Entertainment
The Roots’ Stalwarts, Black Thought & Questlove Join Forces With Disney To Launch Animated Series… ‘Rise Up Sing Out’
The series, which will touch upon themes like diversity, inclusion, kindness and self-expression, was produced in response to parents who have increasingly asked Disney Junior for entertainment content to aid them in talking to children about respect towards others.
Variety recently announced that Disney is preparing to launch “Rise Up, Sing Out,” a short-form animated musical series that aims to deliver inspiring. empowering and optimistic messages about culture and celebrating differences.“Rise Up, Sing Out,” is an eight-episode series, that is executive produced by Ahmir ‘”Questlove” Thompson and Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter of the Roots, and is already available on Disney Plus, the first episode however was streamed Feb 2 on Disney Channel and Disney Junior.
Questlove and Black Thought are executive producers of the series and produced all of the music, the pair will appear in the series as well, depicted as animated characters.
The series, which will touch upon themes like diversity, inclusion, kindness and self-expression, was produced in response to parents who have increasingly asked Disney Junior for entertainment content to aid them in talking to children about respect towards others. Disney found academic research showing children as young as three become aware of differences between people and are capable of discussing those distinctions. One episode celebrates Black hair, while another explores names that can be mispronounced or stigmatized.
Variety quoted Questlove and Black thought saying “The ‘Rise Up, Sing Out’ shorts touch on a lot of real-world issues, especially for young Black kids, that just weren’t talked about when we were growing up. The beautiful thing about these shorts is that not only are they going to provide young kids the proper language to talk to their friends and family about some of the things that might be bothering them, but it’s also going to give parents the tools on how to respond,” Questlove and Black Thought said in a prepared statement. “We feel this is the perfect moment and the perfect time for us to put this project out into the world to plant a seed about kindness that will hopefully have a lasting impact for generations to come.”
Adding to the series rollout, Walt Disney Records released the music from “Rise Up, Sing Out” on Friday Feb 4.