INTRODUCTION
SAFE is an animated children’s show aimed at the 8 to 12-year-old demographic. It is a story about leaving the world a better place than when you found it and about appreciating the life around you, both big and small.
The world of SAFE is very simillar to our own, with the small exception that when a person passes away, they might end up as a Specter. Specters are nothing to fear, they are just people, after all. But not to worry, there are organizations here tasked with helping lost souls cross over to the other side. However, these services are only avalaible to humans, what about the animals Specters of the world?
That's where our story begins. Andrea Lind is a 13-year-old girl from small-town Sweden, and she has decided that it’s up to her to save the animal Specters of the world; togheter with her ragtag group of friends she established SAFE (Specter-Animal-FriendshipEffort). Throughout their adventures they learn about the world, their friendship, as well as what life (and death) are all about.
My main goal for the series is to teach kids that they have the agency to make things better. They can make a real impact on the world around them even if the adults in their lives keep messing it up.
The show will promote solving conflicts around you with kindness and understanding, whether it be towards our friends, our family, or our pets. It will cover complicated themes like mortality and generational trauma through the eyes of a child, all while respecting the viewer's intelligence and while keeping it age-appropriate. The series setup will be a “monster-of-the-week” formula but framed by a larger mystery storyline that unfolds as the series progresses.
They say that one person can't change the world, but how can you you be sure if you haven't tried?
SPECTERS AND THE WORLD
The afterlife in this world is called Haven. It is not our final resting place, think of it as a rest stop before reincarnation. Most living people haven’t figured out that part yet, so we will return to it later.
What you need to know for now is that some people (and creatures) aren’t ready to cross over just yet, they still have unfinished business to complete back on Earth. They become what we call Specters.
Specters are souls tied down to this world through great regret or determination. Our souls are a mix of raw energy and pure emotions. Dying with too many heavy emotions puts a weight on the soul, keeping it from leaving this world. The Specter that should have taken shape in Haven instead appears here on Earth. They share the memories and likeness their old self, you could almost pretend that nothing has changed at all, but make no mistake, this is a being stuck in the wrong world.
Losing your physical form comes with both benefits and downsides. The weight on the Specter's soul creates some interesting obstacles. It keeps the Specter anchored to its place of death, which means that it can only travel short distances from its final resting place.
A Specter doesn’t need to eat or sleep, as souls don’t burn energy. Whether this is a blessing or a curse will vary from person to person. They can taste, but whatever they eat will fall straight through them and most find it too much of a hassle to clean up all the pickings.
But there are some objective benefits to being a Specter; Specters wield powers like levitation and invisibility, and thanks to the fact that souls have slight density they can decide whether to phase through- or physically interact with objects around them, (that being said they’re not winning any weightlifting competitions.)
This doesn’t sound too bad, what are the real downsides? If you ignore the whole “being haunted forever by your worst regrets and unfulfilled dreams” aspect, being a Specter is dangerous. As mentioned previously, Specters are beings made out of energy, tied down to earth by nothing but emotions. They are not made for this world, their forms are volatile .
Specters can become physically unstable if they experience too much stress. Even worse, if a Specter submits to their unfinished business, aka lose sight of their dreams or concedes to their failings, the weight on the soul becomes so heavy that it caves in on itself. When that happens the soul, and the person it belongs to, are lost forever. This is referred to as fading.
The crushed soul looks like a small black mass. It is forever stuck to the place where it faded and the area around it fills with a cold, dark mist. The air surrounding it is hard to breathe and coming close to a crushed soul can cause mood swings, influenza-like symptoms, and in the worst case death.
But there is thankfully a way to escape being a Specter and therefore avoid the risk of fading. A Specter can leave Earth and make its way to Haven by lightening the load on its soul. The weight is lifted if the Specter makes peace with its regret or fulfills its dreams. In other words, it needs to take care of its unfinished business.
The first Specter-Relief-Unit was founded in the 18th century. The SRUs are groups tasked with locating and treating Specters. Specters are still people, so helping them safely cross over and keeping them from fading is seen as a form of healthcare. In the early days the SRU treated Specters with simple speech therapy. They would help the Specter come to terms with their issues, or sometimes even go out and solve whatever debt, dispute or other unachieved goal that gave rise to it.
Modern Specter relief has evolved greatly from its humble beginnings. These days you will find an SRU center in every city and large town. They are staffed with trained professionals, equipped with state-of-the-art tech like Stress-readers, Specter-detectors, and various gear to allow them to with the Specters.
interact
The biggest breakthrough in Specter relief was achived by a man named Martin Lind. He created something others had only theorized possible: a passageway into Haven. This development revolutionized Specter relief as we know it. There was no longer a need to solve emotional issues or mess with personal affairs, all you need to do is lead the specter to a passageway and allow them to cross over themselves. This process is less emotional and stressful, which means it’s much safer than the old methods.
There is a small but vocal minority who believe that foregoing emotional treatments might harm the Specters in the long run; Will they have to carry around their burdens for all eternity? Despite this there has been no serious proposal to return to the old methods. With this new technology everyone can be treated before it's to late.
Lind received multiple awards for his work, including the Nobel Prize in medicine. He spent most of his short life in a small town called Järnvik, developing his technology and raising his family.
BEGINNINGS AND CHARACTERs
Our story follows 13-year-old Andrea Lind on her quest to save the animal Specters of the world. Andrea’s father Martin Lind recently passed away, and all she wants is to live up to his legacy.Her dad was the forefather to modern Specter Relief technology, so she got some rather large shoes to fill.
A mysterious clue left behind by her late father takes Andrea to Haven Peak, a crumbling, old animal-rights sanctuary. She meets Crocodile Kenny, the long-dead Specter and founder of the group. Inside the sites main lodge Andrea finds a trace of her late father: a long unfinished Haven Passageway. The portal zaps her as she goes up to touch it, granting her a strange scar and newfound Specter powers.
Kenny’s tune changes once I learns who Andreas' Father is. He has never met the man but manages to convince Andrea that they were good friends. He describes how Martin’s last mission was to save the animal Specters of the world and that he now wants his daughter to take on the mantle. Andrea finally knows what her destiny is.
And so the adventure begins! Andrea creates SAFE: the worlds first animal Specter-relief-unit. The group is made up of her hypeman friend Simon, the anxious but surprisingly skilled Mac, and the team's own inventor Lisa! Since their unfinished passageway won’t be of much use they have to save the animals the old-fashioned way, they must help them take care of their unfinished business.
It's not going to be easy. Andrea will have to learn to wield her newfound powers while learning how to care for Specters. All this while arguing with Kenny about animal handling, fighting off the snobby human-specter-relief-unit, and figuring out how to be a leader. She will have to learn quickly, soon it’s not just animal Specters on the line, but both our world and Haven hanging in the balance .
The initial story driver for SAFE is Andrea’s need to live up to her father's legacy, but as the show progresses, she realizes that her true calling is to make positive change in the world around her. The main story driver instead becomes the quest to make the world better by helping those who need it the most.
Themes: life and death
People (and pets) don’t simply disappear from our lives after they die. (Quite literally in this story.) They will forever make us feel things, drive our decisions, and shape parts of who we are.
Old vs New
You do not have to repeat the mistakes of the people who came before you. Learn from them, you can even forgive them, but don’t let them hold you back.
Follow rules or follow Heart
There are forces within- and around you that will tell you how to act, who to be, and what to think. Never let them drown out what your heart tells you. It knows who you truly are.
TRAITS: Responsible, self-critical, compassionate
WANTS: To live up to her father’s legacy NEEDS: To find her voice and pursue her own dreams
ANDREA LIND
Andrea and her mom live alone in a large house at the edge of town. She likes animals just fine, but becoming the founder of the world's first animal-Specter-relief-unit was not on her bucket list.
The people in her life are quick to praise her, she’s such a smart and hard-working kid- but Andrea has a hard time accepting the praise. She knows she has so much left to achieve. Her dad did his best to make time for her, but she learned from a young age that nothing caught his attention better than when she aced a test or won a competition. Andrea has dedicated her life to living up to her dad’s achievements. The gigantic shoes she had to fill only grew larger after he passed.
But thanks to clues her dad left behind she now has a direction to follow! All she has to do is master her newfound ghost powers, guide a bunch of wild animals into the afterlife, and turn a group of 13-year-olds into a proper Specter relief team. How hard could that be?
CROCODILE KENNY
Crocodile Kenny was once the proud leader of Haven Peak Animal Sanctuary. Respected by his friends and feared by fur manufacturers, zoo keepers, and meat producers alike, he devoted his life to protecting the animals of the world with his partner April and his best friend Paul by his side.
But when Kenny was faced with fatherhood he decided to abandon his friends and family to continue his career. He didn’t realize that those years at the peak were the best ones he would ever get, dying with neither fame nor family, now stuck haunting what remains of his former kingdom.
But then Andrea shows up. Hoping to reclaim his former glory he tricks the kid into assisting him in his animal rights cause. However, when she decides to drag even more punks into the fray and to stop listening to his invaluable advice he realizes that this is going to become one huge headache.
Muffin is a dwarf crocodile that Kenny rescued from a breeder, despite his stance that animals should be reintroduced back into the wild, Muffin never learned how to swim. He decided to make an exception and she has been his closest companion ever since.
Traits: opinionated, rebellious, protective.
WANTS: To return to his glory days
NEEDS: To connect with the people around him, not repeating the mistakes of his past
MACKENZIE ALMGREN
Mackenzie, or Mac as she likes to be called, lives out of town. She’s staying with her BOFF (Best-Online-Friend-Forever) Simon over the summer break. What was supposed to be a vacation full of video games and bad movies instead became a horrifying ordeal centered around getting close and personal with Specters.
Mac has always been one to follow other’s leads. Whether it be Simon’s insistence that the two of them would be great Specter-relievers or her mother's warnings about keeping your heart guarded. It seems like everyone else has better ideas on how to live her life than she ever will.
Andrea insists that Mac is really talented at catching specters. Mac doesn’t believe her, all she does is wave her net around in self-preservation. But it does feel nice to be appreciated.
Traits: witty, anxious, self-doubting.
WANTS: To be loved and accepted NEEDS: To realize she was loved all along and to accept herself
SIMON ANDERSSON
Traits: optimistic, conflict-avoidant, NAIVE.
WANTS: To bring happiness to the people around him NEEDS: To realize it’s okay to have his own needs
Simon is the middle child of seven siblings living with their parents out on their farm. It’s easy to get lost in a crowd like that, so Simon learned early to set himself apart by cracking jokes and making sure to never burden his parents like his brothers and sisters would do.
Simon loves people, but Andrea is his only real friend at school. The other kids tease him, they say he smells like a barn. Simon doesn’t mind though, at least he has tons of company around the farm; He knows every animal by first and last name. Besides, now that his BOFF Mac is in town, this summer couldn’t get any better!
Or that's what he thought. It felt like Christmas morning when Andrea approached him and Mac about joining her new team. What could be better than helping others and cuddling cute animals while you're at it?
LISA SUWAN
Lisa has always been obsessed with aliens, magic, and the supernatural. That’s why she became an inventor, someone’s gotta show the world the truth! She is constantly cooking up new devices for locating UFOs or cryptic creatures. She is undeniably a genius but her smarts are ever so slightly undermined by her conspiratorial side.
Despite her great mind, no one bothers to listen to her bold ideas. She’s just a kid after all.
Lisa’s brains even landed her an internship at the Specter-Relief Center, but even there she was being looked down upon. That’s why she left her post to join SAFE instead; Andrea and the others actually value her creations. Lisa built them everything from Net-Catchers to Specter-detectors, anything to help her team on their mission.
Still, Lisa can’t help but think what life could have been like if she was the one with a famous dad. She would never say it out loud, but she thinks that Andrea has squandered her opportunity. If Lisa had been in her place she would have already been a star.
Traits: Brash, creative, hot-headed.
WANTS: For the world to finally see her genius NEEDS: To realize that the only support she needs comes from the people who care for her
MARTIN LIND
If Martin had to describe himself he would say he’s a family man. He loved his wife and daughter more than anything. However, others would more likely describe him has one of the greatest minds of our time.
Who is he to disagree? He has found a way to manipulate life and death after all. It’s a little ironic that he himself died so soon. He never got to finish his greatest invention, and more importantly, he never got to gift it to his beloved daughter. Oh well, things have a way of working themselves out eventually.
Traits: ambitious, reserved, cunning.
PAUL KARLSSON
Paul became the new head of the Specter-Relief Center after Martin’s passing. He is a great researcher, smart, driven, and curious, but he has never been much of a leader. Many of the other scientists thought it was a strange choice to put him in power, but Martin was clear in his testament that he wanted his right-hand man in charge of his projects.
Paul is dead set on closing down SAFE's operations and removing Andrea and her friends from Haven Peak. The kids think he’s jealous, or maybe he just hates cute animals. They don’t know that Paul is caring deep down, he is just a misguided old man.
Traits: loyal, polite, paranoid.
THE SPECTER-RELIEF-UNIT
The Järnvik SRU is a small but capable team. Most Specters are thankful for their help, but some can be confused and hostile. Each mission requires different skills to get the Specter home safely.
These guys know they’re great at what they do, and team leader Ludvig is not afraid to let it go to his head. So when a bunch of kids suddenly showed up one day, pretending that they knew better than him, he could not let that slide. And so began the unspoken rivalry between the respected Specter-relief-unit and their 13-year-old counterparts.
LUDVIG Leader
ASTRID Head of security
HADY Therapist
DESTA LIND
Desta is Andreas' mom. When she met Martin in college she was smitten by his dreams of creating a better world. Looking back on it she wishes he was less driven, the work took its toll on him, and it stole so many years that he should have spent with her and Andrea. Desta puts great effort into balancing her work as a head pharmacist and raising her daughter, even though she knows she can’t fill the hole left by a second parent.
SONJA ALMGREN
Sonja is driven and diligent, working as a project leader at one of Stockholm's largest advertisement agencies. She has abandonment issues from growing up without a father and unconsciously handed down those same problems to her daughter Mac. All she wants is to shield Mackenzie from this horrible world. Her own mother's romanticized outlook on life often gets on her nerves.
ANNITA "APRIL" ALMGREN
April is a hippie through and through, she takes life as it comes, both the good and bad. When she got her recent cancer diagnosis she decided to pass on medical treatment. She’s had a great life and is content spending her remaining time tending to her plants and animals. Oh, and of course spoiling her grandaughter Mac rotten.
THE ANIMALS
The heart of the story. Each episode will cover a different critter and its unfinished business. It can be anything from a tiny rat with dreams of invading the local bakery, to an owl that wants revenge on the dastardly window that claimed its life, or a brown bear who just wants some peace and quiet before its final hibernation. All the animals have their own wants, needs, and dreams and it’s up to SAFE to find out what they are and help them achieve it.
JÄRNVIK
It might not look like much to an outsider, but as Kenny would put it: Järnvik is a true piece of paradise. It’s a small town of 8000 inhabitants, situated further north than anyone could ever bother to visit. But the town has much going for it in spite of its small size. It’s home to the only pizzeria in Sweden that doesn't sell any actual pizza, and it has held the silver medal in the Nordic Orienteering championship three years running!
All that aside Järnvik is probably best known for its scientific community. In the last couple of decades it has pivoted from being an old mining town to becoming the hotspot for Specter research. Much thanks to Martin's help of course. The Järnvik Specter-relief-center is still a trailblazer in the field even after his passing.
More importantly, Järnvik is the only place Andrea and her friends have ever called home. From the worn-down swingsets and secret forest hideouts, the ice cream stand open all year to the last bookstore still in business. It’s all a constant reminder that they are not only saving animals, but they are also making their home a better place with every Specter they save.
Like any other tiny remote town, Järnvik is home to an interesting set of characters. Some live here to be a part of the cutting-edge specter research, others enjoy the calm of small-town living and some simply can’t wait to grow up and get away.
Although SAFE's objective is to save animal Specters, a lot of those animals have owners. The pet's unfinished business often concerns their relationship with their human. Even wild animals can have a connection to the human world, whether beneficial or adversarial. Part of the journey for Andrea and the other kids is to realize just how much animals and humans are connected, and that all life is complicated, beautiful, and equal.
HAVEN PEAK
Haven Peak rests in an idyllic clearing at the tip of Järnviks tallest mountain. It was once home to the animal-rights community “Haven Peak Animal Sanctuary”. The group was infamous back in the day for its bold stunts and industry disruptions.
All that came to an end when their leader Crocodile Kenny left. The group lost its vision, and the community slowly dissipated over the coming few years. The following decades are a bit of a mystery. Although the town knew the peak to be long abandoned, one could sometimes see a faint light coming from the run-down lodge.
The Peak now houses a new generation of "animal activists". This group is a little less organized, a little younger, and a bit more focused on having fun, but their hearts are still in the right place. The dusty lodge has found a new life as both a hang-out spot and a center of operations for serious Specter-relief business. Kenny insists that the kids have defiled his sanctuary, but deep down he’s happy to have a bit of company again.
SEASON 1
A timeline for major plot points that take place between- or within the standard episodes.
BEAT 3 (episode 4)
The kids go down to the SRU center to see if they can borrow some gear. The only person who takes the request seriously is the intern Lisa, the SRU themself are condescending, and Paul is more interested in Haven Peak than their good work. Lisa decideds to Leave The SRU and join SAFE to create the gear that they need herself.
BEAT 1 (episode 1)
After breaking into her father's old workplace Andrea finds a box labeled “Project Andrea”. Following the directions within takes her to Haven Peak where she discovers an unfinished Passageway and the ghost of Crocodile Kenny. Kenny convinces her to start the world's first animal Specter relief unit.
BEAT 2 (episode 1)
After an unsuccessful attempt to save her first Specter, Andrea recruits Simon and Mac to the team. Simon decides that the name of their operations should be “Specter-Animals-Friendship-Effort” or SAFE for short.
BEAT 4 (episode 6)
Mac gets a birthday call from her grandma, and Kenny realizes that he is Mac’s grandpa. The only other person who finds out about this is Simon.
BEAT 5 (episode 10)
Lisa almost gets swallowed up by a strange tear in reality. Something is disturbing the balance between Haven and our world. Most of the group thinks that their unfinished passageway is to blame, but Lisa suspects that Andrea’s powers are causing them.
BEAT 6 (episode 10)
The kids receive an eviction notice from The SRU center. SAFE is unauthorized to save Specters, as there is no proof that the group is helping the community. They need 100 written endorsements before the end of the month or they will be forced to close. The kids decide that the best thing they can do is collect a paw print of every creature they save.
BEAT 7 (episode 13)
Simon reveals to Mac that she and Kenny are related. Mac is taken aback by this, she has heard so many horrible things about her estranged grandpa. Simon realizes he has messed up big time.
BEAT 10 (episode 22)
The kids manage to save their 100th animal right before the deadline, but the pawprints don’t qualify as signatures according to the SRU. Paul pushes into the lodge and is shocked to find a passageway, and even more shocked to find Kenny. When the rest of the SRU are about to push in they are stopped by the townspeople of Järnvik who are thankful for SAFE and all they’ve done for their pets, livestock, and wildlife. They brought with them 100 signatures.
The team celebrates, but their party is interrupted when they see a blinding light coming from the lodge. Hunched over on their thought-to-be broken passageway, they find the Specter of Martin.
BEAT 8 (episode 16)
Andrea takes a look at the “Project Andrea” box to find an answer about the Haven tears. An old journal entry from Martin describes “changing the relationships” between the worlds. If her father had something to do with this he must have a good cause. Lisa finds Andrea's lack of alarm suspicious.
BEAT 9 (episode 19)
Mac gets caught in an old mink cage while out on a mission and Kenny keeps her company. During the quiet moment, Kenny opens up about his past. He tells her about his best friend Paul, and her grandma April. She is doing so much better than he was at her age, she shouldn’t worry about turning out like him because she won’t. Mac warms up to her grandpa.
MY DEAD DAD
Takeaway: Life is easier with friends.
It’s Andrea’s first summer break without her dad, and she has decided to spend it on something to make him proud, (whatever that might be). Following clues he left behind takes her to Haven Peak. There she finds Kenny, an unfinished passageway, and the mission to save the animal specters of the world.
Andrea goes on the hunt for her first Specter, a cat she encountered earlier in the day. It proves a challenge to catch it though, and in her pursuit she runs face-first into Mac who’s sulking by herself in the graveyard. During the frenzy, Mac grabs a hold of Andrea's gear and manages to catch the cat in one fell swoop. She discloses to Andrea that she and Simon had a fight and now she has nowhere to live for the summer! Mac agrees to join Andrea's team if she can help them make up. Turns out they had just been fighting over a video game character. Simon and Mac make up as they tearfully agree never ever to fight again.
The group figures out that the cat became a Specter because it needed to guard over its still-living kitten. Simon agrees to take the little guy home and the cat peacefully passes on knowing its baby is in safe hands. Andera's one-man operation has quickly expanded, and more importantly, they’ve just saved their first Specter!
POWERS AND GADGETS
Andrea’s accident with the Haven passageway didn’t just grant her a ghostly scar, but a whole set of Specter powers. Her new abilities both aid and hinder her on her animal-saving journey, powers can only help so much when she barely knows how to use them.
Invisibility
vision
The ability to see Specters even when they choose to go invisible.
Specter touch
The ability to physically interact with Specters despite them being semi-incorporeal.
She will master her abilities over the course of the series, getting a better grasp on them as she gets more confident in herself and her cause. Her powers include:
Tension reading
The ability to sense a Specter’s emotional state, more importantly, if they’re close to fading.
Specter sense
The ability to sense nearby Specters.
Levitation powers
The ability to make items levitate
More or less...
Mood-o-meter -
A rudimentary tension reader, the device can tell if a specter is feeling good, bad, or really bad.
SRU-certified tension readerHelp the SRU keep track of the specter's emotional state, minimizing the risk of fading.
Not everyone is blessed with magical specter abilities to help them on the job. Both the SRU and SAFE use a whole catalog of different gear and gadgets to fill the same functions. All of SAFE's gear is built by Lisa herself. It is just as good as the stuff the SRU has (as long as you ignore the occasional explosive malfunctions.)
Specter-catcher 6000 -
Some of Lisa’s best work. The net can contain specters without phasing through them. It is not indestructible though and it is possible to tear it.
SRU-certified spectral-holdersAllow humans to physically interact with specters.
CONFLICT (SEASON 1)
No one said establishing a whole new branch of Specter-relief would be easy, especially when all you have to work with is a run-down clubhouse, some Specter powers, and a dream. The kids will have to face threats to their friendship, their safety, and the organization as a whole.
Paul Karlsson
Paul is the current head of the Specter-Relief Center and is deadset on destroying SAFE. He has given the kids an eviction notice; SAFE has not been proven to make a positive impact on the community, unless they can gather 100 signatures of approval they will be forced to close down their operations. Animals aren’t great writers, so the kids decide to gather 100 spectral paw prints instead. The kids don't know this, but Paul and Kenny were once best friends, before the incident. Kenny suspects Paul is doing all this to get back at him.
The SRU
Ludvig, the leader of the SRU has had a grudge against SAFE since he first learned about them. He can’t stand that a gang of snooty kids pretends to know better than him. He could totally save some crummy animals if he wanted to, but his team gets paid for helping real Specters. Those brats probably think he’s not good enough, but he’ll show them who is the boss around here. When the two groups occasionally cross paths on their respective missions Ludvig is not afraid to push them around.
Crocodile Kenny
Kenny might have gotten the ball rolling on SAFE, but that doesn’t mean he approves of how it’s being run. He is very particular about animal handling and will sometimes intervene in the team's missions. This puts a wedge in the friendships between himself and the members, something that normally wouldn’t bother him, but it becomes a real issue when he realizes he has a granddaughter on the team. He will have to learn how to pull back on his abrasiveness if he ever wants a chance to reconnect with his estranged family.
Clashing personalities
The members of SAFE are all good kids, but they have very different ambitions, ideals, and approaches to life; A recipe for butting heads. Andrea and Lisa have an unspoken rivalry, both being gifted girls with a need to be seen. Mac and Simon are best friends, but they often fail to see each other's perspective, leading to hurt feelings. What's important to remember that their differences are also what makes them strong as a group, they complete each other. They might fight occasionaly, but as long as they're united under one cause nothing can stop them.
THE LEGEND OF THE FOREST KEEPER
Takeaway: Don’t disturb Mother Nature.
Simon tells the team the tale of the forest keeper, the 400-year-old moose haunting the woods around Järnvik. It’s said that the two iron mining moguls who established the town pushed their operations further and further into the forest. The moose resisted their progress but died protecting its home.
Andrea and Lisa decide that saving an animal that famous will really help the organization get the renown it needs. Simon and Mac are unsure about messing with something so ancient so the two girls are on their own.
Lisa employs every little device and gadget she has to locate the moose, and Andrea utilizes her powers to try and sense its presence. The mission quickly devolves into a race to be the first to find the Specter. Their chase is loud and reckless, disturbing the plants and creatures around them. The moose finds them first, and the girls have to put their differences aside to escape its wrath.
When things have calmed down the two have a heart-to-heart about their insecurities and need to always be the best. Looking at the peaceful giant they realize they have no right to mess with this ancient force of good, yes it may fade one day, but so might its home if it weren't there to protect it.
Character Journeys
Andrea's challenge is to let go of her dad's expectations and forge a path of her own. The reason Andrea created SAFE was to make her dad proud, but as the show progresses her goal becomes more about helping the weak and creating a better tomorrow. When Andrea is faced with a difficult choice later in the series- to follow in her dad’s footsteps or do what she believes is right- she finally decides to forge her own path.
Lisa is desperate to be taken seriously. She knows she’s brilliant, but what does that matter if no one ever acknowledges it?
Joining SAFE is the perfect opportunity to show off her work to the world. But as she continues to be pushed down by the adults around her, she realizes that her friends have been backing her the entire time. Maybe her inventions can’t save the world, but they can save the people she loves.
Simon is always happy. He has been pushing away negative emotions for so long that he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it anymore. His journey is about allowing himself to be hurt, sad or scared, and to realize that doing so won’t make his friends or family like him any less.
Mac doesn’t like herself. She's weak and awkward and doesn’t trust her own judgement. She’s inherited all her mom's abandonment issues but none of her confidence. Joining SAFE becomes Mac's first step on the road to finding her self-confidence and realising that there are things she’s good at. She has had a longstanding fear that she’s inherited all the bad parts of her grandpa, but once she finally meets him she realizes that he is redeemable, maybe she is too.
Kenny has messed up every relationship he has ever had to further his cause. He regrets this profusely, but cannot admit it to himself and instead continue to push forward in his battle for animal rights. But when he’s given the chance to create a real connection to his grandaughter he’s forced to change his ways and to make space in his life for other people, creating new relationships and mending old ones.
BEAT 1 (episode 1)
Martin explains that he escaped Haven thank to the broken passageway, but that he must fix it before it rips a tear between the worlds. Andrea finds out that Kenny lied to her, her dad never destined for her to save animal Specters. Her dad still encourage the kids to continue the work.
SEASON 2
(part 1)
BEAT 2 (episode 1)
The tears between our world and Haven are getting worse. The townspeople begin to take notice and go to the Specter-relief-center for answers, but Paul has none to give.
BEAT 3 (episode 4)
Martin teaches Andrea how to wield her specter powers to the fullest.
BEAT 4 (episode 4)
Andrea has alienated herself from Kenny, he pretends it doesn’t bother him but it clearly does. Mac and Simon still like him though! They have a hard time getting close to Martin, he only really cares for Andera.
A timeline for major plot points that take place between or within the standard episodes.
BEAT 5 (episode 11)
The kids get in trouble during a routine mission but are saved by Paul. He convinces Lisa not to trust Martin and to help him get in contact with Kenny. She begrudgingly accepts.
BEAT 6 (episode 14)
Martin reveals his true intentions to Andrea. He is going to create a new world for her, one that she can mold into a Utopia for all. Andrea is reluctant, all the Haven tears imply that this new world negatively impacts the other ones, but she trusts her dad knows best. She promises to keep it a secret.
BEAT 8 (episode 14)
Andrea and Lisa are both keeping secrets from each other and the group, and there’s a clear divide in the team. Mac and Simon do their best to keep the operation running smoothly.
BEAT 7 (episode 14)
Lisa helps Paul and Kenny reconnect. Paul explains that he’s been lied to, he needs to figure out what Martin's true goal is for the portal. Worse than that they suspect that Martin killed Kenny to gain access to Haven Peak. Lisa promises to keep these revelations a secret so the two men can confront Martin without the rest of the kid's presence.
CONFLICT (SEASON 2)
Kenny and Paul
Kenny and Paul were once best friends, almost something more. When Kenny tried to reestablish Haven Peak Animal Sanctuary, Paul was the only person to show up. What should have been a sweet reunion turned into a bitter argument, and Kenny long suspected that his best friend was the person who pushed him off the edge of the peak that night.
But it wasn’t him. Paul had no clue that Kenny had been haunting Haven Peak all this time. He thought he was helping Martin create a Passageway that would allow the living to visit Haven, but once he was cast aside he began to doubt everything. Martin is lying about something. He needs to warn Kenny and the kids, but will they trust anything he says? Paul will need help from the very organization he tried to shut down, the question is if they are willing to listen to him.
Distrust
Andrea feels like the only person she can truly rely on is her dad. Lisa has a bad feeling about Martin, she doesn’t necessarily trust Paul, but she’s willing to hear him out. Mac and Simon get caught in the crossfire, unsure of who to side with. Andrea needs to keep the team together so they can all come join her in the new world that her dad is creating, but Lisa needs to get some distance from the team if she is going to be able to figure out whats truly going on. No one is telling the others what their motives are. It’s hard to lead a Specter-unit when the unit itself is falling apart.
Martin Lind
Martin hasn’t been completely truthful about his work, his death, or his motives. As season 2 progresses, it becomes apparent that Martin's and SAFE's ambitions don’t align.
The Haven passageways are Martin’s greatest invention as far as the world knows, but to him, it was just an early success. He has mastered life and death, being able to control Specters, wield their powers, and turn himself into one at will. But Martins's thirst for knowledge can’t be satiated; He’s always searching for his next test.
Then one day Andrea was born, the most beautiful, wonderful being to have ever existed. This is what he would work towards, he will use everything he has learned and create a perfect world for her, Project Andrea.
Since the veil between Earth and Haven is particularly thin in Järnvik, but especially at Haven Peak, Martin decided that the abandoned commune would be the seat of his research. He employed his most trusted colleague Paul Karlsson to help him reroute resources from the Specter-relief-center undetected.
A couple years into his research, Kenny made his reappearance, demanding to have his old lodge back. He shortly passed away in an “accident”, and Martin could conveniently use his help to act as a test subject on his portal. His power over Specters allowed him to erase Kenny’s memory, and he had every intention to let Kenny into his new world once his research was complete.
If it ever would be. For ten years he managed to keep the project hidden, but his regular absences and the missing assets from the Specter-relief-center finally led to an investigation. To save his project, Martin was forced to fake his death. It hurt him to leave his wife and daughter, but they would reunite as soon as the portal was complete. If only Andrea herself hadn’t decided to set up camp at Haven Peak, she wasn’t ready to learn about her destiny yet, not like this. He tasked Paul with removing Andrea and her friends from the lodge, but when that eventually failed, he figured he had to work “around” the kids instead, reintroducing himself back into the living world.
The Mighty and the meak
Takeaway: Respect your friends boundaries.
A tiger is haunting the local circus, and the kids are called in by Pocus the clown to help out. He explains that the tiger is owned by his best buddy Mike the mime, who refuses to let his pet pass on.
The tiger is hiding somewhere on the circus grounds and Mac is terrified. She thinks they should lay in wait for the tiger, but Simon disagrees. He thinks that they should explore the circus and make themselves known! Simon tries to get Mac to have a good time but she’s too paranoid. This eventually turns into an argument and the two storm off in different directions.
Mac and Simon run into Pocus and Mike respectively. Mike is sad that Pocus is pushing him to get rid of his tiger, he feels like he’s being rushed and that his feelings aren’t being considered. Pocus thinks the sooner the Specter is gone the sooner Mike can go back to being happy again. Simon and Mac realize they haven’t been considering each other's feelings.
The groups reconnect. Pocus aplogize, of course, Mike should give his friend a proper goodbye. Simon apologizes for pushing Mac's boundaries. Mike reveals that the tiger is hiding because they started a game of hide and seek before it passed. finishing the game should finish its unfinished business. They decide to use Mac’s plan to lie in wait, finally catching the tiger and finishing the game, or well, Pocus suggests they stretch it a few more rounds. Mac isn’t afraid anymore, Simon has learned to respect his friend's feelings and Mike gets a final playtime with his beloved pet.
BEAT 9 (episode 16)
When Kenny and Paul confront Martin, Martin uses his powers to trade the two men's physical forms, making Kenny human and Paul a Specter. He gives Kenny the proposition to leave and never return, free to go and pursue his cause again. When Kenny chooses to stay with Paul and the kids, Martin uses the almost-finished portal to banish them both into Haven.
BEAT 10 (episode 20)
Mac gets a call from her mom. Grandma April has passed away and she needs to come home for the funeral. Andrea can’t let that happen, Mac needs to stay here to join her in the new world. In a desperate attempt to keep her friend safe, Andrea pushes her into the passageway.
Andrea realizes what she’s done. She leaps into the portal to save Mac despite her father's attempt to stop her. Simon follows after, Lisa doesn’t.
BEAT 11 (episode 20)
Mac is all scared and alone in Haven, but she’s thankfully found by her grandma April.
BEAT 12 (episode 20)
Kenny and Paul have been trying to find a way out of Haven to warn the kids. But the place is falling apart due to Martin’s passageway. They are almost swallowed up by a tear when an old minivan speeds by, it’s April and Mac!
SEASON 2
A timeline for major plot points that take place between or within the standard episodes. (part 2)
BEAT 14 (episode 21)
Lisa and Martin are forced to work together to get their loved ones out of Haven before it collapses. Martin is having a meltdown, it seems like he’s fading but since he’s half-Specter half-human he stays somewhat intact. He commands Lisa to bring their work down to the Specter-relief center to finalize it there. On the way down she runs into Mac’s mom who gives her a ride.
BEAT 13 (episode 21)
Andrea and Simon are trying to find their friend. They run into some of the animals they’ve saved throughout the series. Animals in Haven have the ability to speak and they guide the kids through the strange world.
Continuation
BEAT 16 (episode 22)
This world too is falling apart. Mac’s mom shields her daughter from falling debris and becomes a Specter in the process, but if Martin can use his powers to trade people's physical forms then so can Andrea. Kenny gives up his newfound humanity to his estranged daughter. Kenny, Paul, and April have to go back to Haven to keep from fading, they leave it up to the kids to save the world.
BEAT 15 (episode 21)
The two Haven groups reunite where the tearing is at it’s worst. Lisa has created a small opening back to the living world and the group makes it through despite the turmoil around them. Lisa and Andrea reconcile.
Season 2 - Episode 22
My Dad
Takeaway: Follow your heart.
The kids have just escaped Haven, now making their way across town and up the crumbling mountain. They arrive to find Haven Peak engulfed in black smoke, and a gigantic tear ripping apart the sky behind the lodge.
The team ventures inside. Martin is feverishly working at the portal. The gate to the new world is slowly opening, but Martin is falling apart, his body steadily turning into smoke around him. He tries to convince Andrea that he knows what is best for her, that the world will soon see her greatness, but Andrea is not listening anymore. She wields her powers to try and close the gate, the other kids fighting Martin off as he attempt to stop her. Andrea has to fight tooth and nail to close the gate, the stress ripping her apart as well. Martin manages to break free, but freezes when he sees the state his daughter is in.
Andrea tells him that she never wanted the world, and all she wanted was his time and love. The coin finally drops, and Martin realizes what he has put his daughter through, not just in this moment, but all her life.
Instead of pulling her away, he embraces his daughter in a tearful hug, joining her in her attempt to close the portal. But Andrea is still falling apart. Martin shoves her out of harm's way, using the last of his own powers to seal the gate, but disappearing with it.
We return to Järnvik one year later as the kids are welcoming Mac back for the summer break. Kenny, Paul, and April are proudly looking over the kids from the new commune they’ve established in Haven.
SAFE is officially recognized as a Specter-relief-unit and more animal-units are popping up across the world.
It’s strange, Despite losing her father a second time Andrea feels at peace now. She sees him all around her. There’s a tabby cat in the area that seem to follow her around, she can’t help but think it got a certain glint of pride in its eyes.
MEDIA LANDSCAPE
Overview
SAFE is first and foremost meant to be an animated kids' series. The story is structured around smaller, episodic storylines that come together in an overarching narrative. The characters, the plot, and the world itself have been tailored around the 8-to 12-year-old audience, which has to be taken into consideration when considering its role as a larger IP. That being said, SAFE and its world at large have the potential to expand to- or even originate as something else entirely.
I have decided to focus on two main factors when translating SAFE to other platforms; Firstly where I think the story and visual language will fit in (while also standing out) and secondly, whether said platforms are financially viable in our rapidly changing media landscape.
Main media - Animated series
If you have read the previous 60 pages of this book I believe this section will speak for itself, but I will back it up with some similar examples from the genre. the 2000s-2020s have been two great decades for animated series. Shows like Adventure Time (2010), Gravity Falls (2012), and Amphibia (2019) are only a few examples of animated kids' shows that have garnered loyal fanbases. These series all tell overarching stories through smaller self-contained episodes, a formula that has proven popular. I think SAFE would be a great fit for networks like Warner Bros or Disney as it resembles a lot of their successful projects from the past.
That being said, I do want to push the boundaries for what a standard kids' series can be. SAFE promotes inclusivity, progressive messaging and is not afraid to tackle tough subject matters like death; It’s an unfortunate reality that many large networks, especially ones in the US, are careful to speak up on anything that could be interpreted as political or unpleasant. It’s not unlikely that I would have to compromise on my vision for SAFE which is why I think a potential media alternative could be a:
The world of SAFE cover themes such as:
Change - The idea that both people- and the world at large can improve for the better.
Life/death - Exploring the many different ways humans- and animals, reconcile with their mortality.
Agency - That it's up to ourselves to create- and live a life we can be proud of.
Web series
As mentioned previously, the current media landscape is evolving rapidly. A new format that has exploded in popularity in the last couple of years is the online web series; Shows that survive, if not thrive on crowdfunding and ad revenue programs. Recent success stories like Helluva Boss (2019) and The Amazing Digital Circus (2023) have garnered Hundreds of millions of views across YouTube and TikTok.
The most successful of these shows are characterdriven, have more mature themes, and often have some mystery to uncover and theorize around, something that clearly captures the interests of kids and teens. However, the one thing many of the previous series lack is trained writers, as they are often written and directed by the artists. I believe that SAFE could have an upper hand in this area, as it has a strong focus on storytelling.
Another point to note is that creating a web series has a much lower bar of entry than the traditional animated show. Networks don’t like to take risks, and funding shows by unknown creators is very uncommon. Meanwhile, many successful web series have started out as a single pilot episode, often crowdfunded or animated in the artist's free time, and have then built an audience naturally with no expectations from networks or investors. With the current unstable media landscape, web series might not just be a viable option but a favorable one.
Webcomic
Another platform that I believe is even more accessible than a web series is a webcomic. The entire project could theoretically be produced by one person, making it a lot more affordable in comparison to animation. The reason I specifically pitch webcomics as opposed to traditional comics is that the format lends itself well to SAFE’s episodic nature. The most popular webcomic platforms like Webtoons and Tapas have adopted a scrolling format where each update is made to be its own "episode". The episode usually consists of 30-60 panels, and multiple episodes come together to form self-contained chapters, much like episodes of a TV series. The scrolling format also allows the artist to control the pace of the reading experience, just like animation would, hopefully making for a smoother translation between the mediums.
The world of SAFE
SAFE’s main story is written with the animation medium in mind, but SAFE is also a world-building project. Although the setting mirrors our own world in a lot of ways it also introduces an entire “magic system” around the afterlife, Specters, and how humanity has adapted to them. The setting can be used as a basis for a plethora of new stories and products. A few examples being:
Toyline
Key storydrivers for the world of SAFE includes:
The societal implications of a world with Specters. How do we treat dead that are not quite dead?
Humanity's constant thirst for adaptation and how that positively and negatively impacts the world at large.
How a person- or a family responds to a loved one becoming a specter- and the implication that the person regrets parts of the life they've lived.
The SRU and their gear can be a basis for a line of “ghostbusting” toys. Invisibility googles, Specter nets, and tension-readers are only some of the gear the kids can employ on their quest to save the neighborhoods Specters. You can also get SRU apparel and as well as a certification from the Specter Relief Center! There could be additonal toys to mimic the Specters themselves, but since ghosts are already incorporeal I think it’s only fitting that they stay within the kid's imagination.
Informational comics
SAFE as both a story and setting focuses on progressive messaging and treating the world around you with kindness. I believe it could be a great basis for educational material focusing on things such as environmentalism, the circle of life, or processing grief. whether it’s a workbook or an informational comic would vary depending on the subject matter, but the colorful world and loveable Specters would be sure to interest any young reader.
EARLY DEVELOPEMENT AND VISUAL LANGUAGE
The earliest version of SAFE was conceptualized back in 2021 as part of a school assignment. The task was to create a character lineup and I thought it would be fun to make a team of "animal Ghostbusters." The cast was much older in this version and the tone more s erious. I had little to no story in mind, but I still envisioned an animated series for the characters; Admittedly I think it would be hard to fit this version into neither the kids- or adult demographic. Either way, I had already fallen in love with the concept.
I was set on keeping the original, slightly clunky, designs.
Throughout my studies I would reuse my animal Ghostbusters for different assignments, slowly developing at least the semblance of a story. I experimented with how it would look as a comic, but I quickly accepted that this story should be told through animation. I tried to streamline the character designs to make the concept more suitable for the medium, but I could only push it so far since Andrea was originally driven by jealousy toward her father. However, I realized that it made her pretty unsympathetic.
“The angry black woman” is on top of that a common negative archetype in media, which I of course wanted to avoid. Her rewrite not only made her a more well-rounded character but also created a much stronger story driver.
When I began developing the story and visuals language for this book I had a couple of goals in mind:
Most of my design choices became a compromise between these tenets and my natural drawing habits. I am happy with the final look of the project and I think I greatly improved my artistic abilities by working within this frame.
This is the original mood board I created to capture the idea of the project.
The Specters in SAFE all stay within a small range of blue, teal, and purple. Finding the right saturation and value took some trial and error.
Andrea became the test subject for most of the style exploration, both because she’s the main character but also because I wanted to completely overhaul her look.
This is the final style choice, but not the final character design.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to thank my teachers Martin Rauff, Cecil Castellucci, Magnus Merklin, and Cecilie “Q” Maintz Thorsen for guiding me through this monumental project. I want to give an even bigger thanks to my coordinators Thomas Vium and Thorbjørn Petersen for being the most caring, supportive, and passionate mentors a student could wish for.
I want to thank my sister, my mom, and my dad for supporting me trough thick and thin. If it wasn’t for their unconditional love and support I would not have become the artist and person I am today.
I want to thank my roommate Yuval for all the feedback she's given me! Lastly and most importantly I want to thank my classmates for the amazing years I’ve got to spend with them. I especially want to thank my studio mates Vala, Ida, Erland, Oskar, and Ronna for giving me great feedback on my project, being a shoulder to cry on, and making every day an absolute blast!
SAFE is a proof of concept for an animated kids' show set in a world populated by Specters. We follow 13-year-old Andrea Lind on her journey to create the first Specter-relief unit tasked with soley saving animal Specters. What she doesn’t know is that the fate of both this world and the next is hanging in the balance and it will be up to her and her friends to save it.