The producers of Bob’s Burgers Loren Bouchard and Nora Smith launch new animated series Central Park to Apple TV+, according to Entertainment Weekly. Along with the producing help of the voice of Frozen’s Olaf, Josh Gad (Pixels), their team of voices including Leslie Odom Jr. (Red Tails), Kathryn Hahn (Afternoon Delight), Tituss Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) Kristen Bell (The Good Place) and Stanley Tucci (Julie & Julia) created a musical series drawing inspiration from Bob’s Burgers animation style.
“What we didn’t know was just what it means to do a real musical,” Bouchard told Entertainment Weekly. “[Bob’s Burgers] is a show that has music in it, so we joined forces with real musical people. Josh brought all these real capital-M musical people.”
Central Park surrounds the story of a family working to save their home in the New York City park from a wealthy buyer, Helen (Diggs). The family is made up of the park caretaker Owen (Odom Jr.), his journalist wife, Paige (Hahn) and their children Cole (Burgess) and Molly (Bell).
Despite the fun animated concept, Bouchard understands that debuting a series about a crowded public space is a bit odd with the global pandemic still prevalent. “Optimism is really important to me. It’s something I like expressing through animation, so here we are telling a story about a place that we’re not supposed to visit right now but that we hope to,” he told Entertainment Weekly.
However, producer Gad told Entertainment Weekly, “I really think Central Park is the great equalizer. It’s a breath of fresh air in a concrete jungle, this green oasis that speaks to the possibilities of human kind.”
Central Park debuts on AppleTV+ on May 29. Watch the trailer below: