Villains Against Evil

The American Library Association saw a 65% increase in the number of children’s books being challenged and banned across the U.S., with many of these banned books featuring topics such as LGBTQI+ health and education, racial disparities, politics, and religion. To ensure libraries can continue to offer children a wide variety of perspectives that offer valuable lessons about empathy, acceptance, and identity, today, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) announces the launch of “Villains Against Evil,” a new campaign created to educate, inform and protect all Americans’ right to read.

In a series of captivating films and social videos created by INNOCEAN USA, this initiative features some of the most well-known storybook villains to speak out against an evil even greater than them: Interest Groups and Politicians attempting to ban books.

With the goals to drive awareness and change, the campaign brings the villains to life by blending the latest AI technology — sourcing only artists’ licensed work for Adobe Firefly — with animation and voice actors, including Chris Parnell, Rachel Harris, Martin Starr and Chris Witaske.

“Every child deserves an uncensored education that fully prepares them for a bright future,” said Lee Rowland, Executive Director of NCAC. “Many banned books cover topics like health, race, politics, identity, and religion -- and are essential to giving students the tools to navigate complex topics with context, empathy, and critical thinking. Censorship prevents kids from accessing the best, most accurate, and thorough education that they each deserve."

“At INNOCEAN USA, we believe in creating space for diverse perspectives, even those that challenge us. The freedom of expression and the exploration of ideas allow us to understand each other better, and when that’s censored, it can only be described as evil,” said Jason Sperling, chief creative officer. “This idea is so simple that even a child can understand and it should connect with anyone who’s ever read their child a night-time fairytale. This is the kind of work that can drive meaningful change and can have lasting impact.”

“Given the tight timeline, we knew that traditional 3D production wasn’t possible, so AI became our solution to create high-quality content quickly while staying true to the concept and the artistry,” said Guto Terni, ROOF Studio Partner/Director. “We recorded the audio with different people, casting to find the perfect voice for each character. And since the AI has an intriguing, slightly off, yet engaging animation feel, we embraced its imperfections rather than mimicking real actors' facial expressions.”

For the campaign’s soundtrack, Lucas Mayer, Partner and Creative Director from DaHouse Audio, said the briefing was already in our collective unconscious, deep in our childhood memories. “The challenge was to create a memorable melody with that feeling of ‘I've heard that in classic fairy tales,’ but still be able to arrange with different instruments for each character. The melody magically walks between them, giving emphasis to each one."

Partners at Swing Set Productions, Margarita Mix Hollywood, Lime Music also contributed their time and talents to this project.

The campaign will run across Instagram, YouTube and Facebook beginning on October 29