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An animated children's series starting Tuesday on Netflix is about an imaginative African American boy named Ben in Detroit who brings street art to life with a magic paint brush and the sounds of Motown.
"Motown Magic" is created and produced by Josh Wakely, Julie Hinds of the Free Press reports:
Josh Wakely considers it one of the great memories at life. He was an 8-year-old boy living in a working-class Australian town when his mother won tickets on the radio to see Stevie Wonder in Sydney.
"We caught the train down to Sydney, which is about three hours away and went to a Stevie Wonder concert," says Wakely, who's now 37. "I just remember thinking it was electric and celestial and extraordinary. At one point, Stevie Wonder asked everyone to close their eyes. I remember my mind being filled with color."
The show has some big Motown connects.
Smokey Robinson is on board as executive music producer and Don Was (aka Don Fagenson, an Oak Park native) is music producer.