

I guess I’m also selfishly reliving my childhood.” I had a similar childhood, where I had a lot of space to run around and a lot of freedom to imagine. “There's something about them that feels timeless and I always thought the relationship between Calvin and Hobbes was very rich. “Those classics are so special to me,” says Max Keane.
#Garbage truck cartoon series
The show still embraces a nostalgic feel, with Keane drawing from 90s kids’ animated series like CBC’s Little Bear, and classic kids’ comics such as Calvin and Hobbes. But it’s turned out really beautiful and it has that tangibility that makes the world feel like it exists somewhere.” But in the end, we figured it was too big of a bite to chew and decided to go with CG. The first time we all saw stop-motion, it was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, toys are alive!’ and I wanted to tap into that. I was originally thinking the show would be stop-motion because that idea is very nostalgic for me. “Because of that, you can create this believable world for kids to connect to.

“For a kid there's this wonderful, blurry line between reality and animation, as well as reality and imagination,” says Max Keane. But Trash Truck is unique with its Glen Keane Productions’ 3D/CG animation, giving a more realistic feel to a child’s highly imaginative world. Max Keane has worked with his father before on other productions, such as the animated shorts Nephtali, Duet and Dear Basketball. It’s what helps cultivate imagination, and to keep that thing alive.” Glen, my dad, is always talking about the importance of thinking like a child and being connected to that point of view. “I've gotten really lucky and been able to make a show that means so much to me, with people I really care about and love. “It’s definitely like my family’s time capsule,” says Max Keane, who voices Hank’s father in the show along with his wife Megan Keane, who voices Hank’s mother. In addition, Keane’s father, Disney animator extraordinaire and Oscar-winning Dear Basketball director Glen Keane - known for his work on Tarzan, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid as well as Netflix’s upcoming CG feature, Over the Moon - serves not only as the show’s executive producer, but also as the voice for both Hank’s grandpa and his pal, Trash Truck. But he cherishes the project is even more because Henry provides the voice for Hank. The project is already personal for Keane, being “a show for my son,” as he says. Trash Truck, with airs on Netflix November 10, follows the adventures of a six-year-old, gap-toothed, freckle-faced boy named Hank and his best friends Donny (Lucas Neff) the witty racoon, Walter (Brian Baumgartner) the sleepy black bear, Miss Mona (Jackie Loeb) the motherly mouse, and the big green trash-collecting machine Trash Truck, as the group learns importance of physics, tackling a fear of the dark, and making the impossible possible with a little imagination. “I was very interested in this relationship between a boy and his best friend, who’s this really amazing thing to him, but to everyone else, is just a garbage truck.” That night, Keane told Henry a bedtime story about a little boy who became best friends with a garbage truck, and that’s when Keane says he found a way to give animated life to his son’s love for the neighborhood “trash truck.” “I became excited,” he says. “I thought, ‘Man, I wish that big, dumb truck knew how much this little boy loved him.’”
#Garbage truck cartoon driver
“The driver honked as he left and Henry leaned into my arms and said, ‘Bye trash truck!’” he continues. I looked at the big metal lifter arms and all the grimy cables, and suddenly it was like, ‘Wow, I get it now. It pulled up in front of us, grabbed the trashcan all noisy, dumped it, and slammed it back down.

“Down at the end of the road we could see the garbage truck coming with the lights flashing through the fog like some creature coming to visit.

“One foggy, cool morning, I was standing outside with my son, Henry – who was about two-years-old at the time - in his pajamas,” remembers Keane. Max Keane never understood his son Henry’s love of garbage trucks until that love became the inspiration for the brand-new CG animated preschool series, Trash Truck, Keane's first as creator and showrunner.
