11-year-old from Savage gives kids TV show 'Arthur' a new character

11-year-old from Savage gives kids TV show 'Arthur' a new character
By Maja Beckstrom
mbeckstrom@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 05/08/2009 03:20:18 PM CDT


Sixth-grader Connor Gordon doesn't watch "Arthur" — anymore.

The animated children's television show was his favorite program, he said, until he was in "like about third grade." But his little sister still watches it every morning at 7 a.m. And when he was a second-grader, his teacher devoted an entire unit to the picture books by author Marc Brown that inspired the popular PBS series.

So, Connor was in a strong position when a contest was held to create a new character for the show, which is about an aardvark family and their fellow animal friends. Still, to beat out 8,500 submissions from across the country is quite a feat. He did it with Lydia Fox — a girl fox in a wheelchair, who loves to draw and plays basketball.

On Thursday, a film crew from public television station WGBH in Boston crowded into the Gordon kitchen in Savage to film Connor and Marc Brown side-by-side at a table discussing drawing techniques and storylines. Later they filmed at Connor's former school.

The live-action segment will air nationally as part of the "Arthur" show on June 30. The contest did not guarantee that the winning character would actually be written into the animated portions of the show, but producers were so impressed with Connor's creation that we can expect to see Lydia Fox in upcoming episodes alongside Arthur, Buster, Francine and all the other animal kids in Ellwood City, producers said.

"I was just blown away by how carefully thought out

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she was," Brown said. "She'll fit right in."
The contest was conceived after CVS Caremark All Kids Can signed on last year as a corporate sponsor of the series. The pharmacy's charitable arm works to raise public awareness about children with disabilities, and the contest was designed to foster a message of inclusion.

Submission guidelines asked kids ages 6-12 to create characters with "a unique ability, character trait, or disability that might make life a little bit different, but not any less fun."

Finalists included a stuttering girl cat, an autistic boy bear and his service dog, a girl cat with Down syndrome, another boy bear with diabetes and a deaf ballerina cat.

But Lydia Fox — with her blue-and-red sneakers and her monogrammed backpack — rose right to the top.

"The drawing is fabulous," said "Arthur" senior producer Jacqui Deegan. "And she just has that spirit of creativity and positive energy. We also love the idea of her being able to play wheelchair basketball. We like to show kids playing sports."

Connor thought up the character at his kitchen counter while chatting with his mom. He decided that Lydia started using a wheelchair after she had become paralyzed from the waist down while diving into the shallow end of a swimming pool.

"Some kids are born needing a wheelchair," he said. "But I had the idea that she got the wheelchair later on, so it would be harder on her, so she'd have to adapt to it."

Connor drew on his own experiences to bring Lydia Fox to life. Like him, she had just started a new school. This fall, after six years at St. John the Baptist Catholic School in Savage, Connor left his friends behind to start sixth grade at Twin Oaks Middle School in Prior Lake. His parents said it's been a hard transition.

Lydia also likes to use fabric paint to create colorful T-shirts.

Unlike Connor, Lydia is a girl.

"When I thought of a fox, I thought of a girl because of their big bushy tail," he said. "I guess I think it looks sort of elegant."

On Thursday morning, the aspiring cartoonist and the world-famous cartoonist leaned over a thick spiral-bound sketchpad and chatted about character development.

"I'd love to know what Lydia puts in her backpack," Brown said.

"I didn't really think about that," Connor said.

"You know there might be a story here," Brown said.

"Whoa!" said Connor, suddenly inspired. "She carries plans, you know, for the shirts she makes. She has a drawing pad, a sketch pad, and probably some colored pencils, some fabric paints."

Connor would like to be a cartoon animator when he grows up.

"It's my life's dream," he said. He asked his parents for a drafting table for Christmas. He takes art classes in the summer and sketches the animals he sees in his back yard.

Until now, his father has been trying to channel his talents into a more practical career — perhaps architecture.

"But now I may have to rethink that," Terry Gordon said.