The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder

The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder
Genre	Coming-of-age Comedy Animated sitcom
Created by	Bruce W. Smith Ralph Farquhar
Based on	The Proud Family  by Bruce W. Smith
Voices of	Kyla Pratt Tommy Davidson Jo Marie Payton Paula Jai Parker Cedric the Entertainer Alisa Reyes Karen Malina White Soleil Moon Frye Raquel Lee Bolleau
Opening theme	"Proud Family" by Joyce Wrice
Composer	Kurt Farquhar
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	3
Production
Executive producers	Bruce W. Smith Ralph Farquhar Calvin Brown, Jr.
Producer	Jan Hirota
Running time	27-30 minutes
Production companies	Bar Productions Disney Television Animation
Animation services	WildBrain Studios Snipple Animation Studios
Distributor	Disney Platform Distribution
Original release
Network	Disney+
Release	February 23, 2022 (2022-02-23) – present

The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder is an American animated television series created by Bruce W. Smith and Ralph Farquhar which premiered on Disney+ on February 23, 2022. It is a revival of The Proud Family which originally aired on Disney Channel from 2001 to 2005.

Premise

The series follows the story of Penny Proud, a 14-year-old girl and her family, as they navigate their lives in the 2020s. Trudy, Penny's mom, has new career highs, Oscar, Penny's dad, has wild dreams, and Penny faces a myriad of challenges while her Suga Mama returns, as does Michael, Dijonay, Zoey, and LaCienega.

Characters

Main

• Penny Proud (voiced by Kyla Pratt): The main protagonist of the series, a 14-year-old African-American girl who is usually embarrassed by her father, Oscar. She enjoys hanging out with her friends, even though they have gotten her into trouble, and left her to face danger by herself many times. She always listens to and respects her parents, but often caves in to peer pressure. She is a talented singer as shown when she becomes a solo singer for Wizard Kelly productions but quits after missing her old life. Penny is a straight 'A' student, and is part of the school newspaper staff. At one point, she tried out for cheerleading, but due to having an accident with the stage being converted into a giant CD, LaCienega got the last spot on the squad. Penny is also good at writing and reciting poetry, and becomes jealous when her friend Dijonay becomes just as good as her. Convinced that everyone likes her, she tries to become friends with Maya Leibowitz-Jenkins, a new student at school.
• Dijonay Jones (voiced by Karen Malina White): Penny's selfish, untrustworthy, and enthusiastic best friend. She had an obsessive crush on Sticky in The Proud Family. She also loves to gossip and has gotten Penny in trouble many times. Eventually, Penny gets fed up with Dijonay mistreating her, and completely loses her trust in her, though they still remain friends. Dijonay's name is a pun on the name of Best Foods'/Hellmann's Djionnaise, and she has nine younger siblings all named after spices, seasonings and condiments. She later has a crush on KG after Sticky's family moves away.
• BeBe (voiced by Aiden Dodson, replacing Tara Strong from the original series) and CeCe Proud (voiced by Bresha Webb, also replacing Tara Strong): Penny's trouble-making baby fraternal twin siblings. BeBe is a boy with an afro and always has a bottle in his mouth, while CeCe is a girl with brown hair and pink dress. BeBe and CeCe are named after the gospel music brother and sister duo, BeBe & CeCe Winans. BeBe's eyes are never seen, due to his afro hairstyle. They love Penny very much, but at times they play too roughly with her. They are often seen playing with Puff, and most of the time, Puff ends up getting injured.
• Puff the Dog (vocal effects provided by Carlos Alazraqui): Suga Mama's beloved pet poodle. Puff is often tormented by the baby twins, BeBe & CeCe, who play roughly with him. He does however, show a soft side for Penny. It is also shown that Puff likes to watch drama shows.
• Suga Mama Proud (voiced by Jo Marie Payton): Penny, BeBe, and CeCe's hip, wrestling-loving paternal grandmother, Oscar and Bobby's mother and Trudy's mother-in-law who does Tae Bo. She is very nice but sassy, and always gets straight to the point when she talks. She can even tease and beat up Oscar, but loves him deep down. She has the highest respect for Trudy. Her age is unknown, and is often made fun of by Oscar. An event from 20 years ago shows her looking exactly the same as before. Suga Mama is in love with her neighbor Papi, who often makes rude remarks about her in Spanish which she thinks are compliments. She shows extra amounts of love for her poodle, Puff. She is really into pink dresses and afro puffs, hence the name of her dog, Puff. Like Puff, Suga Mama also displays a really warm relationship with Penny and sometimes even agrees with her ideas.
• Trudy Proud (née Parker) (voiced by Paula Jai Parker): The veterinarian mother of Penny, BeBe and CeCe, wife of Oscar, daughter-in-law of Suga Mama and sister-in-law of Bobby Proud. She comes from a relatively wealthy family, including her father who is a doctor and her sister Diana who is a famous actress. She often gives Penny advice when Penny is in trouble. Trudy is married to Oscar, and in turn often forces him to see the logical side of an argument. She is the level-headed one in the family along with Suga Mama, though she can be bossy and jealous sometimes.
• Oscar Proud (voiced by Tommy Davidson): The overprotective father of Penny, BeBe and CeCe, husband of Trudy, younger brother of Bobby Proud and son of Suga Mama. Oscar is characterized as hyperactive, immature, childish, but still a well-meaning man. Oscar owns and operates his own snack food business called "Proud Snacks" whose products are severely disgusting, yet he manages to stay in business.
• Zoey Howzer (voiced by Soleil Moon Frye): Zoey is geeky, timid, shy, kind, and smart. She is very insecure about her looks and wants to be accepted. Zoey is known for being a follower and Penny often has to talk sense into her. Her mother is a limousine driver while her aunt is a lawyer. Zoey enjoys dancing but has little faith in her skills. When she competes in a dance battle, however, she proves herself to be just as good as, if not better than, her friends.
• LaCienega Boulevardez (voiced by Alisa Reyes): Penny's Latina frenemy and the daughter of Felix and Sunset Boulevardez. She is the most popular and beautiful girl in Penny's school, as well as an excellent student. Penny and LaCienega despise each other and Penny is usually stuck hanging out with her, since LaCienega is friends with Dijonay, and their parents and grandparents are best friends. In the show, LaCienega is able to convince her parents and the Prouds that she is a very sweet and moral young lady, but in reality, she is very vain, arrogant, obnoxious, selfish, snotty, rude, conceited and snobbish. Despite her rebellious attitude, she is secretly envious of Penny deep down and likes her a little bit, but would never show it. LaCienega and her mother Sunset are named after La Cienega Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard, two Los Angeles area arterial roads that meet in West Hollywood, California.

Supporting

• The Gross Sisters (voiced by Raquel Lee): The neighborhood former bullies who are almost always seen together, who go around stealing money from students, faculty, and even parents (including their own). They live with their family in a rough housing estate in the city, so they have to do chores to support it. Nubia is the leader and the only Gross sister who can talk while her sisters (whom she often treats poorly), the heavily built Olei (who serves as Nubia's bodyguard), and the short-statured Gina (who collects the money), are silent. Nubia's catchphrase is "Hands up, cash out!". Despite the constant mistreatment and abuse, Nubia is protective over her sisters and threatens anyone who might endanger or harm them. Their names are a play on skincare products Neutrogena, Nivea, and Olay, which is ironic because their skin is noted to be dry, ashy, and blue. After the events of The Proud Family Movie, the Gross Sisters changed their ways. They quit bullying and stealing money from people. The Gross Sisters eventually became interested in hip hop and started their own rap group. All three sing a rap song called "Hands Up Cash Out".
• Barry and Randall Leibowitz-Jenkins (voiced by Zachary Quinto and Billy Porter): They are the dads of their adopted children, Maya Leibowitz-Jenkins and Francis “KG” Leibowitz-Jenkins, and are an interracial gay couple. Quinto and Porter are both gay actors.
• Michael Collins (voiced by EJ Johnson replacing Phil LaMarr from the original series): Penny's flamboyant friend and the son of the school coach. Michael is openly gay and gender non-conforming in the series.
• Maya Leibowitz-Jenkins (voiced by Keke Palmer): A 14-year-old activist and new resident in Smithville, who is the adopted child of Barry and Randall Leibowitz-Jenkins.
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Brown (voiced by Asante Blackk): Penny's boyfriend. He is named after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. His last name is a parody of the late James Brown.
• Francis “KG” Leibowitz-Jenkins (voiced by "A Boogie” Dubose): Twin brother of Maya. Dijonay Jones has a crush on him.
• Bobby Proud (voiced by Cedric the Entertainer): Oscar's older brother, Suga Mama's eldest son, Trudy's brother-in-law and Penny, Bebe and CeCe's uncle. He is a fan of groups like Kool & The Gang among others. He sings and talks like the lead singers of the 1970s funk bands Cameo (Larry Blackmon), The Ohio Players (Sugarfoot) and The Commodores (Lionel Richie). He has a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado that only plays one song and has hydraulics and also a parachute for some safety reasons. Suga Mama favors him over Oscar. He often has Oscar do things that annoy him very often, but ironically lead to Oscar meeting beautiful women. For example, he gets Oscar to be an ice cream man at a basketball game, which leads to one of the cheerleaders asking Oscar out on a date. Bobby and his band, DisFunkshunal Junction, are a clear parody of band leader George Clinton (also known as Dr. Funkenstein) and his band Parliament-Funkadelic, also known as P-Funk.
• Wizard Kelly (voiced by Aries Spears): An incredibly wealthy and famous businessman who made his fortune playing professional basketball. He owns various businesses that are named after him. A running gag is how he is too tall to fit in the picture, so every image and video of him shows only up to his neck.
• Felix Boulevardez (voiced by Carlos Mencia): Oscar's best friend and neighbor. (Oscar and Felix were also the names of the lead characters from the TV sitcom The Odd Couple). He is the father of LaCienega and the husband of Sunset. He and Oscar often get into trouble together. He and Oscar both have dominating wives, both have parents living in their home (Oscar has Suga Mama and Felix has Papi) and both have teenage daughters. The differences between them is that Oscar is tall and skinny and Felix is short and overweight, and Felix is also richer (due to his construction site named after him) and more successful than Oscar at everything, but that does not affect their friendship. They are also very strict with their daughters hanging out with boys.
• Sunset Boulevardez (voiced by Maria Canals): Felix's wife and Trudy's best friend. She is the mother of LaCienega, and is a police officer.
• Papi Boulevardez (voiced by Alvaro Gutierrez): Felix's father, Sunset's father-in-law and Suga Mama's love interest. He is the grandfather of LaCienega. He speaks only Spanish and as a result he can get away with insulting Suga Mama. However, Suga Mama believes that he is sweet-talking her which only increases her affection towards Papi. Nevertheless, the two are often seen spending time together and genuinely enjoying each other's company. He is also known for his trademark cackling (provided by Kevin Michael Richardson) when after he insults Suga Mama or on some occasions. Ironically in The Proud Family Movie, Papi becomes enamored with the Spanish speaking clone of Suga Mama, who promptly beat him up when he insulted her. Papi is a parody of Cesar Romero's character The Joker on the 1966 TV series Batman (as Romero was of Spanish-Cuban descent and his laugh is reminiscent of the Joker's; Richardson previously provided the voice of the Joker in The Batman).
• Dr. Payne (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson): The Prouds' doctor, whose build and mannerisms are based on those of Mr. T. Oscar usually suffers painful treatment at his hands. He calls Oscar "Fool", Penny "Itty Bitty" and Suga Mama "Sugar Bear".
• Peabo (voiced by Cree Summer): The Prouds' 9-year-old neighbor. He is very smart for his age and often tries to warn Oscar whenever Oscar does something dangerous, though Oscar never listens and suffers for it. He is the only one who is known to like Proud Snacks. He at first has a crush on Penny, then Zoey, and ends up dating one of Dijonay's sisters.
• Lil' Wiz: Wizard Kelly's son.
• Sticky Webb: A character on the original series originally voiced by Orlando Brown. He only appears with a non-speaking role in the first episode when he moves to Japan after his father gets a new job.

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	"New Kids on the Block"	Wolf-Rudiger Bloss	Ralph Farquhar	February 23, 2022 (2022-02-23)
A mysterious light causes Penny and her friends to suddenly become teenagers with Michael embracing his pride and a saddened LaCienega getting hairier. When they go to see Sticky, they discover that he's moved away and instead the house is occupied by the Leibowitz-Jenkinses. Penny tries to befriend the kids, Maya and KG, but Maya blows her off. Meanwhile, Oscar's incensed at the fact that Penny's becoming a woman and tries everything to keep her conservative. Penny tries a variety of ways to get Maya to like her, but she tells her that she doesn't like her because she's superficial. Taking her words to heart, Penny sneaks away from the school dance to help Maya save Shuggie the panda (CeeLo Green), only to learn that he doesn't want to be saved. When Maya insists otherwise, Penny calls her superficial and returns to the dance, with Maya conceding. Oscar arrives when he realizes that Penny's dressed up for the dance; forcing her to finally sit him down to tell him that she's becoming a woman. He finally accepts this as Penny dances with KG.
2	"Bad Influence(r)"	Tara N. Whitaker	L.J. Lawrence	February 23, 2022 (2022-02-23)
Penny's surprised that everyone's obsessed with the latest social media influencer Makeup Boy (Bretman Rock), but she sees through his salesman-like tactics. To prove a point, Penny creates a video called Growing Up Proud. The video goes viral and the Gross Sisters, who now want legitimate compensation to start their rap careers, "ask" Penny to play their track on her next video. Penny keeps up her series and begins to rack up followers to the point that she has power to control people's views. She cancels Makeup Boy, ruining his career, and soon uses this ability to cancel LaCienega, the teachers and send Suga Mama away. Maya confronts Penny on her behavior and uses KG's drone to catch Oscar getting paid off by Wizard Kelly; sending it out to the internet and causing Penny to lose all of her followers. Penny encounters Makeup Boy, now going by Sebastian, who thanks her for bringing him back to his roots. Upon returning home, Penny apologizes for her actions as a newly swollen Suga Mama punishes Oscar for helping Penny send her away.
3	"It All Started with an Orange Basketball"	Latoya Raveneau	Calvin Brown Jr.	March 2, 2022 (2022-03-02)
Oscar makes a foolish bet with Wizard Kelly that if his basketball team beats his, they have to switch lives for a week, but if he loses, his protégé Peabo has to work for him. Oscar inadvertently injures his star player, Michael, and tries to turn to Penny's new tall boyfriend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Brown (Asante Blackk), but he turns out to be horrible. He discovers that Penny is actually good, as he taught her when she was a little girl, and coerces her to join the team, despite her disliking the sport. Her devotion to the team causes her to miss study meetings with Kareem and allowing LaCienega to bud with him. Kareem eventually approaches Penny and tells her to be true to herself, while also revealing that he is good at basketball. Oscar's team is outmatched and Penny has everyone forfeit the game. She stops by Kareem's recital and he leaves LaCienega to be with Penny. Oscar tries to back out of his deal with Wizard Kelly and is forced to work as a ticket taker at the Wizard Kelly theater with Peabo as his new boss.
4	"Father Figures"	TBA	TBA	March 9, 2022 (2022-03-09)
5	"Snackland"	TBA	TBA	March 16, 2022 (2022-03-16)
6	"Get In"	TBA	TBA	March 23, 2022 (2022-03-23)
7	"When You Wish Upon a Roker"	TBA	TBA	March 30, 2022 (2022-03-30)
8	TBA	TBA	TBA	April 6, 2022 (2022-04-06)
9	TBA	TBA	TBA	April 13, 2022 (2022-04-13)
10	TBA	TBA	TBA	April 20, 2022 (2022-04-20)

Production

In August 2019, Tommy Davidson said that The Proud Family would be revived for a third season on Disney+.

On February 27, 2020, the show's third season was formally ordered on Disney+ as The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder. The original cast (minus Tara Strong and Orlando Brown) will reprise their roles, and Keke Palmer will voice a new character introduced to the series named Maya Leibowitz-Jenkins, who is a 14-year-old activist. Zachary Quinto and Billy Porter will also voice her adoptive parents, Barry and Randall Leibowitz-Jenkins, and EJ Johnson will replace Phil LaMarr as Michael Collins. WildBrain said in July 2021 that they will be engaging in animation services for the series, while it will be produced by Disney Television Animation; the studio was not involved with the original series. The executive producers of the series, Bruce W. Smith and Ralph Farquhar, said that the "show never really went away" and called it the "perfect time to bring back this show." ScreenRant argued that the revival will break down barriers through the inclusion of multicultural families and characters belonging to the LGBTQ+ community.

On September 15, 2021, more cast members were announced, including Asante Blackk as Penny's new boyfriend, Kareem, Artist "A Boogie" Dubose as Maya's gamer brother Francis "KG" Leibowitz-Jenkins, alongside returning cast members Raquel Lee Bolleau as Nubia Gross and Marcus T. Paulk as Myron. Additionally, some celebrity guest voices announced include Lizzo, Lil Nas X, Chance the Rapper, Normani, Leslie Odom Jr., Tiffany Haddish, Lena Waithe, Anthony Anderson, Gabrielle Union, Debbie Allen, James Pickens Jr., Courtney B. Vance, Jane Lynch, Marsai Martin, Jaden Smith, Glynn Turman, Lamorne Morris, Brenda Song, Tina Knowles, Eva Longoria, Holly Robinson Peete, Al Roker, Bretman Rock, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez, and Dominique Dawes. The show also has Aldis Hodge returning as Frankie and Patricia Belcher as Principal Hightower.

On November 12, 2021, it was announced the series is scheduled to be released in February 2022. On January 14, 2022, the series was given a release date of February 23, 2022. Eastwood Wong is the art director for the series, while Calvin Brown, Jr. is co-executive producer and story editor.

Before the show's premiere, Ralph Farquhar said that the show will be more direct in discussing relevant social issues rather than using "coded language" as in the original show. He also said that the introduction of LGBTQ+ characters is the "biggest change" people can expect to the show. Farquhar revealed that in The Proud Family, they had to use "code to talk about if Michael was gay, to talk about sexuality" and to be "sort of underhanded about it." He said this changed with The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder. The biggest changes to the show were "gender identity, obviously racial identity and quote-unquote wokeness,” and said that sexuality can be "sort of in your face with it a lot more," manifesting itself in the storytelling. Bruce W. Smith also said that the show has more than "just one gay person...representing the entire LGBTQ+ spectrum" and said that it is "not fair" to only have one LGBTQ character in the series.

On February 17, 2022, Farquhar said that the show will portray more than "one view of Blackness or a Black family." Smith argued that the series is "blazing a path...[in] this animated sphere," saying it has parts of the horror, sci-fi, and Western genres. The show is rated TV-PG making this the first Disney animated series to carry this rating.

Music

R&B singer Joyce Wrice sings the theme song for the series. A digital soundtrack for the series became available on February 25, 2022. Composer, songwriter and producer Kurt Farquhar who composed and wrote the theme song of the original series returns as the songwriter and composer for this series.

Gallery

External links

• The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder at the Internet Movie Database
• The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder on Disney+

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