If you’re trying to raise awareness about the environment there are a number of different avenues open to you. You could start a petition drive, hold a demonstration or write an Op-Ed article. Or you could just get a supermodel to do it for you, according the The New York TImes.
Gisele Bündchen, the fashion model and United Nations goodwill ambassador, is lending her likeness and a long-held interest in environmental issues to a new Web-based animated series intended to teach younger viewers how they can help save the earth.
The series, called “Gisele & the Green Team,” is making its debut on Tuesday on AOL Kids and follows a group of young women who moonlight as environmental superheroes. Along with the 26-episode series, AOL is also introducing a new site within AOL Kids that Ms. Bündchen helped design and that will reinforce the green-friendly and girl-power messages of the show.
The New York TImes´ ArtsBeat spoke recently to Ms. Bündchen about her new project and her surprising familiarity with the cartoon lexicon. These are excerpts from that conversation.
Q. How did you end up with your own cartoon series?
A. It was initially going to start only in Brazil. They were like, “We want to do a cartoon about you,” and I said that’s great, but if you’re going to do a cartoon, what are you going to talk about? It needs to be educational. Through the kids you also get to the parents. That’s what my hope is.
Q. Why did you want the series to have an environmental focus?
A. I’ve been donating proceeds from my flip-flop collections for the last five years to different environmental causes. I have my own environmental cause that I sponsor, called Agua Limpa, in the south of Brazil, in the region where I grew up. But besides all that, I took a trip to the Amazon in 2004 and was in an Indian tribe for a week, and experienced how those people are with nature, how respectful they are of it and how they can live in harmony with it. At the same time it was heartbreaking to see they were having so many issues – their kids were getting sick because the water had a lot of pesticides, they were deforesting. I was like: “Oh my God. What am I going to do?” I felt so small. I have to help these people.
Q. Were you a fan of cartoons when you were growing up?
A. Oh, yeah. Big time. I was only allowed to watch television one hour a day, because my parents, they worked – my mom was a cashier in a bank, my father worked in real estate. They were very busy, but we had rules. They were like, “You go to school in the morning, you have to study and you have to play, you can watch one hour of cartoons.” But I loved cartoons. Oh my God. Like “She-Ra” and “He-Man.” And “Scooby-Doo.”
Q. “Scooby-Doo”? Really?
A. It was very fun. The cartoons of that time, it wasn’t so educational. It was fun. With my cartoon, I want there to be teamwork. This is why there’s the five girls. These girls, they are not powerful individually – they are only powerful together. This is why I had the different ek-ni-ti-ci — ek-ni-ci — ah, look at my accent. Oh my God, I can’t say this word.
Q. That’s O.K., I know what you mean.
A. Oh, God. Brazilians trying to speak English. This is why they say: “We can’t have your voice in the cartoon. Because people are not going to understand you, Gisele.” I say: “I want to be the voice in the cartoon! I want to be my voice!” They say, “You can’t, because people are going to be like, ‘What did you just say?’” I’m like: “O.K. I want them understand.” So fine, they don’t need to have my voice. But I hope you understand me. I’m trying here.
Q. What do you think of the cartoon version of you in the series?
A. I thought it was pretty funny. I was asking my sisters, “You guys, do you think she looks like me?” They were like, “Eh, I don’t know.” But she needs to resemble me, not look exactly like me. The whole thing was based on me because I have the star [tattoos] on my wrists and the star has five points so that’s why there are five girls. They said, “O.K., write down the powers that you wish you had.” And who doesn’t want to be a superhero? I want to jump that high. I’m very athletic, that would be my dream if I could be a ninja. I was like: “I want to be a ninja. I want to have telepathy.” “Telepathy? Are you crazy?” All of those powers. And I’m really into astrology, so each of them is going to have a sign and a [gem] stone for that sign. I’m always kind of crazy, but I was like, “Hey, since this is my cartoon, I can do whatever I want, right?”
Q. What are the chances that Tom might get involved in future episodes?
A. I would love for him to. Hey, let’s put him in there, too – put him to work. He’s got to help save the planet. Not only girls need to do the work. Hello! Men also need to do the work, right? Don’t put all the responsibility in our hands. Hey, what’s up with that?
Click here to watch a preview of “Gisele & the Green Team”
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