PRINCESS POWER - SAVANNAH GUTHRIE and DREW BARRYMORE INTERVIEW

What happens when a Today Show anchor and a power house actor/talk show host talk show host team up? You get an adorable new animated series streaming on Netflix!

Netflix’s new animated preschool series PRINCESS POWER is based on the #1 New York Times Bestselling book series Princesses Wear Pants by Savannah Guthrie (co-anchor of TODAY) and Allison Oppenheim. The show is a celebration of girl power and self- expression that follows the princesses of four Fruitdoms: Kira Kiwi, Beatrice “Bea” Blueberry, Rita Raspberry, and Penelope “Penny” Pineapple. These princesses embrace their differences with enthusiasm, happily support one another, and eagerly jump into action to help their fellow Fruitizens and to make their world a better place.

PRINCESS POWER’s high-energy, aspirational, and musically buoyed joy also delivers an impactful message: it’s not what you wear but what you do that makes all the difference. Developed by Elise Allen (Showrunner/EP), the series is executive produced by Savannah Guthrie (Co-Author) alongside Matthew Berkowitz, Kristin Cummings and Jennifer Twiner McCarron of Atomic Cartoons, and Drew Barrymore, Ember Truesdell, Chris Miller and Nancy Juvonen of Flower Films.

PRINCESS POWER IS NOW STREAMING ON NETFLIX!

I spoke with Drew Barrymore and Savannah Guthrie about their collaboration and their excitement seeing Princess Power turn into a full fledged animated series.

10 FABULOUSLY FUN FACTS:

1. Savannah Guthrie was not only one of the authors of the best-selling book series on which PRINCESS POWER is based, but she also serves as an executive producer and plays a role on the show: she created, named, co-wrote and voiced the character Susie Seedplanter, a journalist.

2. When the Princesses suit up to save the day, they always change into pants, as the original book Princesses Wear Pants established. The series crew came to refer to this pivotal moment in the episodes as “WOTB” (pronounced WOTT-BEE) that stands for “Whip Off The Bottoms,” and it was such a monumental element of princessing that Episodic Director Donna Brokopp made trucker hats with the letters WOTB emblazoned on them.

3. Dena Diamond, who wrote episode 13 in which Rita makes endless mistakes trying to “help” a blind Raspberrian girl play soccer, is herself blind, and she came up with the princesses’ solution by imagining all the ways she might be able to successfully tackle the game if she were on Rita’s team.

4. Princess Bea has an impressively full name: it’s Beatrice Gertrude Ingeborg Blueberry.

5. Crew pets were often models for the animals on PRINCESS POWER, and Supervising Producer Monica Davila’s cat Sally purr-fectly inspired Miss Fussywiggles.

6. Queen Ryung calling Rita “Rita-bear” is a term of endearment inspired by showrunner Elise Allen calling her daughter “Maddie-bear.”

7. The Pelican was meant to be a one-off character but quickly emerged as a crew favorite who then became Fussy’s key foil and a significant part of the show.

8. Fashion detail: if you check out Fussy’s sleep mask, hang glider, and tiara, you’ll see she has her own “Pineapple Cat” logo, befitting the diva royal kitty.

9. Throwback tune: parental audience members might catch the reference to M.C song U Can’t Touch This when Bea is hang-gliding to the rescue, then turns to camera to say, “Stop. Hovertime” in episode 2.

10. Long-ago line: adult audience members might recognize a nod to My Fair Lady in episode 3 when Penny says in perfect cadence, “The rain today comes mainlyfrom...my plane!”