Growing up, Phil Weinstein, executive producer of “Mickey Mouse Funhouse,” celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah.
“My uncle had a religiously blended family,” Weinstein says. “We would go to their house and they would have a Christmas tree and a Hanukkah menorah. It was kind of awesome.”
That cherished childhood memory is present in “Hanukkah at Hilda’s,” one of the first “Mickey” episodes to celebrate the Jewish holiday. In the episode, premiering Dec. 6 on Disney Junior, Mickey and his pals get stranded in a snowstorm at Hilda’s house and learn that she is Jewish and celebrates Hanukkah. The gang then celebrates both December holidays with Christmas sugar cookies and jelly-filled doughnuts known as sufganiyot.
Since its premiere in 2021, “Mickey Mouse Funhouse” has highlighted many culturally diverse holidays including Nochebuena, a Christmas Eve tradition celebrated by Latinos; the Korean holiday Chuseok; Día de Muertos and the Armenian holiday Vardavar. “In our show, we have these stairs to anywhere, which is really about imagination,” Weinstein says. “Imagination can take you anywhere and then, as we got into the show, we realized it doesn’t just have to be fantasy places that they go off to. We can really celebrate real things like Hanukkah and Nochebuena.”
That ethos is shared among the Disney Junior shows that will highlight the Jewish holiday this season. In an episode of Marvel’s “Spidey and His Amazing Friends” titled “Hanukkah Heist,” premiering Dec. 3, Spidey and the Thing help his Aunt Petunia save her beloved latkes from the show’s villains, including Rhino and the Green Goblin. “The Thing is a really special character, and he’s Jewish so it was very natural to tell a story through his point of view,” says Becca Topol, “Spidey’s’’ story editor and co-producer. “The Thing might be tough and gruff but ultimately he’s a softy when it comes to family and holidays and things he loves.”
The hook of the story is that all the bad guys want Aunt Petunia’s latkes because they are so delicious. Aunt Petunia’s secret ingredient, in addition to the potatoes, oil, salt and onions, is love. “I know that’s true for people in other religions, that the food always ends up being so closely connected to the celebration of holidays,” Topol says. “The real beauty of the episode is that I think audience members can connect with it whether they are Jewish or not. It is the togetherness of the family and the really close relationship that the Thing has with his aunt.”
Topol says at her Hanukkah celebrations, there are always a few people who have never had a latke before. “Every culture has their food that they are really proud of that everyone wants to have. You can appreciate this and learn more about the Jewish culture and what traditional Hanukkah is like and connect to it,” she says. “[We are] taking the specific and making it universal and relatable on a bigger level. Spidey is also having latkes for the first time so Spidey is a way in for our audience.”
“SuperKitties” songwriter Keith Harrison Dworkin wrote “Hanukkah Lights” for the “Hanukkah Rescue” episode that premieres Dec. 4 and finds the heroic felines lighting the menorah. “I grew up in a Jewish household so I know what it is to say the prayer over the menorah and go through that ritual. That’s really the centerpiece of the holiday,” he says. “That first version of the song is kind of in lieu of the prayer. And then at the end of the episode, we get the full song, which is kind of the danceable fun party version, and that’s just a lot of fun.”
Dworkin loved being able to create a song that feels modern and relatable “because sometimes Hebraic music cannot feel that way.” The central lyric of the song is that “even when hope grows dim together, we will make it through.” “That was the line that’s really what Hanukkah is about for me thematically,” he says. “It’s about hope. In this particular episode, we are teaching the kids that cultural diversity is good and Hanukkah is a positive and valuable and beautiful part of the holiday season. What a wonderful message to share.”
Each of the episodes take the time to explain to their young audience what Hanukkah is. As she did for the Rosh Hashanah “Spidey” episode that aired last year, Topol worked with the nonprofit Tanenbaum as well as Disney Junior’s internal education and inclusion team.
“For our audience we need to explain it in a digestible way,” Topol says. “How are you going to explain something that’s relatively complicated? We really did want to go into the heart of it, the miracle of lights. The idea of introducing a holiday to viewers that they may not have celebrated before or know much about and introducing it with joy and love and family and togetherness is a way to really allow those universal themes of holiday to come out and bring more happiness and joy to the world.”
These may be preschool shows but for all involved, it’s also an opportunity to help impart positive messages on the young minds watching.
“We are all just people and we can treat each other with respect,” Weinstein says. “We are always consciously thinking about how we can hopefully help kids to learn how to treat their fellow humans.”
