How Jane Goodall is Inspiring a New Apple TV Series and Next Gen Environmentalists Everywhere
Nothing could have been more perfect for Earth Day.
Girls swarmed into the Robin Williams Theater screening room in New York City, chattering animatedly and gaping at the floor to ceiling movie poster ahead. Staring back at them was the image of a girl about their age, flanked by a friend, a chimpanzee, and a tiger the size of a Manhattan taxi.
Instantly, they were hooked.
Settling into seats as Madeline Di Nonno, President and CEO of The Geena Davis Institute for Gender & Media, welcomed the crowd, the girls were rapt as the lights dimmed. And then the noise of the city disappeared as polar bears, seals, dragonflies and queen bees took over and brought Apple TV’s breathtaking new series JANE to full-screen life.
Inspired by the legendary Jane Goodall, who has wholeheartedly endorsed the ten-episode series that mixes live action humans with computer-generated animals, the hero of the story is nine-year-old Jane Garcia, played by eleven-year-old Ava Louise Murchison.
Jane, accompanied by her best friends David (played by Mason Blumberg) and Greybeard the chimpanzee (both in a nod to David Greybeard - the first chimpanzee to accept Jane Goodall), goes on “epic adventures to help protect wild animals all around the world.”
Quoting her idol Jane Goodall, whose pictures and sayings adorn her bedroom walls, she solemnly repeats: “Only if we understand, will we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help, can they be saved.”
While the CGI work is astounding – viewers in the first two episodes swim with a polar bear, dive inside a honeycomb and are nearly swallowed by a roaring avalanche – it’s Jane who brings the series to life and offers today’s budding environmentalists a role model their own age.
“Over 13 thousand actors auditioned for the two lead roles,” Emmy Award-winning writer, director and executive producer J.J. Johnson told us in the private Q&A with Sinking Ship Entertainment that followed, “but we knew when we saw Ava that she was Jane.”
Asked why Jane's character resonated with them, Être girls in the audience commented that she seems totally real…like we could be friends with her. The group in her row nodded vigorously. Also, another added, she isn’t perfect. She gets in trouble and has to figure it out.
She does, and with parental role models played by Tamara Almeida and Mary-Louise Parker, we watch Jane wrestle with big concepts like extinction, climate change and pollution with fierce and astute concern.
But that isn’t even the best part.
At the end of each episode, actual scientists and activists engage in video calls with Jane and her team, offering of-the-moment insight and actionable ways that today’s youth can help. These mentor moments are real and impactful.
And they will last long after the credits roll.
How does Arctic warming hurt polar bears? Why are bees disappearing? What can we do to stop it? How do we start?
Asking the questions young viewers at home might ask, Jane and David pepper modern-day biologists, zoologists and underwater explorers like Jill Heinerth (pictured above) with rapid-fire concerns, and the experts are full of real-time information.
Can other kids reach out to the show’s featured role models with questions of their own?
“You bet,” answered Anna Rathmann, Executive Director of the Jane Goodall Institute, joining the Q&A on stage at the Earth Day screening. “The people in the show want to stay involved.”
Talking about the importance of youth agency and empathy in environmental activism, Rathmann pointed the audience to Roots & Shoots, a youth-based organization active in more than 60 countries, and encouraged them to engage their friends and schools. “We want to share Jane’s story with new generations,” Rathmann added, “inspiring hope through action.”
What else does Jane Goodall want the next gen to know about the series? In an interview with Variety, she said: “I hope that [the series] will encourage them to actually think more about endangered species — to think about the fact that if we’re not careful, many of these species will disappear.”
“So, if this Jane Garcia encourages real-life activities,” Goodall concluded, “it’ll be great. I hope it will encourage young people to join in the effort to make this a better world, to choose projects that will help to save the environment before it’s too late.”
We hope so too.
With deep thanks to The Geena Davis Institute and Apple TV+ for inviting Être to join them on Earth Day, we’re joining Jane on her quest to save the planet – one spectacular species at a time.
Looking forward,
Illana
ÊXTRA: For three ways you can get kids, local schools or community groups involved with JANE’s epic mission, check out The Jane Goodall Institute, then head to Roots & Shoots for specific next gen activist ideas, and reach out directly to the environmental experts featured in JANE (now streaming on AppleTV+)!
