Estimated read time: 7-8 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — "We're doing this for our families. For our kids," StoryBox Studios co-owner and co-creator of "Thumb Follow Me" Noah Sunday says. The other "co-" in that relationship is his older brother, Brigham Sunday.
What is it these brothers doing for their families and kids? They hope they are creating a lifelong love of the scriptures through silly songs, U-Haul-toting camels, and thumbprints.
Speaking kids' language
The Sunday brothers recently launched a new weekly animated series they call "Thumb Follow Me." The videos coincide with the "Come Follow Me" curriculum from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints each week. The church has not partnered with StoryBox Studios, nor produced or endorsed the show. The brothers say they wanted to share the scriptures with Latter-Day Saint kids in a language they understand.
"Kids speak a different language. They resonate with stories, humor and creativity to spark their imaginations," Noah Sunday said. "And Brigham and I speak that language."
Humor and imagination are precisely what they are going for, considering the first episode of "Thumb Follow Me," as well as its companion music video, "Moving Day," feature a dancing Lehi, a lovesick Sam and a pair of camels setting a moving truck ablaze.
"Our goal is to get kids excited about the scriptures," Brigham Sunday said. "There's a lot of fun stories in the scriptures. Sometimes, you chuckle and think to yourself, 'Man, what was Nephi and his brothers thinking as they were going back to get the daughters of Ishmael?' I mean, I would have been preparing my pick-up lines."
"To me, it makes the scriptures come alive to think about Lehi and his family getting ready to move," Noah Sunday added. "Not everything could have been so serious. These people had to have personalities. These were real people, and there had to be some funny moments in the desert and out in the wilderness. There had to be fun out there along with the hardship."
The hero's journey
Noah Sunday worked on different films in the Utah area early in his career, and his brother was a school teacher in Wyoming. The brothers and their five other siblings have always been close. At another brother's wedding, Noah Sunday introduced Brigham Sunday to something that would change both their lives and set them on a path to share these familiar stories in unfamiliar ways.
"Noah gave me Joseph Campbell's book 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces,' and it changed everything," Brigham Sunday said.
The book and Campbell are well-known, and his idea of the hero's journey has been repeated countless times. A short and incomplete summary of Campbell's hero's journey is that a hero receives a call to adventure. A mentor helps the hero embark on that adventure, and with the challenges it will bring. Then it's time for the mentor to depart and the hero faces a challenge which triggers a revelation. This leads to a transformation, the hero overcoming the unknown and eventually returning home.
"I started seeing this hero's journey in everything," Brigham Sunday said. "It was in 'Star Wars,' 'The Lord of the Rings', and every other story I loved. Now I knew why. It had such a profound effect on me. My eyes were opened at that point. Noah wanted to tell stories, and I knew I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to tell stories."
From there, the brothers built a streaming service from their basement. A tall task and one they were told they'd never accomplish.
"We managed to get 2,000 films on our platform and had hundreds of subscribers. So, I guess we could do it from our basement," Noah Sunday joked.
While the brothers saw success with their platform, they were ready to start telling their own stories instead of sharing the stories of others.
"We had this desire deep down inside of us to tell our own quirky and funny stories in our own unique way," Brigham Sunday said.
A company approached the brothers with an offer to buy their platform, and they decided this was their opportunity to start telling their own stories.
Telling their own stories
"Noah and I have always been drawn toward the family," Brigham Sunday said. "We have 10 kids between us, all under 13. Our minds have always been stuck in a 10-year-old state."
This was apparent as they paced the room with nervous energy as they spoke via online video call. They decided to share their quirky and unique humor with the world through animation, something else they had little to no experience in, and once again, they were told it would be too difficult to accomplish. The brothers, however, were determined to go the animation route for two reasons: the creative flexibility and because of their families.
"We made the shift over to animation and found it more conducive to being present with our families as opposed to being on film sets far away from home week in and week out," Brigham Sunday said.
StoryBox grew and started helping companies with corporate animated videos. They now have offices in Ogden and Argentina with contributors and team members across the globe.
"We love the creative freedom of animation. You can go anywhere and be anything with animation. You have unlimited creative freedom to build whatever you want." Noah Sunday added. "And it creates more of a 9-to-5 lifestyle so we can get home to our families at the end of the day."
The brothers were hired by a client to make an entire season of an animated series, which was a steep learning curve for a couple of people who the brothers said "didn't know what we were doing." They enlisted the help of a former Disney animator and with their team made the show.
"It was an animation baptism by fire," Noah Sunday admitted.
"But after that, we knew we could do anything," Brigham Sunday added.
That's when the Sunday brothers decided to make their own story on their terms, and for them, it was a no-brainer to focus on content for Latter-day Saint kids.
'Thumb Follow Me'
"We are unabashedly Latter-day Saints. We love it. We live it," Noah Sunday said. "We wanted to make something for our kids that was relatable and fun and taught them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We decided this is us and who we are and said, let's go make our own show."
"We thought it was a great opportunity to jump in and show off our 10-year-old personalities and share some of our quirky ideas with LDS kids," Brigham Sunday said.
The brothers say they have received a great response from parents and kids on their first entry of "Thumb Follow Me," which they said takes a small army of talented individuals to make each episode.
"We've heard comments from people about how much their kids are enjoying the content and that they're asking questions about Lehi's family moving or how Nephi got into the city to get the brass plates," Brigham Sunday said. "And as cheesy as it sounds, that means the world to us. We want kids to get interested in these important stories."
The future
The brothers hope to continue "Thumb Follow Me" into each new year, covering the Doctrine of Covenants, The Old Testament and the New Testament. They hope to go far beyond this first series.
"'Thumb Follow Me' is just the beginning," Brigham Sunday said, with his brother nodding in agreement. "We want to create a streaming service filled with original content dedicated to LDS kids and their families. We want kids to get excited about learning the gospel and have fun while doing it. From there we'd love to continue to grow into an entertainment company focused on having fun and spiritual experiences from TV shows, to toys and more."
"The overall goal is to create great stories with great messages that help bring kids and families closer to Christ," Noah Sunday said.
The duo had a recurring theme of family, even though they didn't realize it. In fact, each episode and silly song is a collaborative effort from the family, as the Sunday brothers share it with their own kids to get feedback. If their kids aren't laughing or engaged, they know they need to return to the drawing board and make some changes.
"We're doing this as a family for our family," Noah Sunday said. "And, hopefully, for families everywhere."
Episode 1 of "Thumb Follow Me, The Brass Plates" is live on their YouTube channel and weekly episodes are planned for the rest of the year.
