Sandy couple creates TikTok sensation with 80′s loving gerbil

SANDY Ore. (KPTV) - Oregon has its very own TikTok sensation with more than 13,000 followers! But the social media star, may not be what you think!

Bella is a gerbil that has made herself known on TikTok. Kyle Bryant and his wife Marylou, are producers by day and creators by night. They thought why not do something a little fun working with animals.

“We wanted to produce a show that’s positive and uplifting because we feel like this world was very negative,” says Kyle.

Bella loves the 80′s. She has dial-up for her internet, she has record players, a walkman and a boom box. The idea came from memories of the Bryant family

“That came from our children who are in their 30s remembering taking them to Blockbuster and picking family movies,” says Marylou.

But Bella’s set, didn’t come easy. Kyle has a background in construction and building movie sets. He says it took 80 hours to build the miniature Blockbuster, 40 hours to build Bella’s home and 15 hours for Marylou to write a story from beginning to end.

“The shelves have magnets behind them, the VHS’s have magnets behind them -- they did detach from the shelves because gerbils are gerbils,” says Kyle. “The floor took a long time. The floor is actually a real floor. It’s pieces of wood we laid down, that we lay down individually took us about four or five days.”

Bella is played by two gerbils, Ginger and Charlotte who only work about 5 to 10 minutes at a time. But you may wonder, how do you get a gerbil to play a role?

“I usually take out half of the side and put the camera in there and then I can manipulate the lady where I want to where I want her to go,” says Kyle.

“For the most part I film what she does and then I’ll put that through a little bit of movie magic, a little through creative editing to make it so that so it fits the storyline.”

Kyle and Marylou say they plan on building more sets for more storylines and hope to make it interactive for the viewers.

“We believe that there’s a community that wants to have something like this that wants to see this that wants to have a positive show,” says Kyle.

The Bryant’s TikTok can be found here. The couple also has a website that can be found here.

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