ST. GEORGE — In a world where robots are used and abused, a heroine emerges, giving the robots a voice and showing them the love they desperately long for.

It’s all part of the animated series MechWest, created by the father and son duo Dave and Noah Gallagher. The first episode, “Where the West Begins, Part I” has been released, and it’s captivating audiences of all ages with its heartwarming narrative and imaginative storytelling.

“We have people of all ages saying they watched it and loved it,” Dave Gallagher, co-creator of MechWest said.

The robots, or “Mechs” in the series, are fed by coal and are more like cute animals or small children that happen to be in metal bodies. In the episode, robots are commonly mistreated by humans. It isn’t until one of the main characters, Pearl West, comes along that the robots are treated like pets and shown love.

While the current episode is only available on YouTube, current and all future episodes are built in a 22-minute format, allowing them to be aired later on TV and streaming services such as Netflix. They also hope to create show-related toys and other merchandise.

Although this is his first full animated series, Dave Gallagher isn’t new to the animation scene. He worked for the FOX-owned company Sky Studios, where he worked on movies such as Ice Age, Robots, Horton Hears a Who! and Rio. As a character development supervisor, he connected animation and the rigs, or characters, that go into animation.

He moved back to Utah where he launched AnimSchool, an accredited 3D animation school that consists of around 600 students worldwide at any given time. After graduation, Dave Gallagher said students have a high placement rate and many go on to work in film, games and television.

“We’re probably the biggest online animation school that deals with animation as a central topic,” he said.

The school hosts an annual student showcase, featuring top-tier creations promoted across various platforms, including YouTube. At this event, he heard repeated feedback that many shorts had the potential to evolve into captivating movies or television series. That sparked the idea for him to create his own.

MechWest was made by AnimSchool Studios, a sister company to AnimSchool. The staff consists of mostly AnimSchool graduates and instructors, along with others to fill additional roles when needed. Due to the influx of highly skilled individuals from the school, they were able to recruit top-tier talent.

Dave Gallagher said Westerns generally contain too many “dangerous” and complex topics such as guns, Native Americans and American expansionism. For that reason, Westerns in cartoon form geared towards children are rarely seen. The MechWest series contains no saloons and has more of a  “Western flavor” rather than a Western story structure. The episode has been constructed so that families can comfortably sit and watch it together while keeping the exciting element of drama and danger.

“That’s the thing about Westerns, they talk about things being problematic, but is it really going to feel like a Western if nobody has any guns anywhere?” Noah Gallagher said. “I feel like you could watch our episode and not even think about the fact that there are some guns. We were cognizant of that and struck a good balance.”

The visual image for the show originated in 2014, when Dave Gallagher participated in a call for story ideas for an animated TV show. He came up with a drawing of the show’s main main character – a robot named “Six”. It wasn’t until the “stir-crazy” year of 2020 that he decided to make the show a reality.

The initial creation stage involved Dave Gallagher and his son Noah collaborating to establish the story and theme. Noah Gallagher’s friend Clifford Taylor joined the project and the two co-wrote the scripts.

A trailer came out in 2022, but most of the animation was completed last year. The first episode Where the West Begins, Part I was released in February of this year – four years after production began.

“That was a lot of time writing and figuring out what we are even doing,” Noah Gallagher said. “It was all very snowball. It started really small and has been ramping up since then.”

A second episode is in the works with an estimated release of seven months. The next seven episodes are already available in watchable drawing format. The goal is to build a fan base and raise funds to move production along more quickly. They plan to create six seasons of MechWest with seven episodes per season.

“We’re in a phase now where we are trying to get organic reach,” Dave Gallagher said. “And we’re figuring out ways to let people know about it because big companies, they’ll spend tens of millions of dollars saturating everywhere with it. We have to figure out how to do things with less than 10 million.”

Interested in supporting the show? Visit the MechWest Show Kickstarter fundraising page. Watch Where the West Begins, Part I, and subscribe to the MechWest Show YouTube channel to be notified about upcoming episodes. For more information on the series, visit their website.

“We have big plans for it and we’re poised and ready,” Dave Gallagher said.

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