PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A PBS cartoon that premieres Monday features the voices of Philadelphia second graders in its theme song.
The backing vocals on the theme to the new problem-solving cartoon “Lyla in the Loop” come from last year’s second graders at South Philly’s Fanny Jackson Coppin School. Their teacher, Danielle Harrigan, accompanied her students to MilkBoy The Studio in Nov. 2022 to record their voices. Her kids were there for three hours, tracking their part of the 30-second song.
“They kept going, ‘I thought this would be easier! I thought this would be easier!’ Because it was only 30 seconds. But we had to keep repeating it,” Harrigan told KYW Newsradio.
The students were also exposed to careers in animation and sound recording.
“They were seeing how it starts out as just a black-and-white caricature. Then it goes to the movements and then they have to put the mouth movements to the actual person that’s recording in the studio,” said Harrigan, who now works as a consulting teacher coach for the School District.
“A lot of the kids who like to draw were like, ‘Oh wow! I think I would like to be an animator.’ And they had never heard of a sound engineer. So that was something that they said also may have been an amazing career.”
Harrigan said the experience solidified her belief that students should have more opportunities to envision careers at much younger ages.
“Lyla in the Loop” is an animated series about a girl who uses critical thinking skills to help others. How was a Philly school picked to sing the theme? Show producer Dave Peth’s daughter Anna was in the Fanny Jackson Coppin class selected for the program’s opening sequence.