The Owl House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids The Owl House |
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| Genre |
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| Created by | Dana Terrace |
| Voices of |
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| Theme music composer | TJ Hill |
| Opening theme | "The Owl House Main Theme" |
| Composer(s) |
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| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 43 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Dana Terrace |
| Producer(s) | Wade Wisinski |
| Editor(s) |
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| Running time |
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| Production company(s) | Disney Television Animation |
| Release | |
| Original network | Disney Channel |
| Original release | January 10, 2020 – April 8, 2023 |
The Owl House is an American animated fantasy television series created by Dana Terrace that aired on Disney Channel from January 10, 2020, to April 8, 2023. The series features the voices of Sarah-Nicole Robles, Wendie Malick, Alex Hirsch, Tati Gabrielle, Issac Ryan Brown, Mae Whitman, Cissy Jones, Zeno Robinson, Matthew Rhys, Michaela Dietz, Elizabeth Grullon, and Fryda Wolff.
In November 2019, ahead of the series premiere, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on June 12, 2021. In May 2021, ahead of the second-season premiere, the series was renewed for a third season consisting of three specials, later announced to be the final season of the series, with Terrace later stating the show had been shortened, because the series "did not fit the Disney brand", ultimately announcing she was leaving Disney after completing work on the final episode. The first episode of the final season premiered on October 15, 2022, followed by the second episode on January 21, 2023, and the series finale on April 8, 2023.
The Owl House has received widespread acclaim from critics and fans, with many praising its animation, humor, characters, voice acting, themes, and emotional weight. The series also won an award for Children's & Youth Programming at the 2021 Peabody Awards.
Contents
Premise
The series centers on Luz Noceda, a 14-year-old Dominican-American human girl who accidentally stumbles upon a portal to the Demon Realm. She arrives at the Boiling Isles, an archipelago formed from the remains of a dead titan, and befriends the rebellious witch Eda Clawthorne, also known as "The Owl Lady", and her adorable demon housemate King. Despite not having magical abilities, Luz pursues her dream of becoming a witch by serving as Eda's apprentice at the Owl House and ultimately finds a new family in an unlikely setting.
In the second season, Luz attempts to return to the Human Realm, Eda tries to confront her curse, and King searches for the truth about his past while contending with the Boiling Isles' ruler, Emperor Belos, who is preparing for the mysterious "Day of Unity".
In the third and final season (labeled as specials), Luz and her friends journey to save the Boiling Isles from Emperor Belos and the Collector.
Episodes
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | |||
| Pilot | 2 | N/A | ||
| 1 | 19 | January 10, 2020 | August 29, 2020 | |
| 2 | 21 | June 12, 2021 | May 28, 2022 | |
| 3 | 3 | October 15, 2022 | April 8, 2023 | |
Cast
- Sarah-Nicole Robles as Luz Noceda
- Wendie Malick as Edalyn "Eda" Clawthorne
- Alex Hirsch as King Clawthorne and Hooty
- Mae Whitman as Amity Blight
- Tati Gabrielle as Willow Park
- Issac Ryan Brown as Gus Porter
- Zeno Robinson as Hunter
- Matthew Rhys as Emperor Belos
- Cissy Jones as Lilith Clawthorne
- Michaela Dietz as Vee
- Elizabeth Grullon as Camila Noceda
- Fryda Wolff as The Collector
Production
Background
Dana Terrace first began conceiving early ideas for a series about a girl learning to be a witch in late 2016. While working on DuckTales, Terrace did not feel "fulfilled artistically or emotionally", so she began to research influences and work from her college years, eventually rediscovering the works of artists such as Hieronymus Bosch and Remedios Varo, inspiring her to create a show for Disney that features strong surreal visual elements. Terrace initially pitched the idea to both Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, but neither deal worked out.
In 2018, it was reported that Dana Terrace, previously a storyboard artist for Gravity Falls and later a director on the 2017 DuckTales reboot, was creating and executive-producing an animated series, titled The Owl House, for Disney Television Animation. The series was greenlit alongside Amphibia in 2018 with an order of 19 episodes, and was set originally for a 2019 release, but delayed to 2020. Terrace would later call the decision to work with Disney as a fortuitous one stating, "I think it's important to note that Owl House would NOT be what it is if made at another studio", and cited the fact that having each episode run for 22 minutes rather than 11 is one of the reasons why it worked out so well.
Terrace is the fourth woman to create a series for Disney Television Animation, after Sue Rose (Pepper Ann), Chris Nee (Doc McStuffins), and Daron Nefcy (Star vs. the Forces of Evil).
Development
Terrace said that the general lore for the series was inspired by art and storybooks by Hieronymus Bosch. According to Terrace, the hardest decision when creating the series was whether to implement potential lore elements in the series. Terrace also stated the lore of the series is "70 percent made up", with writers also drawing inspiration from books about witchcraft for spells and character names, to add depth to its lore. The Pokémon franchise served as a strong influence on the series.
Eda was the earliest character created for the show. Terrace said the character is inspired by "the women who raised me. My aunts, my Nana, and my mom, they're all in the Owl Lady." The second character created was King, who was described by Terrace as "a little guy that wants to be big", something she related to. Luz was the final main character created and was inspired by her roommate, consultant and story artist Luz Batista. Batista agreed to let Terrace use her name for the series' main character on the condition that she be Dominican-American, which Terrace agreed to. The character's personality was inspired by "stories of each other about what dorks we were in high school", as well as parts from Terrace's childhood. Alex Hirsch, Terrace's partner and creator of the TV series Gravity Falls, on which Terrace served as a storyboard artist and revisionist, served as a creative consultant on the series.
Several of the series' themes are inspired by Terrace's childhood. The series features themes of uniqueness and conformity, which were inspired by Terrace's experience at school, where she was mocked for her habit of drawing roadkill, only to meet people with similarly different personalities when she went to a new school. The series also explores the idea of getting close to fulfilling a dream, yet being unable to completely fulfill it, inspired by how Terrace was told that she wouldn't be a cartoonist, only to "[find her] own path".
Hirsch said that while there was a concern with the Disney Channel over the series' horror elements, Terrace nevertheless chooses to feature horror elements, arguing that "Disney is the full spectrum of emotions, creatures and scary things". Terrace said that Disney "allowed me to do more than I thought they would". Terrace also said that the producers "[don't] want to pull [their] punches on the show" in its horror elements, as she "loved being a little scared" as a child, though she also wanted to balance them with comedy and heartfelt moments. She described the magic elements on the show as "a framing device for the grounded emotional stories" featured in the series.
The series initially had a darker tone, as Terrace wanted to create a TV series targeted at older audiences "where things like whimsy and darkness can coexist", but had to tone it down during season 1 to find a compromise between her ideas and Disney executives' wishes, though she nevertheless was proud of the final product. The tone of season 2 is closer to what Terrace originally intended.
Following the series finale, Terrace stated that she has not ruled out the possibility of a continuation at some point in the future.
Animation
The show is animated by Rough Draft Korea, Sunmin Image Pictures, and Sugarcube Animation. Terrace said that the visual style was inspired by paintings by Remedios Varo, John Bauer, and Hieronymus Bosch, as well as Russian architecture. By December 2019, the show had 120 people working on the show, including those in the animation studios, and 50 staffers on the pre-production crew.
Spencer Wan served as the animation supervisor during season one. Disney initially refused for the series to have an in-house animator, feeling Wan may not meet their "overseas pipeline", but he was eventually hired. Kofi Fiagome serves as animation supervisor for season two. Terrace also provided rough animation for three season 2 episodes.
Ricky Cometa served as the art director for the series. Cometa first became involved with the series when Terrace began working on the pilot, before the series was green-lighted by Disney, and was approached by Terrace, a fan and friend of Cometa's because she "really wanted to work with someone who I vibed with, someone whose style I knew, that could execute the kind of weird junk I wanted to do", and Cometa agreed to work on the series due to being interested in the concept. Cometa said that he wanted to "try and show the dualities between the Demon Realm and the human realm, and with a little twist of demons and eyeballs and bones and whatnot". He also wanted some demons on the show to have non-frightening appearances, as they are supposed to represent normal people within the show.
Terrace said that Luz's design was "challenging", as she struggled to create a design for Luz that didn't make her look too old or that felt too much like a costume. Cometa eventually created a t-shirt for Luz to wear that is "low key, and like a nod to all our fellow nerds out there". Cometa said that it was "fun" to design demonic versions of common places. The animators also changed real-life elements to further distinguish the Boiling Isles from Earth, such as making the ocean purple.
On July 19, 2019, Terrace announced that TJ Hill composed the series' score. On January 10, 2020, Hill said that the score features "interesting and experimental sounds that [he] had a ton of fun cooking up". In the second season, Gravity Falls and Star vs. the Forces of Evil composer Brad Breeck took over as composer.
By March 2020, Disney Television Animation was closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing the production crew to work on season 2 remotely from their homes.
Broadcast
On June 10, 2019, the trailer premiered during the show's Annecy 2019 panel. It was uploaded to Disney Channel's YouTube channel a day later.
The show's main title sequence was released on July 19, 2019, during San Diego Comic-Con 2019. The show released a sneak peek and an official end credit sequence on October 4, 2019, during a panel at New York Comic Con 2019. The show's main title sequence for season 2 was released on May 17, 2021. A trailer for season 2 was released on June 3, 2021.
Season 1 aired its 19th and final episode on August 29, 2020. On November 21, 2019, the series was renewed for a 21-episode second season prior to the first season's debut. On May 17, 2021, the series was renewed for a third season, which would consist of three 44-minute specials, ahead of the second-season premiere. The episode order was much shorter than the 10–20 episodes that the production team was anticipating, only for Terrace to later confirm in a response to a fan's question that it would be the final season.
In October 2021, in an AMA on Reddit, Terrace explained the series was cut short not because of its ratings or the COVID-19 pandemic, but rather because executives at The Walt Disney Company believed that it did not fit "into the Disney brand". She stated that this was the case due to the serialized nature of the show and an audience that "skews older", rather than due to its LGBTQ+ representation, saying that she would not "assume bad faith" against the studio executives. Terrace also noted that due to the pandemic, budgets were constrained and episodes were cut, further adding that she was not allowed to present a case for a fourth season. However, Terrace said that she believed there was a future for the show if Disney Branded Television had "different people in charge".
When asked about the series' future on Twitter, Terrace expressed interest in continuing it in other media. This content could include comics and a limited series centering on Eda's past, as well as other potential spin-offs, though Terrace stated the three specials of season 3 were the end of the main story, persuading fans to ask Disney regarding more content based on the show.
On March 10, 2023, Terrace confirmed that production on the series had been completed.
The Owl House had its first international debut in Canada on January 12, 2020, in Southeast Asia on March 20, 2020, in Turkey on April 6, 2020, in Latin America on April 13, 2020, in France on April 15, 2020, in South Korea on May 23, 2020, in Japan on July 23, 2020, in the UK & Ireland on August 10, 2020, in the Netherlands on August 24, 2020, in Spain on October 3, 2020, in Africa on October 26, 2020, in Romania and Bulgaria on January 2, 2021, in Poland on Disney XD on January 4, 2021, in Portugal on January 11, 2021 and in Scandinavia on February 15, 2021.
The entire first season was added to Disney+ in the United States on October 30, 2020. In the U.S., the first five episodes of the second season were added to Disney+ on July 21, 2021, while episodes six through ten were added on August 18.
The show was originally intended to premiere on January 2, 2021, on the local Disney Channel feed shared by Hungary and the Czech Republic, but it has not aired on the channel for unknown reasons. The series later premiered exclusively on Disney+ in those two countries on June 14, 2022.
Future
A light novel based on The Owl House was set to be released in May 2022. According to Dana Terrace, the novel was to feature an original story based on the in-universe fictional series The Good Witch Azura. However, Terrace confirmed on March 25, 2022, in a now-deleted tweet, that the light novel had been cancelled due to financial disputes between the publisher and authors hired to write the book.
On April 15, 2023, while addressing the possibility of a continuation, Terrace stated she would be focusing on new personal projects, but did not write off the possibility of such an installment in due time. She reiterated this sentiment in November 2024, explaining that she did not want to "make [her] entire career revolve around one show idea".
See also
In Spanish: The Owl House para niños
