There isn’t a straight line among the curvy, willowy cast of characters. Creating that “flowy” look fell to character designer David Colman and art director Valerio Ventura.

Colman’s characters hit the bull’s eye. There isn’t a straight line among the curvy, willowy cast of characters, all of whom look like they could indeed flow rather than walk across the frame. Filling those frames are the show’s jazzy spotted backgrounds, the work of Valerio Ventura, the show’s supervising art director. Ventura’s credits include visual development on Disney features dating back to The Rescuers Down Under, but for Class of 3000, he put the (not-quite) finished art on a table, and according to Lynch literally threw paint across them Jackson Pollock-style. “It’s a contemporary design that gives the frames a depth and dimension. We loved it.”

While Colman finalized the look of the characters, Benjamin’s childhood experiences and friendships helped develop their personalities, not unlike the way Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor’s younger days inspired their Fat Albert and Pryor’s Place Saturday morning shows. “I was telling Tommy about how I grew up,” Benjamin relates, “and he’s like, ‘oh, that’s it! There’s a character right there’.” Those characters include among others, soft-spoken, rich kid Eddie, boy genius Philly Phil, tough but kind-hearted Tamika and André’s youthful stand-in Li’l D. According to Lynch, “André told me how he took a bus two to three miles to school because his mother wanted him to go to a school with music in another section of town. I said that’s great, that’s our lead character.” “My mom was smart enough to send me to school in Buckhead,” explains Benjamin, “I guess you would call it the place to be in Atlanta. I’m in school with the mayor’s kids, my friends were East Indian, people from France. I was getting all kinds of influences and I thought it would be cool to have these different types of characters, different nationalities coming together as music. Everybody loves music, you know.”

Class of 3000 is the story of disaffected superstar Sunny Bridges (voiced by Benjamin himself) who abandons his career to teach a class of musical prodigies. “These are regular kids that are gifted, but they’re still regular kids,” he continues. “It’s kind of a coming of age story, and on this series we’re coming of age through music. I think this show presents a really whimsical, fun side of life that we haven’t seen since Peanuts.”

Benjamin’s childhood experiences and friendships informed the show’s story and characters. He voices disaffected superstar Sunny Bridges (right) who abandons his career to teach a class of musical prodigies.

3000’s characters are voiced by cartoon vets Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants), Phil LaMarr (Samurai Jack), Jennifer Hale (PowerPuff Girls), Crystal Scales (Jimmy Neutron), Janice Kawaye (Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi) and Jeff Glen Bennett (Johnny Bravo). The key role of Li’l D went to Small Fire, an Atlanta comedienne from Benjamin’s old neighborhood. “She was the local tomboy — she would beat us in basketball,” Benjamin says. He had been thinking of her for the role from the start, and finding her was relatively simple: “My mom went to her mom’s house to ask where she was.”

Lynch brought veteran animation scripter Patric Verrone (Futurama, The Simpsons, The Critic) aboard as the series’ story editor. However, his and Benjamin’s greatest coup may have been lining up an all-star roster of “guest art directors” from both within and without the animation world. Each episode features a music video sequence with its own unique look, set to an original André 3000 tune. Talent on the order of Ren & Stimpy’s John Kricfalusi, comics artist and illustrator Bill Sienkiewicz, cartoonist Kyle Baker and Aeon Flux creator Peter Chung will be overseeing segments that Benjamin compares to “mini-Fantasias” within each episode.

According to Lynch, the artists all were given free reign; staying “on model” was strictly optional. “We don’t want that. We’re encouraging them to bring own game to it that will still work in the body of our storytelling. We told John K, take our characters and make them yours, which is exactly what he did. Peter Chung did a sci-fi version — it became a Mission: Impossible number. We’re doing a half hour show, not 11 minute cartoons; character and story are very important and André writes his songs to make sure they’re still continuing with the story.

“We have a couple of guys coming in from painting, famous artists. I can’t tell you who because we’re waiting to see if their work translates into animation. It will be interesting, and we’re always trying to push it further. We may trip a little bit but I think overall we’re going to come up with something esthetically pleasing and artistic, and set a new tone for it all.”

Beyond the music videos, Atlanta native and B-52s band member Pat Irwin oversees the show’s score with Benjamin. “André wanted an Atlanta/southern vibe to the music,” says Lynch, “and Pat helps bring that. André supervises all the music, he does a song every week and did the theme song.