Now here is a suite of videos that is certainly WHALE-worth your time! Longfellow’s WHALE Tales is a series of kids’ water safety videos from The American Red Cross that we were so honored to write, illustrate, animate, and produce. Come have a fin-tastic time singing with flying orcas, dancing with DJ river monsters, and learning to be water smart with Longfellow and his entire cast of water-safe pals. It’s sea-riously FUN!
Always swim with a real-life water buddy and you’ll have a WHALE of a time. This is the lesson at the heart of this episode starring Longfellow, Piper, Avery, and of course the ‘Castaway-inspired’ inflatable toy, Whaleson.
While producing each episode in this series was an absolute blast, we also knew that in order to make as big a splash as possible with Longfellow and friends, we needed to think of this as part of a broader educational program. With that in mind, we were so proud to partner with The American Red Cross to help shape curriculum materials for their entire Water Safety Educational Platform.
This included:
With a charm that’s consistent and cohesive across a wide breadth of curricular materials, we’re so proud that Longfellow is leaping into audience’s hearts and teaching water safety not just from one platform – but many!
When we set sail with The American Red Cross team in 2023 to talk about this water safety series, we were met with waves of ideas about character, tone, design, and storytelling structure. Our first step: partner with the ARC to come up with a look & feel that appropriately captured the charm of Commodore Wilbert E. Longfellow, the real-life 1914 ambassador for the WHALE Tales program whose philosophy was to ‘entertain the public hugely while educating them gently.’
We explored everything from how-to manual designs to vintage cartoons to find the appropriate style for this series. And in the end, we landed on a modern, minimalistic, yet evergreen design language, a broad cast of characters from humans to crustaceans, and a storytelling voice that was grounded in both pun-centric humor and music.
With a serious topic like children’s water safety, we and our American Red Cross partners knew that it was paramount to strike the right balance between teaching AND having fun. Because after all – while water can be dangerous, when you’re knowledgable and prepared, it can also be a whale of a good time! At its core, this series needed a teacher / water safety ambassador that could capture both of these sentiments.
And so, Longfellow The Whale’s character was born – serious about water safety, yet seriously silly too. From there, we built out our cast of kids – a handful of curious proxy-learners for our broad audience – followed by lifeguards, grownups, and a suite of fun-loving sea creatures that could provide both comic relief and key info.
When it comes to the final look of this series, we chose a graphic stylization that had one key word at its core – simplicity. This minimalist look helps keep our characters & environments feeling both modern and evergreen, but most importantly, it allows our audience to focus in on key learnings, free of overly complex design elements. A helpful bonus: A simplified look like this also gives plenty of room for our animators to make a big splash – and that they did!
Written & recorded in both English & Spanish, the Longfellow’s WHALE Tales series made localization for our Spanish speaking audience a top priority. We ensured that the dialogue and songs and animation weren’t just simply dubbed as an afterthought – but rather maintained both the core messaging and the catchiness of their English counterparts.
They were even animated to match the lip sync of the Spanish voices in an effort to tailor this as specifically as possible. We also translated a whole suite of curricular materials for the water safety program as a whole – everything from activity sheets to classroom posters to ensure the entire program is bilingual.
Creative Director Katie Trayte
Series Director Katie Trayte
Series Producer Mike Capbarat
Writers Mike Capbarat & Katrina Deptula
Animation Supervisor Conner Troxclair
Animators Split Studio
Concept Artsts Katie Trayte, Eri Hashimoto, Hannah Saidner, Conner Troxclair, Stella Oei
Songwriter & Song Producer Jason Rabinowitz, The Pop Ups
