In Beebo Saves Christmas, Santa Claus finds himself in a quite an unusual predicament. After hiring an elf to make his workshop run more smoothly, he was deemed "inefficient" and let go, so now Christmas may never be the same -- unless Beebo and his friends can save the day, of course! The animated special sends Beebo, Turbo, Fleabo and Tweebo to the North Pole, where they help everyone -- including themselves -- learn the true meaning of Christmas.
Speaking to CBR, Beebo Saves Christmas director JoJo Ramos-Patrick pulled back the curtain and offered a behind-the-scenes look at the animated special. She explained why the special is "definitely for everybody" and how each character was designed to relate to a certain age group. She broke down the reason why this adventure couldn't have happened without Beebo and shared why she felt like they "got away with murder" when they set the stage for the special's songs. She also revealed a scene that didn't make it into the final cut, where she wants to take Beebo next and more.
CBR: Tell me a little about your familiarity with Legends of Tomorrow and how you got involved in the project.
Jojo Ramos-Patrick: I got a phone call, maybe summer last year, and I was pitched this Christmas special. I had no idea what DC's Legends of Tomorrow was, so I had to wrap my head around [that]. I heard DC, and I heard CW, and my first thought was "Wait, DC is a comic book. Is this a comic book that DC does?" And it was like, "No, not really!" So then I started watching Legends of Tomorrow and [was] just kind of like, "Wait, this is a live-action TV show!" I really had to make use of the fanmade wikis to really -- like, I had a lot of catching up to do, essentially, to get caught up.
When I went into Beebo Saves Christmas, I kind of assumed it would be this niche Arrowverse story, but I was happily surprised to see that it's pretty accessible to newcomers, too. What do you think viewers should know about the special, especially those who haven't seen Legends of Tomorrow before?
I think it's definitely for everybody. There was thought put in. There's a character for every age group. Beebo is kind of the child mind, so we're hoping kids will really like him. I think he's adorable. I'm a fan of him.
We also have Fleabo, who is our little curmudgeon, which I kind of adore Fleabo a lot too. I think he's really funny just being a grump, while everybody else is being cute and bonkers. He kind of mellows everybody out.
And then Turbo, she's a mother who's going Christmas shopping for her kids and is just going all-out, trying to get them the best Christmas.
Then Tweebo is our teenage/young adult super social butterfly. Really cute. I just adore all the characters, and I think there's going to be something in it for everybody.
You got to work with a couple legends, both in the Arrowverse and outside of it. What was it like to work with this cast?
Thankfully, our writer-producer Kevin Shinick took the lead on voice directing, because I was just in this Zoom call, just mouth agape, like "Holy crap!" just watching these talented people do their thing. It was really cool, just seeing -- it's almost like performance art with a small audience, and I got to be one, so that was really cool.
Ernie Hudson made such a delightful Santa. How did you work together to pull out the jolliest version of Old Saint Nick that you could?
He brought it to the table. His voice -- I'm gonna say voice test, but I know there's a better word for this. So I was given an email of like, "Here's who we're thinking of. Here is some audio. They're just reading the script." And Ernie Hudson really just has this really warm, deep voice that just feels like you're putting a blanket on, and I think that's quintessential for Santa Claus. You're just so secure and warm. It's just his voice, and it does all that!
Beebo, obviously, is the heart of this special. Aside from his obvious cuteness, what do you think makes him the right character to be at the center of this story?
Apart from his cuteness, Beebo has this determination, and he gets the faintest inkling that something is going wrong and he puts it on himself to fix what is right, or to make what is wrong right. So he has a determination and he goes around to each of his friends and they're just all just kind of like, "Oh, I'll join you! This sounds fine!" I don't think any of the other characters would do that on their own, but Beebo is just so into like, "Let's get friends together and let's go do this thing!" that it really makes sense that he is the main character.
Legends has always tapped into this wacky, kind of irreverent humor, and Beebo Saves Christmas leans into that. How did you approach that silliness so that it fit into the story you were trying to tell?
There was actually a couple of really -- unfortunately, there was a bunch of silly jokes we had to cut for time. So I tried to salvage just really bizarre -- like, me and the board artists were just trying to make it weird and funny. So hopefully there's still remnants that people will pick up on when they see this special.
Can you tell me about one of those gags that got cut from the special?
Yeah! I doubled over in laughter when my board artist sent me his boards, but Turbo had this moment. Without giving too much away, she's on a quest for the ultimate gift to give her children for Christmas. She gets her hands on it, and she just has this moment of mindblowing-ness that went over the top. She ascends to space and time and just kind of turns into butterflies. I tried to like save it as best as I could, but I think we ultimately had to take it out. There's a little shadow of it, I think, that's still in there. She still has her moments! I really like her character.
What is one of your favorite Easter eggs or references in Beebo Saves Christmas?
I'm going through the whole special in my head... we definitely made sure to put in that he la-la-loves you. In fact, we have a whole song where he's doubling down on that, as far as Christmas goes.
It wouldn't be a holiday special without a little singing. What were some of the joys -- and challenges -- of bringing those songs to life?
Well, the biggest challenge was you kind of have a set look and feel of the show, and we're an animated special on a deadline. So we've got our own limitations. So you get to these songs, and just the amount of characters and backgrounds just go out the window and you're like, "Well, we can either finish the special or not finish the special if we continue with the same art direction."
So in the song, we took the liberty to like, "Let's just change the art style for a little bit, make it simpler, so that we can get through everything." We didn't really know what we were dealing with until it was all finished. I think it just came out amazing, especially Santa and Beebo are singing in what we called the Snowbucks Coffee House, and that's where we really utilize this technique and I think it came out amazing.
I felt like we got away with murder. It was the last day of editing and finally putting all the pieces together and it just it came out amazing and I'm really excited for people to see that song and I hope they love it as much as I do.
How interested would you be in continuing Beebo's adventures? Is there more room for animated Beebo adventures in your heart? Beebo's Fuzzy New Year, perhaps?
I was even thinking we could have Beebo Saves Arbor Day or Beebo Celebrates Secretaries Day. I don't know! I just feels like it's endless. You can just put this fuzzy blue sugar bomb in any situation and it'll be really fun to watch.
What do you hope viewers take away from the special?
I just hope they get the songs stuck in their head, like I did. I still get them stuck in my head even though we finished it months ago. I hope they have fun. I hope they think it's cute, and I hope they laugh. I hope they bang on the door and demand Warner Bros. make more of it. [laughs]
What is one of your favorite memories from working on this project?
Something that really stands out to me is just I had the best crew. This special was just so -- we had tight, confined limits, and it would have been so easy to just [be] like, "Well, we're just going to get it done, but we're not gonna care about it. It's just a job." But all of my board artists, all of my designers, background designers, prop and character designers, all my animators, just saw my vision and they were just like, "Let's do this!" They put in so much effort and they really didn't have to!
My heart fills with so much joy that everybody just brought their A-game to the table. That was a great sensation... like, we're all working on this and then I'd get work in and I'd look at it and it was like, "Wow, this is turning really good!"
Beebo Saves Christmas airs Wednesday, Dec. 1 at 8 pm ET/PT on The CW.