Inside the ‘Donkey Hodie’ Team’s Efforts to Go Even harder on Disability Representation
I wrote last year about the PBS Kids educational game called Cousin Hodie Playdate. The game, available on the network’s website and its games app, is designed to help young children develop their emotional intelligence by paying attention to social-emotional cues such as body language and verbalization. The title takes its source material from the canonical animated TV series Donkey Hodie, aimed at preschoolers.
Cousin Hodie Playdate is produced by Fred Rogers Productions and Curious Media.
Last month, PBS Kids introduced a new character to the Donkey Hodie ensemble in Jeff Mouse. He was born with congenital muscular dystrophy and uses an electric wheelchair to get around. Jeff Mouse was inspired by the real-life experiences of Jeff Erlanger, who, in 1981 appeared on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood to do a duet with Rogers of “It’s You I Like.” The eponymous Fred Rogers Productions tapped the team at nonprofit organization Disability Belongs to serve in an advisory capacity, with Jeff Mouse being voiced by actor Jay Manuel. Manuel, who stars in Jay and Pamela on TLC, copes with Osteogenesis Imperfecta Type 3 (OI) and, like Jeff Mouse, uses a power chair for mobility. OI, colloquially known as brittle bone disease, is a genetic condition whereby bones easily fracture—oftentimes with no clear cause. Symptoms can be mild to severe, the most extreme of which bringing a myriad of complications as a result.
“We want to keep introducing characters who reflect and represent our audience who have different points of view and experiences. Understanding someone else’s point of view is part of building empathy, and older preschoolers are learning to do that through recognizing and naming not just their own feelings, but the feelings of others,” said Donkey Hodie co-executive producer Kristin DiQuollo in a recent interview with me conducted over email. “Introducing a character with a physical disability felt like something we could do thoughtfully and successfully with puppetry.”
DiQuollo explained the addition of Jeff Mouse “brings a unique perspective” to the show’s cast, adding “he helps show how we can do the same thing different ways.” She pointed to a line from Jeff Mouse in which he says in part “there are some things that I can’t do, but there are a lot of things I can do.” The line, DiQuollo told me, is a reference to a quote by Erlanger, who said “it doesn’t matter what I can’t do—what matters is what I can do.” DiQuollo and her colleagues also worked alongside Samuel Krauss, who advised the team on building Jeff Mouse’s character—including biographical details such as being born with muscular dystrophy and needing a power chair to get around. Krauss’ input including giving consideration to Jeff Mouse’s movement in the show’s Someplace Else environment. Specifically, DiQuollo said Jeff Mouse has “global limb and trunk weakness” in his extremities, also noting his wheelchair features a center-turning radius and smooth movement. Moreover, Disability Belongs connected with mobility company Permobil; according to DiQuollo, Permobil brought a demo wheelchair to the team’s Chicago-based art department, where the team created a chair for Jeff Mouse based on the model and Jeff Mouse’s puppet. DiQuollo added Krauss and Disability Belongs helped “capture the whimsical nature of Someplace Else while also ensuring a relatable representation of a power wheelchair user.” Additionally, Manuel, DiQuollo said, spoke with Jeff Mouse’s puppeteer, Stephanie D’Abruzzo, so the pair could “talk through Jeff’s movements, like how it would look when Jeff’s chair goes over certain surfaces, or how he would move his arms.”
“The size and weight of Jeff Mouse and his wheelchair were designed to give the puppeteers the ability to make precise and realistic movements of the character,” said David Rudman, co-creator and executive producer of Donkey Hodie and co-founder of Spiffy Pictures, in a short statement provided to me for this story. “The performers operate all of the Donkey Hodie puppets with their arms raised and since the characters do not have a surface to stand on, we needed to ensure that we were able to move the wheelchair in a true to life way as if it were actually rolling on the ground.”
The work the team put in for authenticity’s sake reflects an ethos on inclusivity.
“Like all our pals do in other stories, Jeff leads the day’s adventure, and his ideas contribute to the team and help solve the problem at hand,” DiQuollo said. “He introduces the idea that they can do the same thing different ways, and in the end, that strategy is what helps them all climb the Rainbow Tree to find the hee-hee hider moth.”
She continued: “Our show celebrates friendship, joy, and what makes us unique. Jeff is the latest friend we’ve introduced who has a unique perspective and way of experiencing the world, which is true of all our characters.”
DiQuollo shared about a playful Easter egg. In the episode where Jeff Mouse appears for the first time, the accompanying music is an arrangement paying homage to the aforementioned “It’s You I Like” tune Erlanger and Rogers sang four decades ago.
DiQuollo told me bringing Jeff Mouse to life on Donkey Hodie took “many people” at Fred Rogers Productions and Spiffy Pictures. She keenly credited a laundry list of contributors like writers, post-production teams, and much more. She called everyone involved with the program as “thoughtful, creative, fun, funny, and deeply respectful of the world we’re building and the legacy we’re building on,” adding the cumulative efforts were integral to making Jeff Mouse “a joyful new part of our neighborhood, and I hope viewers love meeting Jeff and watching our show as much as we love making it.”
Donkey Hodie episodes with Jeff Mouse are available to stream now, free of charge.
