The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder Cast Is Ready To Make Live-Action Magic!
The Fairly OddParents are back — in live-action!
As Timmy Turner heads to college, he passes his trusty fairy godparents Cosmo and Wanda on to his cautious cousin Viv to help her adjust to her new life in Dimmsdale. I spoke with the cast of The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder about what to expect in the new live-action series.
It’s been 24 years since Daran Norris and Susanne Blakeslee first lent their voices to the roles of Cosmo and Wanda in Oh Yeah! Cartoons, which eventually led to the 2001 animated series The Fairly OddParents. “It was a surprise, but a great surprise to be doing this [continuation] and to see it with real three-dimensional people singing and dancing their hearts out,” said Blakeslee. “Every kid wants to be granted a wish and every kid wants to be made to feel special. I think every kid can relate in some way to one of these characters even though it's in the most bizarre situations.”
This new series is about a blended family as Ty Turner (Ryan-James Hatanaka) reunites with his high school sweetheart Rachel Raskin (Laura Bell Bundy) and uproots his life to move back to Dimmsdale. Now his daughter Viv (Audrey Grace Marshall) and her new stepbrother Roy Raskin (Tyler Wladis) must navigate life together sharing Timmy’s fairy godparents. “Viv and Roy are definitely very opposite. Viv is an old soul, she's a little shy, she definitely tries to stay out of everything. It's funny seeing them come together. She becomes such a family with these Dimmsdale people and […] she can call Dimmsdale home by the end,” said Marshall, with Wladis adding: “Every day of Roy's life is like the same thing. He has his boys cheering for him and then he's scoring baskets. Everyone tells him how great he is and he just wants [a] change. When he meets Viv, it's like he finally sees something different in Dimmsdale.”
Marshall confirms that the live-action show takes things to the next level. “It's the same Dimmsdale that everybody knows and loves,” she said. “It's probably gotten a little crazier if I'm being honest now that it's in live-action.”
Broadway legend Laura Bell Bundy dove into the original animated series to really understand how to bring these new characters to life in live-action. “I watched a lot [of original episodes] to try to understand the tone of what this world was and how we could translate this heightened world of Dimmsdale. You see […] how Timmy Turner is relating to [the parents] and how he needs wishes in order to survive them. It's just sort of ironic that […] it's fairy godparents but also the parents are fairly odd,” shared Bundy. “The transition from fully animated to animated live-action is that we're also bringing in this consistency of heart and family that I don't think was in the animated series but is in our world in our version of Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder.”
One of the most iconic episodes from the original animated series was when Chip Skylark appeared to sing “Shiny Teeth and Me.” This new show has their own version of a recurring pop star parody with Dustan Lumberlake played by Garrett Clayton. “I love that I get to play a sardonic pop star who heckles these kids all the time,” Clayton told me. “It was a couple episodes in and I walked past our showrunners […] and I was like, ‘I know that this character is based off Chip Skylark and I've been dying on the inside.’” He revealed that he sings six songs on the show and hopes in the future he’ll get to sing some Skylark hits like “Shiny Teeth and Me” and “Icky Vicky.”
Norris and Blakeslee even shared that their favorite moment over their decades working together as Cosmo and Wanda is a musical one. “It's no contest! When we got to sing our little love ballad “Floating With You” together. That is such a huge memory,” said Norris. “Not many people know this, but I saw [Susanne] on stage in a production of Forbidden Hollywood and she absolutely had me crying laughing. She was the most versatile, funny, talented thing I had seen in forever and I just went, ‘Who is this woman?’ Then years later, we get to work together, not just once, but for 20 some years now. How lucky am I?”
You can really see the strong bond between Blakeslee and Norris. “This guy is one of the funniest people I've ever met and the biggest heart and just the [most] tremendous talent,” gushed Blakeslee. “He always had us cracking up when we were doing recordings… sometimes when we're not supposed to crack up, but that's what made it a joy.”
The Fairly OddParents finds Cosmo and Wanda granting countless wishes for their fairy god kids. What would Marshall wish for if given the chance? A second season! “I'd probably wish for a second season,” she said. “I always try and think of something […] like be a superhero or princess, but really […] the number one thing on my mind would be a second season.”
All 13 episodes in the first season of The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder is streaming now on Paramount+.
