By Jessica Scott-Reid
Jessica is a Canadian writer, animal advocate and plant-based food expert. Her work appears regularly in media across Canada and the US.
My six-year-old just finished a unit on polar bears at school, which these days means not only learning how the animals’ paws are the size of dinner plates, but also how climate change is impacting their survival. Polar bears are one of the species most impacted by global warming, she tells me, due to melting sea ice and subsequent loss of habitat and hunting territory. She’s developed a great interest in them, and is concerned for these animals that inhabit the north of our own province of Manitoba.
So, when we sat down to screen the first episode of the new Apple TV+ show Jane, which happens to focus on the plight of polar bears from a kid’s perspective, she was very keen. She even learned a few new things. Produced in-part by the Jane Goodall Institute, Jane is a multilayer educational and entertainment experience, and just the kind of hopeful and empowering show our climate-anxious kids need today.
All images from the Apple TV+ series “Jane”.
Based on the mission of legendary ethologist Dr. Jane Goodall, Jane packages decades of Goodall’s messaging and advocacy into an entertaining blend of storytelling and special effects. Aimed at ages 6-9, the series centres on nine-year-old Jane, her friend David, and Jane’s sidekick, a stuffed chimp named Greybeard (an homage to one of the first chimps Goodall named in her early work in Africa), who come to the rescue of one iconic species each episode. Like all the animals and insects featured in Jane, Greybeard comes to life in the kids’ imagination with a truly impressive combination of live-action and CGI (no live animals are used in the production), taking the concept of the imaginary friend to a whole new level.
“What’s really entertaining about the show is that most of these adventures happen in the four walls of their building,” says Andria Teather, a senior advisor with the Jane Goodall Institute, who worked on the show with Sinking Ship Entertainment. “The whole show is built upon what you can imagine.”
It’s also built on what can be done, in real life. Through the lens of the plight of specific animals and insects, the show tackles everyday environmental issues and the practical solutions in-reach for young climate activists, such as recycling, preventing food waste, and eliminating pesticides. Jane also isn’t afraid to dive into more serious topics, such Indigenous knowledge-keeping, inclusive family structures and gender inequality. The superb writing allows for all these varying topics to flow together seamlessly all the while keeping even my fidgety first grader firmly engaged.
But what is perhaps the most profound theme of Jane, is the empowerment of children, who are presented as informed, passionate and bold. They speak up–respectfully—to older people in their community, about how they can help the planet. “In every episode there’s interaction with those kids and adults in their building [and neighbourhood] whose minds they are changing,” says Teather. “Children have a lot of influence. Often it is the voices of children, rising up to their parents and other adults, where change can really happen.” And this empowerment of the young is key, Teather adds, “because they are the ones dealing with the world we have created.”
But the young characters are not positioned as the only eco-know-it-alls. At the end of each episode they speak to real-life wildlife experts from around the world, to learn even more about that episode’s animal or insect, how they are being impacted, and how kids and adults can help.
“The program ‘Jane’ spreads a message of hope and reminds children that the environment is something that we all have to be concerned about while also inspiring them and their parents to make a difference.”
— Dr. Jane Goodall
Teather believes parents watching the show will see their own kids within the characters. “They will see issues their own kids are facing, and these characters bring them to life.” I agree. Watching the show with my child, who considers herself a young vegan climate activist, I did see her in the brave and compassionate characters. But more importantly, she saw herself. And for young kids today, facing both current and impending implications of climate change and biodiversity loss, observing other children as smart, capable and hopeful, both in their wild imaginations and their everyday lives, will offer inspiration to keep up the fight. It also shows them that they are not alone. There are kids like them, there are adults who will listen, and there is a community to support them.
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