Bigotry, it’s been said, is a failure of imagination
HUTA, SOAPBOX SATURDAY CONTINUES:
Could the antidote be a daredevil girl and a nervous egg named Phillip? DD Danger and her ovular friend spend their days in Chickenpaw Park, tumbling through adventures faster than DD’s daredevil dad—slung up in traction and muffled by a too-big neck brace—can squeak out an objection. Mostly, DD leads the charge, while Phillip, wearing knee and elbow pads and yellow rubber gloves, tries to stave off catastrophe. They travel down the “Tube of Pain” waterslide and encounter a boy who’s been missing for 25 years; they outwit a rogue satellite that wants to trap and keep them as friends; they evade the drooling office zombies of the “Parks and Paperwork Department.” They find ridiculous and hilarious ways of getting in and out of trouble. They also tackle topics of gender and identity better than any cartoon characters, and maybe any television characters, period. Danger & Eggs, the Emmy Award-winning cartoon conceived and mostly produced in the Twin Cities, sends forth unbridled creativity to counter narrow-minded prejudice. In this universe, colorful characters defy categorization and dodge labels like so many mutant plants in the underworld beneath Chickenpaw Park. Among the queer-friendly cameos are non-binary Milo, who uses they/them pronouns and is voiced by agender model Tyler Ford; corporate raider Jim, who has two dads; and a transgender girl named Zadie, voiced by teen trans activist Jazz Jennings. Each is presented without comment or fanfare. You’ll find nary a whiff of morality play sanctimony. “I think a lot of the time, the after-school-special version comes off as really educational because the straight, cisgender creators who made that episode just got an education,” says Shadi Petosky, co-creator of the show. “So they’re translating. They’re trying to take that education and then put it into a story.” Danger & Eggs, which won a Daytime Emmy this year for outstanding directing in an animated program, was created, directed, voiced, and produced by a remarkably diverse, inclusive team of LGBTQ artists. For Petosky, herself a transgender writer, the show isn’t a translation; it’s a faithful reflection...
