A.N.T. Farm

Did You Know?

• The pilot episode 'transplANTed' re-aired after the series finale of The Suite Life on Deck.
• The first promo for the series was released during the premiere of Lemonade Mouth.
• Disney+ premiered A.N.T. Farm for streaming on June 26, 2020.

Plot

A.N.T. Farm centers on Chyna Parks, an 11-year-old musical prodigy who enters the Advanced Natural Talents program at Webster High School in San Francisco. On her first day, she befriends Olive Doyle, who has an eidetic memory, and Fletcher Quimby, a gifted artist who is otherwise not very bright. The trio uses their talents in various adventures. Lexi Reed, the school’s popular queen bee, considers the A.N.T.s babies who do not belong and frequently bullies them, especially Chyna, whom she sees as a rival.

Chyna’s older brother Cameron tries to avoid her at school, fearing she will embarrass him. Recurring characters include Paisley Houndstooth, Lexi’s kind but dim-witted best friend, and Angus Chestnut, a computer science prodigy with a crush on Olive; Angus becomes a main character in season three. The third season moves the A.N.T.s to a boarding school run by Z-Tech, a large technology corporation owned by Zoltan Grundy. The series ends when Fletcher wins an arts fellowship in New York City and moves there, while the other A.N.T.s remain in San Francisco to continue their education.

Characters

China Anne McClain plays Chyna Parks, the A.N.T. program's musical prodigy. She has a natural gift for singing, dancing, and playing many instruments, including the guitar, piano, violin, trumpet, saxophone, flute, cello, harp, bagpipes, French horn, bugle, theremin, drums, harmonica, keyboard, bassoon, tuba, spoons, and banjo. Sierra McCormick portrays Olive Doyle, an A.N.T. with eidetic memory and great knowledge of many facts, which she calls 'interesting factoids.'

Jake Short plays Fletcher Quimby, an A.N.T. with a talent for art who has an unrequited crush on Chyna; a running gag is Chyna being oblivious to his romantic advances. Stefanie Scott is Lexi Reed, the most popular girl at Webster High and Chyna's vain, self-centered rival; in season three, it is revealed that Lexi is a math prodigy. Carlon Jeffery plays Cameron Parks (main seasons 1–2, guest star season 3), Chyna's older brother with no apparent talents but a passion for film-making.

Aedin Mincks portrays Angus Chestnut (recurring seasons 1–2, main season 3), a computer genius A.N.T. with a gluttonous appetite and an unrequited crush on Olive. Recurring characters include Allie DeBerry as Paisley Houndstooth, Lexi's ditsy, kindhearted best friend; Zach Steel as Gibson (seasons 1–2), the counselor and tutor of the A.N.T. Farm; Mindy Sterling as Susan Skidmore, the iron-fisted principal of Webster High School; Finesse Mitchell as Darryl Parks, the overprotective father of Chyna and Cameron; Christian Campos as Wacky the Wolf (seasons 1–2); Elise Neal as Roxanne Parks (season 1); Matt Lowe as Hippo (seasons 1–2); Claire Engler as Violet (seasons 1–2); Dominic Burgess as Zoltan Grundy (season 3); Zibby Allen as Madame Goo Goo and Winter Maddox (season 3); Piper Curda as Kumiko Hashimoto (season 3); and Tom Choi as Mr. Hashimoto (season 3).

Special guest stars include Zendaya as Sequoia Jones (season 2), Vanessa Morgan as Vanessa (season 2), Billy Unger as Berry Figgenbottom (season 2), and Chris Rock as himself (season 3).

Production

Disney Channel announced on November 11, 2010, that they had green-lit the show for production, which began in early 2011. The show was first conceived when Dan Signer, creator of the show, saw China Anne McClain. 'The girl had so much confidence. She can nail a joke.

She can sing. She can play instruments. It's like China was some sort of child prodigy [...] And that's when it hit me: Why not build a show around a child prodigy?'

Signer said. After the first few episodes were shown, Disney Channel bumped up their order from 13 episodes to 26 episodes for the first season. On November 30, 2011, it was announced the series was renewed for a second season. On October 2, 2012, it was announced the series was renewed for a third and final season.

In 2009, China Anne McClain booked the starring role as Janet in the Disney Channel pilot Jack and Janet Save the Planet alongside future co-stars Sierra McCormick and Jake Short; the pilot was not picked up. After that, Signer began creating another show tailor-made for McClain and cast her as the lead. Sierra McCormick was cast after an audition where she continually talked about tigers; Signer said, 'And as I heard her continually talking about tigers, I thought "That's just how Olive would sound."'

Jake Short was the last of the three core characters to be cast. Caroline Sunshine was originally cast as Lexi and Stefanie Scott as the role of Tinka Hessenheffer in Shake It Up!, but Signer decided that Sunshine would be better as Tinka and Scott as Lexi, so the two switched roles; Sunshine later guest-starred in the episode 'some enchANTed evening.'

Reception

The series was highly successful, becoming the most popular series on television among children in the age ranges 6 to 11 and 9 to 13. The A.N.T. Farm soundtrack was released on October 11, 2011, and spent five weeks on the Billboard kids chart, peaked at number 29 on the US Billboard 200, and peaked at number 2 on the US Top Soundtracks.