While preschool kids may not be able to grasp the finer points of theology, two things that resonate with them (and their parents) are exploring God’s world and learning how to make their first friends.
That's the goal of the puppet series Guillermo & Will, now available on Christian kids’ streaming service Minno. It's the creation of two accomplished Jim Henson Company puppeteers, and a co-production between Family Theater Productions and Minno.
The kid-sized episodes were produced in FTPs’ studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood and follow the bilingual adventures of two colorful worms who are best pals.
Take a look:
Guillermo speaks mostly Spanish, and Will speaks mostly English (their names are equivalent, each in his own language), but they always find a way to communicate while seeking out new adventures –- even if they’re only in the imagination.
Geared for kids 2-6, no matter whether they speak English or Spanish in the home –- since all dialogue is presented in both languages –- Guillermo & Will teaches gentle lessons about friendship, cooperation, appreciating differences, and finding joy in God’s creation.
Series creator, puppeteer, and voice actress -- and 2024 Emmy nominee for Apple TV's Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock -- Donna Kimball (The Muppets Mayhem, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance) performs Will in the show.
Dan Garza (Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, Jim Henson's Splash & Bubbles) performs Guillermo.
For Kimball, Guillermo & Will is about using her talents to serve her faith and create great Christian content for today's young families:
Jim Henson stressed the importance of wanting to leave the world a little better when you go. And so, there is that. And yeah, it was really important to me just because there's just not a lot of it going on right now for the 70% of Americans that identify as Christian, and the 30% who say they go to church every week.
I wanted to do shows for the 70%, for the Christians who go every week, and for the ones who go on
Christmas and Easter and really mean to go the rest of the time ... It was just making no sense that Christian children today are mostly watching 20 and 30-year-old episodes of Veggie Tales.
She also wanted to help Christian kids begin to know God, even before they go to school:
For preschool, modeling is everything. You show them children who do the things that you want them to do. So, Guillermo and Will are constantly thanking God for providing this cool thing, thanking God for the abundance of all that God gives, for just admiring the beauty of the world.
"Wow. God's world, el mundo de Dios" ... just always heavy on gratitude, but really just something cool happens, and you say, "Thanks God," or something bad happens and say, "God, I need help."
But really just that informality and building that personal relationship with God is a big driver of what's behind this show.
In the view of Minno CEO and co-founder Erick Goss, it's about creating content that endures:
We're not making content just to create content. We want to create great brands and great shows.
And so you can think about this as, oh, you're losing your audience, or you can think about you're scaling your audience over time.
And so I think it's better to think about it is "Does this show, does it have staying power, and are we building a great show with great characters, with a compelling story, that we're not just getting one generation of preschoolers, but we're getting 20 generations of preschoolers?"
That's really the goal, which it causes you to think, "This has to be intentional. It has to be well-crafted. We have to have really great creators."
There's one sense where it's a statement to the quality of the show, but it's also a statement, I think, on the lack of great shows in the Christian media market, is that Veggie Tales is still probably the most popular show after 30, 35 years. ...
So much of what we are trying to do is, what does it mean to build that little faith muscle in preschoolers and 5- and 6-year-olds, so they can have that when they become older.
And [when] they start dealing with life's challenges and the brokenness and the fallenness of this world, to know that there's a God who loves them and will see them through that.
FTP's in-house producer, Anne Yancey, loved the Henson style of puppetry growing up, but like Kimball and Goss, she sees the higher purpose in Guillermo & Will:
Appreciating God's world is something that is important for little kids, and the little kid that lives in our heart the rest of our life. And when we see God's world, we should be in awe at the beauty of a sunset or a butterfly.
And this show will bring your heart right back to that place where you can notice things that maybe you wouldn't have noticed.
But these little worms will remind you of being grateful for God's beautiful creation and God's beautiful natural world, but also the beauty of spending time with your best friend.
To learn more about Minno and streaming Guillermo & Will, CLICK HERE.
The Minno app is available via laptop, mobile app, or on streaming devices.
Here's a look at an episode of Guillermo & Will:
Image: Minno
Kate O’Hare, a longtime entertainment journalist, is Social Media Content Manager and Blog Editor at Family Theater Productions.
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