- “Wowsabout!” — a new Jim Henson production for toddlers — teaches toddlers about the power of “awe.”
- The two new puppets — a hedgehog and a pig — visit national parks seeking wonder in the world around them.
- The show celebrates getting outside, overcoming differences and finding common ground in awesome things.
The Jim Henson Company introduced two characters for a new children’s show called “Wowsabout!” this year. Airing for free on PBS Kids this past spring, the toddlers’ program follows Roxy the hedgehog and Ronald the pig as they visit America’s national parks.
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The two puppets are very different — in personality, how they appreciate nature and, ahem, species — but are each eager, in their own way, to get out and explore the wonders of the natural world. And “Wowsabout!” is, ostensibly, about their adventures spending time in, as the two sing in tandem during the opening number, “the great outdoors.”
But, while the show absolutely celebrates getting outside and reintroduces classic Muppet hijinks to a new generation of toddlers, it really is about so much more. Through Roxy and Ronald’s adventures — and their conflicts, too — it’s a lesson for children (of all ages) on how to cultivate awe and that by sharing that feeling together, even significant differences can be overcome.
“Awe is a unifier by nature. So, it brings people together and causes them to be more empathetic,” said Dorien Davies, one of the show’s co-creators and the puppeteer behind Roxy, in an interview with Deseret News. “Roxy and Ronald come from very different backgrounds, but they all experience awe. It kind of unites them. It sets a really important tone for unification and understanding in an increasingly polarized country.”
She added that, “We really wanted to show their differences, use that as comedy, but also show kids that you can get over that little insult. You can move beyond it.”
Telling fortunes
When Halle Stanford creates a show, she’s trying to imagine what the modern preschooler will need. Not what little-Halle wanted when she was that age or what kids could use today, but rather what a young child and their parents might need a few years into the future.
To do so, she has to use something, she said, like her own fortune-telling ball. Over the years, one might say hers has proven quite prescient.
Stanford started at the Jim Henson Company in 1993 as the creative assistant for its head of television and film production. In time, she became that person’s protege and ultimately took over as president of television. Today, she owns her own production company but still creates shows for the studio she stewarded for 30 years.
After the pandemic, one of the things that fortune teller’s ball showed her was that there’s a need for children to develop more robust relationships with nature. Stanford said she “was thinking … like, ‘Wow, we just need to get kids outside and caring about the planet and each other and connecting with one another.’”
As research, she attended some classes with the National Science Foundation about climate awareness for parents, but what Stanford really wanted was to create a show that was maybe aware of those issues but still felt “heartfelt and fun.”
While on a drive through California’s Topanga Canyon, she just “imagined a little hedgehog in hiking boots with a backpack on her back out to see the wows of the world.”
And that’s how Stanford “met” Roxy, the funky and wild singing hedgehog, who — along with Ronald, the buttoned-up pig from Washington, D.C. — were to become the stars of “Wowsabout!”
That very week, in a stroke of kismet, she encountered Dacher Keltner, who wrote “Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life.”
“Wonder — the mental state of openness, questioning, curiosity and embracing mystery — arises out of experiences of awe. In our studies, people who find more everyday awe show evidence of living with wonder. They are more open to new ideas. To what is unknown. To what language can’t describe. To the absurd. To seeking new knowledge. … To the strengths and virtues of other people,” Keltner wrote. “It should not surprise that people who feel even five minutes a day of everyday awe are more curious about art, music, poetry, new scientific discoveries, philosophy and questions about life and death. They feel more comfortable with mysteries, with that which cannot be explained.”
Keltner’s research qualifies the power of awe and how it’s a key element to ensure people care about one another and the planet. His book details what he calls the “eight wonders of life” that correspond to awe. They are music, visual design, collective movement, big ideas or epiphanies, life and death, moral beauty, nature and spirituality.
“I was like, that’s it. It’s about awe. That’s the heart of this piece,” Stanford said. “Now I need a hedgehog. And I knew exactly the hedgehog to go to: the Amy Poehler of puppeteers, Dorien Davies.”
Davies remembers Stanford asking her if she’d be willing to puppeteer a hedgehog while white water rafting. Davies said, “if you’re in the boat with me.”
‘Profound Profundity’
The show is still in its beginning stages and, despite being one of the most successful PBS Kids specials ever aired, it’s in the process of raising money to produce more shows. As a result of the various budget cuts across public media, they’ve only been able to produce the initial 22-minute special as well as several short spots and promotional videos for the National Park Service.
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The hope is for many more episodes and seasons of the show to air, particularly in light of all the places and adventures Stanford and Davies want to bring Roxy and Ronald. In addition to national parks, they’re interested in museums, concerts, and — for Ronald, in particular — maybe even an opera.
Utah, of course, is a priority. Not just Zion and Bryce, but for how Roxy, Ronald and the viewing children can use their imagination within the otherworldly beauty of the state. They mentioned star gazing, space travel and the immensity of geological time.
“We love Utah. Like love, love, love, love, love it,” said Stanford. “We talk about Utah more than any other state.”
According to the show’s creators, the response to the first episode from viewers supports that there’s ample interest among the public to go on more adventures with Roxy and Ronald.
For those who have seen it, it’s easy to understand why. While “Wowsabout!” is funny, silly and full of the madcap tomfoolery fans of the Muppets will be familiar with — picture props being thrown at heads, ridiculous outfits, puppets with bed head, and also Ronald does get called a “piggy-pooper” at one point — “Wowsabout!” also manages to tap into the hopeful, soul-affirming sensation that comes from child-like wonder.
In doing so, Ronald and Roxy name that feeling for toddlers and their caregivers as awe.
“Awe is the feeling where you feel like you’re part of something bigger than yourself. It’s a feeling of vastness,” Davies said.
“When I read Dacher’s book, I was realizing I was able to name the feeling for the first time,” Davies remembered. “Sometimes I’d be like, ‘I’m happy. This is happy.’ But it wasn’t happy. It was awe. It was this feeling of profound profundity.”
What is a ‘Wowsabout!’?
Without giving too much away, Roxy and Ronald spend a few memorable days camping in Sequoia National Park. And to say that they’re excited for their visit would be a gross understatement.
Ronald, a city pig dressed in a bowtie and vest, travelled all the way to Sequoia National Park from Washington, D.C., with the specific goal of checking off all the activities listed in his junior ranger guidebook. He even has a watch set with alarms to remind him to keep checking things off “to explore, protect and learn about nature.”
Amid the general ebullience of his arrival, Ronald relishes in the first task: to close his eyes and listen to the forest, use his piggy ears to listen to the sounds of nature. After setting up his campsite, he activates his piggy ears and takes an early quiet moment centering himself — and the viewer — in order to be present to the sounds of nature.
Meanwhile, Roxy is a country hedgehog who arrived at the park singing. Driving a yellow camper van covered with bumper stickers, she wears a pink hairband and overalls and wastes no time “decorating” the campground she shares with Ronald, dressing the trees with scarves and flags and other tchotchkes.
Roxy likes to jump into experiences without specific planning or boring old books telling her what to do. And her reason for visiting is similarly emotional and heartfelt: Roxy’s beloved grandma, since passed, told her that there were “giants” living in the park. She wants to find them.
Such disparate personalities, of course, clash. But — again without giving too much away — they both come to appreciate how the other experiences awe. Whether that’s through stumbling into an unexpected butterfly migration or from taking the time to learn about the region’s specific history, each’s time in the park is enriched through the other’s point of view.
“Wowsabout!” shows how the sensation of “awe” can bring people (or puppets) together. Also how, in a country that is increasingly polarized, our differences are not nefarious, but rather kind of funny.
The lesson is that if Roxy and Ronald can do it, then we, too, can move beyond our differences and find common ground about the many things — nature, music, museums, the vast complexity of science and our pure, human (and nonhuman) relationships — that inspire awe.
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