Based on her own experiences growing up in a large, blended Mexican American family, Natasha Kline employs realistic Southern California colors, locations, even lawyer billboards in the story of an eccentric young girl whose ambitious summer dreams are upended by 12 cousins who’ve come to visit.
Despite some initial criticism surrounding the introduction of her animated series Primos, Natasha Kline (Big City Greens, South Park) says she knew, without a doubt, that this was a story she needed to tell no matter how some might perceive it. At the time, the Latina animator and director pushed back against those complaints, sharing that she herself, for example, struggled with her Spanish pronunciation as a kid, which, among many other aspects of her own life, are reflected in her show’s characters. What others perceived as stereotypes, she claimed, are very real for her.
“That was a time of evolution for me,” says Kline, referring to last summer when Primos’ opening sequence was released by Disney Branded Television. “I think that’s the beauty of actually making a show that goes out to an audience like this. If you’re lucky, as an artist, the thing that you’re making will get noticed and there will be a conversation around it, and you’ll get feedback. In a way, it was an amazing experience to hear what people had to say about what my message was and what I was making. It was initially painful, but then I started hearing from people who shared about their lives with me and how they connected with what they saw, it honed my empathy, seeing that this show could mean so much to so many, in many different ways. That gave me strength to keep going and to see it released.”
Produced by Disney Television Animation and created and executive produced by the Emmy Award-winning storyboard artist and director, the show was greenlit back in 2021. Primos is inspired by Kline’s childhood in Southern California growing up in a large, multicultural and blended Mexican American family. The show follows Tater Ramirez Humphrey (Myrna Velasco), an eccentric girl – based on a young Kline – with ambitious summer dreams. However, her plans take an unexpected turn when her family invites all 12 of her cousins, or “primos,” to stay with them, leading to a summer of surprises and unforgettable adventures.
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“My dad called me ‘Sweet Potato’ and would sometimes call me ‘Tater,’” shares Kline. “That nickname actually followed me into jobs too where people would call me ‘Tashers,’ ‘Hatters’ and ‘Taters.’ So, when I was trying to think of what this character’s name would be, it seemed like an easy choice.”
Though most of the show accurately reflects Kline’s life growing up in Los Angeles – the palm trees, golden light, neighborhood dog packs, the works – there is a notable difference. While Tater’s got 12 primos to contend with, Kline had 23.
“My mom is considered ‘the fun Tia’ or ‘fun aunt,’ and she loves having a house full of people,” says Kline. “It’s delightful for her to have all her family members over. But for me, as an introverted kid, that was not always a delight. I wanted my own room with time to myself. It was already hard enough sharing a room with my sister and now I had all these cousins staying with me.”
She continues, “But, ultimately, the things I learned from my primos, and the kind of support and love they offered me, really helped me become who I am now. Similar to how last year was for me, something that was initially very painful became this incredible growing experience and an exercise in empathy. That’s been a theme that seems to keep recurring throughout my life.”
Kline also had the unique experience of working with a Mexican American art director who not only had similar childhood experiences with his family, but who actually grew up just 10 miles from Kline’s home in LA.
“In a lot of ways, this project has been a dream project of mine,” says art director Ivan Aguirre. “I feel like I’ve known Natasha my whole life. We grew up in the same area, I had all these cousins on my dad’s side who were also living here in California. The story was very relatable and hit close to home.”
Aguirre and Kline describe the show as “a love letter to all Southern California.” The two creatives grew up in the Inland Empire, a metropolitan area centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside and bordering Los Angeles County but wanted to make sure places like Orange County and Pasadena were also represented in the show.
“Ivan was in tune with all the various ways I wanted to depict SoCal,” notes Kline. “There are all these different flavors of the way that LA is visualized in the show, and I’m really excited about that. One of my favorite Easter eggs we put in was all the lawyer billboards, which are on every corner of LA. Some people might not get that, but locals will. I thought it was hilarious.”
Aguirre adds, “I grew up in parts of Anaheim and Pomona. I know Southern California very well and I love it. We added all the different kinds of houses and architecture that you would see in the areas from LA to Palm Springs and everything in between. That’s the range of the world Primos lives in.”
“I love that 90s sensibility where things are a little wacky,” notes Kline.
There are lots of yellows, browns, oranges and sun-kissed greens that form the foundation of most of the show’s SoCal cityscapes. And even when colors like pinks and purples and reds are introduced, they are still filtered with that golden haze. But the show’s art direction – from Tater’s home to the universe inside her imagination – is as diverse as the show’s architectural range, and Tater’s own family members.
“Our style is a lush watercolor style, and all the backgrounds are super rendered, but we still have this handful of different styles in the show: the outside world, Tater’s home life, Tater’s fantasy world where her imagination comes to life, and the world of her diary,” explains Aguirre. “I think it was a little bit ambitious for TV. For the real world, and Tater’s home, we were influenced by the sketchbook lines from movies like 101 Dalmations and The Triplets of Belleville. We wanted to SoCal world to feel warm and nostalgic. And for Tater’s home, we wanted to fill it with as many beams of light coming through the windows as possible to make it feel a bit magical.”
The inspiration for Tater’s world of imagination and fantasy goes back even further in animation history, to the 1950s.
“We referenced projects like United Productions of America (UPA), vintage Warner Bros. cartoons, Gerald McBoing Boing and Maurice Noble’s animations,” shares Aguirre. “We really push the colors and contrast here. Then, in Tater’s diary style, it’s still very vibrant but we go back to the shaky and scribbled lines.”
Juggling all the designs and making them look distinctive, yet meant to be in the same show, was one of the production’s biggest challenges. Luckily, Aguirre says most of the team came from Southern California and understood their artistic assignments.
“The house that Tater lives in looks like the house I grew up in, to the point where it’s a little uncanny,” shares Kline. “I think the only difference is that Tater’s house has two stories. But her Buela’s house is pitch perfect to what my grandmother’s house looked like. I was so grateful to see that because she’s been gone for eight years now, her house got sold, and it’s completely different now because someone rebuilt it. So, it’s an amazing opportunity to have been able to preserve it in a way for animation.”
Aguirre adds, “We had a top-notch crew. Everyone was amazing. And everyone added a little piece of themselves into the show. I feel like Tater’s house, for me, is very reminiscent of my older sister’s house. And I feel like we all have the same grandma.”
Between the stories Kline has heard from members of her team and those she’s heard from fans over the last year since Primos’ initial first look, the show’s creator says it has felt like each step of this journey has further affirmed the need for a show like Primos to exist.
“We are representing something that’s really important,” says Kline. “That’s why we always try to speak from our own experience because there’s truth in it. I kept thinking about myself as a kid and how I’ve wanted to make this show since I was in first grade. I wanted to see this represented on the screen, the diversity of skin tones, the community that Tater lives in. That I lived in. That Ivan lived in. And I was thinking that, if I wanted that as a kid, there must be thousands of kids out there wanting the same thing. I think that once people actually see the show, they’ll see this is a very universal story. I hope people give it a chance and see that there are deeper layers here.”
