A special episode of Firebuds is deeply personal for one of the show’s writers, showcasing a wee-hicle that is about to go into his last operation to repair his cleft hood, inspired by his own son who was born with a cleft lip and palate.
In the episode, Axl (voiced by Lily Sanfelippo) meets a young vehicle named Castor, who is due for his last operation to repair his “cleft hood.” This happens to be taking place at the same time as the local carnival that Castor loves to attend, so while they wait for his doctor he escapes to the fun of the carnival.
Axl chases him throughout the carnival, but can’t seem to understand why he is avoiding the operation until she takes it upon herself to track him down and put herself in Castor’s wheels and imagine what he is going through.
The episode is the latest example of Firebuds inclusivity efforts with the introduction of Castor. The episode comes from series writer, Jeremy Shipp, who was inspired to pitch the episode by his son Henry, who was born with a cleft lip and palate. Henry also appears in the episode, lending his voice to Castor, and making his voice acting debut. Castor also carries around a plush car with a cleft hood named Anya, which was also inspired by Henry, who has a toy with the same name, a doll with a cleft that his mother gave him when he was young.
Since its debut, Firebuds has introduced several disabled characters, including the recurring character Jazzy (voiced by Lauren “Lolo” Spencer), a young Black girl with spina bifida whose “vroom-mate” is a wheelchair car named Piper (voiced by Sammi Haney). Jazzy is the sister of Jayden (voiced by JeCobi Swain), a main character, and there are several episodes that are centered around her in particular. The team behind Firebuds collaborates with RespectAbility throughout the entire creative process, from ensuring the language is correct in the script to working with animators on depicting the series’ many different disabled characters. “Cleft Hood” is no different.
Craig Gerber, creator of Firebuds says, “The disabled community is a group that I felt has been underrepresented in the past, so we wanted to address that in Firebuds. [In addition to creating new characters] to include more diversity, we also have individual episodes like ‘Cleft Hood.’ Our show involves medical first responders and we thought there was a great opportunity to do a story about someone who has medical issues that require hospital stays…[We hope] kids watching at home with similar challenges can see themselves reflected onscreen and get a sense of sort of empathy from that.”
This week’s episode of Firebuds, “Cleft Hood” is now on Disney Junior, DisneyNOW, and will debut on Disney+ on March 15th.