We had the chance to talk to Emmy Award-nominated writer and producer Travis Braun about his upcoming Disney Junior show Pupstruction. Previously he created T.O.T.S. for Disney Junior and Fast Layne for Disney Channel. In addition, he has written episodes of Vampirina, Puppy Dog Pals, and Muppet Babies. In this interview, we talk about his inspiration for the show, including his family’s auto racing history and his Doritos Super Bowl ad.
(Disney/Craig Sjodin)
Laughing Place:
How did you come up with the idea for Pupstruction?
Travis Braun:
I grew up working on race cars. The family business is auto racing, so what brought my whole family together was working with tools and building cars. I wanted to make a series that was about that. So it's a family-run construction company, and they happen to all be dogs.
Laughing Place:
The world of Pupstruction includes other animals. Was there a particular reason why you went with dogs as the central characters?
Travis Braun:
Well, everything I've done, I've tried to put a dog in. I love dogs, so I made a Super Bowl commercial, one that Doritos crashed the Super Bowl contest with, three dogs that stack themselves up in a totem pole with a trench coat and walk into a store. And so dogs always had such a special place in my heart. I grew up with two chocolate Labradors, and that was my childhood. They were puppies when I was a baby, and we grew up together, so it was such a formational part of my childhood was dogs.
When I think of doing a show, making something, dogs are just always part of it because I think they're so fun and silly, and I just want to write about them. And now we get that chance, we've really tried to lean into the dogness of this show. They work in a town called Petsburg that's an all-pet town, and we really lean into the fact that they do construction. They lay concrete, they drive trucks, they use a wrecking ball, but they also will chase a tennis ball if it's rolling down the street, or they'll go after their tail, or they'll stop and chase a Frisbee. We don't want to lose sight of who our crew really is. And it just brings a lot of comedy and a lot of lightness and lightheartedness to the show.
Laughing Place:
I love that they’re not just anthropomorphic dogs.
Travis Braun:
And that was something I really pitched from the beginning. I wanted to make a show that was the overlap between construction and dogs and to make sure that everything we build has some element to that. In one episode, we build a giant scratching tower because all the cats in town are clawing everything up, and they need somewhere safe to scratch. Or we'll build a huge aquarium because there's a fish in town that needs a house and things like that. We're just really making sure that everything we build has that silly pet feel to it. And I think that makes our show really specific in a fun way where we're not just building a bank, we're building a piggy bank because it is for a pig that runs this bank.
Laughing Place:
Exactly. In one episode, a couple welcomes puppies to their lives and needs a bigger home. It’s not just one puppy, it’s a whole litter.
Travis Braun:
Everyone on the show, all the writers, we love dogs. A lot of us have dogs and it's just something that is dear to our heart that we want to always put that front and center.
(Disney)
Laughing Place:
And like many great Disney shows, it has some great music. You have Rob Cantor, who wrote music for T.O.T.S. Can you talk a little about what the music brings to the show?
Travis Braun:
We really set out to do a show that is obviously fun and imaginative and silly and doesn't take itself too seriously, but it's also a Disney show, right? We want to make sure that we are telling that story. Like I said, it's sort of based on my upbringing of how auto racing brought my family together, and in this, construction brings this family together. We really wanted to make sure that the heart came through. And a big part of that is the music in this show, done by Rob Cantor, who is a genius and creates amazing songs.
I grew up as a Disney kid, and it's such a big part of everything. The reason that I write the way I write is because I love that intersection between comedy and heart, and that's what we really want this show to shine through. It's silly because it's dogs that are doing construction, but at the end of the day, we really want to tell stories that are impactful, and that make our audience feel something too. And if we can do that, if we can make them laugh and make them feel something, then we've done our job.
Laughing Place:
Since a lot of parents will be enjoying Pupstruction with their children, I want to talk about the parents on the show. They’re a key part of the story, running HQ and helping their pups learn new skills.
Travis Braun:
I think that comes from my childhood, as my parents were always so central to everything that we did with the race team. I remember I was cleaning tires and stacking things in the trailer while my mom was out, she was putting on a suspension piece and my brother was putting a rear wing on, and my dad was working on the shock. Everyone just worked together and knew their role, and it was something that really brought us together every day. And I think that's something that brings them together in every episode is just they are all responsible in their own way for this thing. Mom runs the construction company, dad has the food truck that brings lunch to the crew every day. And it was important for me that family was sort of the nucleus of this show and that it showed that construction really brought them together.
In the way that I hope Pupstruction, we would be most successful if we can bring families together as well, that it's something kids can watch, but it's also something that adults can find something in that they love. And if we can bring a family together for half an hour, we've done our job.
Laughing Place:
Since you were a Disney kid, what’s it like for you to create a series for a Disney network, one that will also live on Disney+ alongside projects that inspired you to do what you do?
Travis Braun:
I mean, it's everything. If my eight-year-old self knew what I was doing, he would flip. He would lose his mind. It is a dream come true. Like I said, I grew up on Disney, and being able to contribute a small piece of that magic, tell that next chapter of the magic to me is so cool. And I pinch myself every day that I get to wake up and make up stories for a brand that is so iconic.
I think the thing that I really appreciate about Disney is they always want to make it the best possible show it can be. They take the time to get it right. Everything they put out there that has that Disney stamp on it, it is meaningful. It means something. It carries that weight.
And those are the kind of shows that I want to make. I want to take that time to do it right. Like We've worked on this show now for three, coming up on four years, and it's been a labor of love, but we've really just wanted to take the time to ideate and make sure that we're telling the best possible stories we can because we don't take it for granted. When an audience tunes in to watch an episode, we want to make sure we are telling the best possible story we can, and that's what Disney's been doing forever. That's why Disney is Disney, right? And it's so cool to get to be able to work in that space.
Pupstruction premieres on Wednesday, June 14th, with a simulcast on Disney Channel and Disney Junior at 8 am ET/PT. An initial batch of episodes will premiere that same day on on-demand platforms and Disney+.