Today was a quieter day for Annecy with most of the panels being awards for the shorts. The one highlight came from Netflix and its presentation of its new anthology series We The People.

Premiering appropriately on July 4th, We The People seeks to provide civics lessons by the use of music. The goal said Chris Nee (creator and executive producer) is to bring back “the lost common language of civics.” In the panel, all of the creators mentioned the old Schoolhouse Rock shorts, which taught civics lessons to children in the 70s and 80s.

Former President Barack Obama was involved with his Higher Ground Production studio, but according to Nee, he was also very involved in the whole process. She even said that the ten topics for the anthologies were recommended by him.

As an animation fan, the most exciting part of this project is the variety of artistry in the shorts. Nee insisted on using “ten different pipelines, ten different animators, and ten different animation styles.” The trailer shows off some of those styles, and I can’t wait to see all the rest.

The topics appear to be everything from “Checks and Balances” to “Change” to “Taxes.” Animators involved include Peter Ramsey (Spider-Man Into the Spiderverse), Jorge Gutierrez (The Book of Life), and Trisha Gum (Robot Chicken). Musicians involved are H.E.R., Adam Lambert, Brandi Carlile, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and more.

I am definitely looking forward to watching this anthology and imagine it will be very helpful to teachers both in schools and through virtual learning to teach children about civics.

What do you think of We The People? Does it interest you? What are you looking forward to about it? Please let us know in the comment section!

Edited by: Kelly Conley