WATCH: Disney Channel’s ‘Hamster & Gretel’ Stars a Venezuelan American Family

Dan Povenmire is most well-known as the creator of Disney Channel’s wildly popular “Phineas & Ferb,” but after four seasons and a handful of movies, Povenmire chose to move on to “Hamster & Gretel,” another animated show he created that’s both a superhero satire and an affectionate portrait of a Venezuelan American family.

The show is partially based on Povenmire’s real-life experiences growing up in a Venezuelan American family, as well as head writer Joanna Hausmann’s family experiences of her own. The show, which features a prominent brother-sister relationship, is ripped from the pages of real life and forms the basis of the show’s emotional authenticity.

Even though it’s a show about a superpowered hamster with a pun in its title, “Hamster & Gretel” is much like “Phineas & Ferb,” a show that’s meant to entertain parents along with kids.

The show premiered just last week, and follows the Grant-Gomez family as its youngest member, Gretel (voiced by Povenmire’s daughter Melissa), gets superpowers from an alien ship along with her pet hamster, aptly named Hamster.

Together, the unlikely duo fights crimes of galactic proportions, while Gretel’s older brother Kevin does what he can to help despite not receiving superpowers himself. The show features vocal performances from “SNL” alum Beck Bennett along with Joey King, most well-known for appearing in 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises.” Additionally, “Futurama” voice actor Phil LaMarr appears as a supervillain named Professor Exclamation.

Discussing the show’s authenticity with Caracas Chronicle, head writer and co-producer Hausmann — a comedian most well-known as the co-host of the “Hyphenated” podcast alongside Jenny Lorenzo — had this to say: “All of these things may go unnoticed by an American, but for us, when we see them, they make us say ‘This is an authentic world.'”

Here, she’s referring to details like the design of the Grant-Gomez household, which features popular Venezuelan art like the “Ávila de apoyo emocional,” a popular rendition of Venezuela’s Ávila National Park. The show’s staff was also encouraged to bring stories of their own families to the writer’s room.

As for the inspiration behind Carolina Grant-Gomez, the family’s matriarch, Hausmann said, “My mom is Venezuelan. She is one of the funniest people I’ve met in my entire life and I wanted to represent her creatively.” In “Hamster & Gretel,” each character is imbued with a three-dimensional personality and everyone has a moment to shine.

In an interview with Variety, Povenmire shared some of his own inspiration for the show, starting with a random doodle of a hamster he made while he was in a meeting. “It just came from my subconscious somewhere,” he said. “I liked it and I set it aside and took a picture of it. I brought it home, and then I pitched a bunch of ideas for a show for it to my daughter when I was tucking her in one night.”

Povenmire created the pilot while he was on vacation and showed it to Disney Channel soon after. He said he was inspired by an 80s cult classic TV show called “The Greatest American Hero,” focusing on the idea that superheroes don’t have an “instruction manual” and they don’t “know all the things [they] can do,” leading to multiple situations where “things just happen to [them].”

He teased a development that the writers are planning, saying, “We just added a really bizarre superhero power in the second half of the season that we’re trying to figure out whether or not there’s a way we can use that power.”

Povenmire, like Hausmann and the rest of the writing team, approached “Hamster & Gretel” as a very personal story about a family with whom he heavily identifies. He cites the 10-year age gap between him and his younger sister as a dynamic he wanted to explore, honing in on “This whole area where the older sibling can be almost another adult where they’re sort of caught in that in between.”

That also means keeping his superpowered sister in check when her impulsivity starts to take over. According to AL, Povenmire describes Gretel as being “all 100% impulse, no impulse control whatsoever, she’s 100% in the moment,” leading her protective older brother to remind her of the consequences that come with using her powers incorrectly.

“Hamster & Gretel” already feels like another impressive addition to Povenmire’s roster of shows. The show is already being embraced by fans of “Phineas & Ferb,” who are happy to see the creator’s wacky and idiosyncratic humor back on the silver screen.