I got to be an adult and go get space because I can't just show up with a hundred people and say, I got 80 people behind me.

Is that cool? And they would say, no, get out of here. So I actually went to a bar in North Hollywood called the federal bar and I rented out space.

And it was overwhelming. It was incredible. So

yeah, very good. Very good. And I love the title shindig. Literally we're just all showing up in this space. Oh, there's a writer. There's a voiceover. There's a producer. There's an animator.

That's exactly what it was. I had everybody from voiceover actors to creators, producers, old school, new school old school, new school.

It was like, agents. They were saying, Oh, can I get my writers to come? Like people I didn't even know. And I was like, yeah. And then when I saw people there, I was like, Ooh, Mark, have you met so and you gotta, that's all I was doing. And it was just fun. It was just, I just love doing, I love introducing people.

Yes,

And I've had questions like this from creatives, especially, like I say, in your industry, but it's like, what do you do after the shindig sometimes matters a lot, was there the follow up? Was it a meaningful connection? What do you do next? I think even about your, get up on LinkedIn and make some connections, but how do you make those meaningful, productive and ultimately, profitable connections?

It's funny you ask because I'm going through something right now where we met at this thing called empower con and I met so many people there and I wasn't planning on, I didn't know what was going to happen, but now, I've been invited to several functions, by following up with people and people following up with me and it's so easy nowadays to text somebody, it doesn't have to be a big formal thing.

It was just a, Hey, it's so great to meet you. Thanks for, everything that, you know the day or whatever, and that's exactly what happened. And because of that, like I went, I, it just snowballed into a next thing and the next thing. Now I've been to a couple of other events, got another one coming up tomorrow.

I went to something on Saturday and I met more people there and I'm doing the same thing. I got business cards and, one guy even approached me and said, Hey, I. Would love to do a book. And I was like, what? He's you, me get out of here. But but yeah, following up, like that's, that makes a difference.

And again, it, whether it's coffee. Whatever you can do, to, I know people's time is really stressed and people, are under a lot of pressure to get their work done and so forth, but you throw it out there and if somebody can't meet you, it's fine. At least they, you met them and you might see them at another function.

And then that's where you come back in and Hey, like we, we remember we met over there and all that stuff.

And you said, the people trying to get to you and as you mentioned, wink Sometimes it is annoying but you know the meaningful again I go back to something of value.

Do they really know what you're looking for? Or do they just say hey rich I'd like my foot in the door. What can you do for me? That's not a two way interaction

Is it not really? It's okay though, just to let people know, if somebody just lets me know what they want to do this thing, like I'm meeting somebody actually later today and we're just going to have a phone conversation and it's literally a voiceover actor.

And I know people, so I just want to hear what she has to say. And then I might be able to say, Oh I'm not going to be able to help you. I'm not the guy, but I'm not the guy, but you should meet Larry over here, and Larry, I'm going to introduce you guys, but I have to hear, it depends, like you hear like somebody's expertises or level of experiences.

And then from there you can determine is it worthy of meeting somebody or is it saying, Hey, classes do this, do that, or, what kind of, is it elementary or is it advanced? Yes.

And I think, as you mentioned the Latino community other identity or ethnicity groups what kind of support do they need?

And what are they looking for from a connection with somebody like you?

he last big one I did was in: 2019

One day was 2, 500 boys. And it was, I think they were eight to 11. And then the other one was same thing, 20, like 2, 300 girls, same age. And at first I thought, oh, they're going to kill me. Yeah. These are kids, and I've done it, I've done it for kids before, and sometimes, they're on, they're loud and hyper and, but it's great because you go there and here's my thing.

I wish when I was a kid, somebody. Held my hand and told me it was going to be okay. Somebody told me I could do something different because I came from, an underrepresented family. And, we were on welfare and, we were not doing great. And I always. Never knew exactly what I wanted to do, but I knew what I didn't want.

And I never wanted to go back there. And so sometimes you may not know exactly what you want, but if you know what you don't want, you use that as your guide, and so that's how my life worked for me.

I think about those boys, and the other kids in your audience, could they be looking and say, Hey, rich, it's easy for you.

Look, you're an executive producer at Nickelodeon, but you're saying, Hey, I wasn't always here. I came from where you are.

Everything I have everything everywhere I've been, it's all been on me. Like I've earned everything and built everything. And I'm not even saying it's the best. I'm just saying, I could have been, still working.

In a mail room, which I did, and I'm not dissing anybody who works in a mail room. I'm saying, I wanted something bigger. I wanted something better. And that's what motivated me to keep moving forward.

Yes, I think this is the topics of the book rich. We got to get that book started. Yeah. You got those stories.

Maybe that's the title, right? Yeah. There you go. It's on me. You talk about and this is, well known in Hollywood and in the creative arts in general, mailroom to buyer to seller to creator, to developer, to team leader and executive positions. What is that pain the dues?

mYth and is it still there and where are we, in that creative climbing of the ladder?

It's definitely there. I do believe you have to pay your dues, but it doesn't mean you have to suffer. It just means you have to keep being busy. Don't stop. Stay busy. Do what you want to do and always.

I got my way out of I'll tell you real quickly out of the mailroom when I was working at a radio station, way back after college, I had graduated and I had a journalism degree, but I was working in the mailroom. And I thought this sucks. I'm actually, I got a degree and I'm working in the mailroom and I'm at a radio station and they got a newsroom right there so I actually took my degree because I was delivering mail to everybody and I had to deliver mail to, the general manager, I put my degree in his mail.

And, so talk about being, bold and taking a risk. And I thought, you know what? I walked by his office and he was looking at my, he was looking at my degree and I thought I just kept walking by, and he said, Hey, come here. So I went inside and he said, sit down. And he looked at me, he's right in the eye and he said, smart.

Really smart. And then he said, what do you want? And I said, I want to work in the mail room, sir, and he said, I'll see what I can do. And, two months later I was in the mail room. I was the youngest kid in that mail room. The newsroom writing news. And I, so I was like, I'm doing it, and it was, it's just, you have to take a chance.

You got to keep moving forward. You got to think, how can I get in there and not by applying sometimes, the normal way. Sometimes you got to go other ways. I've gone to bosses at Nickelodeon and said, Hey, I just want you to know I'm not putting any pressure on you. I want you to know right now that I'm interested in being here.

I would like to move up. And if I'm doing anything that you don't see me moving up in a, in the right way, let me know and I will correct it. Or if you see me doing the right things now, I will continue to do them. Any kind of advice you can give me, I will, I'm open ears and I want you to know that I would like to move up eventually.

And they, people respond to that. They say, wow, that's great. Now they know you're on there. You're on their radar. Yes.

Instead of just hoping to be recognized.

No, do something about it. That's how I've moved up the ranks. I did it one time to a boss so much. So I would say, Hey Laura, it's here.

And she said, Richie, I know. And I said, so the minute I got that, I said, okay my, my job is done here. Great.

Yes. Yes. Moving on. wE've been talking with Rich Magallanes. He's the executive producer at Nickelodeon Animation on the new CG series, Dora. It's a complete reboot. It's a great look.

I've seen some of the videos. Can't wait to hear, what the streaming platform and plan is going to be, where the network is going. What do you see in the series? Sort of new channels, new mediums for shows like Dora. What is the new opportunity?

I think it's hard to tell there's so much content nowadays.

It's really as an adult, how much stuff do you watch, and how, you're flipping all over the place from all the different streamers. And the other day I was talking to somebody and they said, Oh, this one's on this streamer, because I don't want to give names right now.

And I said yeah, it's the only one I don't have, and I said, I was like, Oh my gosh, it's like insane. But I think, when it comes to Dora it's universal. wE have a a brand, and by all means, I did not create the show. It's an amazing property and it just clicked with the universe.

And so it's a worldwide franchise. It's a brand. It's people that, just families enjoy, not just kids. I really think something like that is key with what we're doing right now. We have, music is just really strong and entertaining and catchy. And I think kids are going to come back for the music, but also, adults are enjoying it, so we do our research and so forth.

And, we're hearing from adults and they're also enjoying the characters in the stories. Cause there is a lot of kids are watching a lot of YouTube stuff, and a lot of it is not really with sustenance. And so we are trying to give you a good story. Good moral value, heart, comedy, and adventure.

And again, all that stuff is, and you're in on the ride, so it's a lot going on, but it's good quality. And I think that is the key difference for a lot of, other shows, that we're producing.

I've seen a lot of clips on YouTube. It looks beautiful. The sound is great.

And the story, of course, I think I'd like to end here, Rich, with the question about kids programming and kids stories and kids, properties and brands. How do we, there's so many listeners I've heard from, kids, authors, filmmakers, animators, and storytellers of all kinds.

Where do we find that? balance, that line between marketing to kids, so to speak, and that crass commercialism, and telling great stories that uplift kids which we need in the world tremendously right now.

Yeah, I think they're completely two different things. The marketing to kids, that's a whole other machine, and I think if we do our part in telling wholesome stories, again with lots of heart and a moral value you can only market it one way. With a good message. And for me, I believe in delivering something solid to the network, no matter what show it is. Even if it's something like high end adventure, and action like.

Turtles, but it's got to have its comedy and it's got to be again, safe for that audience relatively. And then if you want to, go a little risky and go a little more outside the box, like the recent movie was and so forth, that's all great too. But I think the marketing really hinges on the product that you've created.

And I can't speak to the way people, the way networks and the bigger productions tend to market, because they do want to get the ear to people, and have people, it has to be catchy. You have to draw people in one way or another, right? And again, I think that is through one, good luck great feel, great storytelling.

And, if you have comedy in there, comedy is great. Comedy translates worldwide, action. Can do the same, a little tougher, but that's, for animation and for the business I'm in I am, more of a slapsticky kind of guy. I have to control myself quite a bit when I'm working on the preschool shows or the younger shows, but but I, the bottom line is have fun.

How can you do slapstick that's on a younger level? And that's how I think about it. And I think that gets people's eyeballs and it gets their attention.

So good. I hope that answers your question. Oh, it definitely does. Rich, thanks for sharing all your experience. Listeners, we've heard today from Rich Magallanes.

We, we've heard about career development. We've heard about team development, creative development, story development. We've gotten so much insight from your experience, Rich. Just can't thank you enough for the conversation.

Ah, it's a pleasure, man. I love doing this. Thank you for I'm so glad I met you.

Yes. And thank you for having me

on. And that's the number one thing I think that we take away, right? Is that we put ourselves out there. There's probably a lot of things we could have been doing on a Saturday morning. There's a lot of places I could have been. Why I went from Boise to LA on that day to meet people like you time will tell.

But we put ourselves out there.

That's exactly the point as it goes right back to what we were saying earlier about just getting out there and doing something and then hanging out, and seeing what's going to happen. You never know.

Yes, very good. Listeners, come back again next time.

We're going to continue these around the world journeys. We love to talk about how we get inspired, how we organize ideas. We've heard some of that today, but ultimately, certainly the connections, but ultimately the confidence to launch our work. out into the world. So until next time, I'm Mark Stenson, and we'll be unlocking your world of creativity.