Sep 19, 2023

Matthew A. Cherry talks about keeping Max's "Love of Hair" adaptation based on the world of the over-the-top animated series.

Young Love, the 2019 Oscar-winning short-haired Love series adaptation, will be streamed live on Max this Thursday, 9/21.

Expanding the story of the short film, Young love turns millennial couples to balance parenting, career, marriage, social issues, and multigenerational dynamics.

Young Love was created and executive produced by Matthew A.Cherry, a filmmaker who became a former NFL wide receiver who wrote and co-directed Love of Hair. In addition to winning an OSCAR for animated short, the film was dramatized as a book and sold more than 150 million copies worldwide.

Atomic Cartoons handled the animation for the series, and House of Cool created storyboards. Executive producers include Cherry, Monica A. Young, Karen Rupert Toliver, Carl Jones, David Steward II and Carl Reed. Karen Malach created the series.

Hair Love features an a・list voice cast headed by Scott Mescudi, Issa Ray, Brooke Monroe Conaway, Loretta Devine Harry Renix, Tamar Braxton, Sharyl Lee Ralph and Debra Wilson. It is a good idea to have a good time with your friends and family.

Prior to the release of the show, we had to catch up with Cherry and adapt his hugely popular short story for television, find the right collaborators to do it, and ground the series at a time when most platforms and broadcasters are flooding the market with high-concept animated series. We also discussed how we can continue to improve the quality of our products and services.

Cartoon Brewing: How the production of the series was Different from the Short-

Matthew A.Cherry: The series is not hand-drawn, but Harmony as it did in the short It was a nice carry-over. The show is a continuation of the short film, so I didn't want to remix the style. Instead, we tried to enhance the look as much as we could.

We were very strategic in the development of the series, but I think we didn't anticipate how many characters we would add. It was a big change, but it was necessary for the story. I'm from the west side of Chicago, and we wanted to feel it exactly. When you are in a particular region, the demographics of people tend to be more specific in the region. So it was interesting trying to get that right.

One of the things that stands out is how grounded this series is: No superheroes, sci-fi, or monsters.1 It plays more like a 1990s family sitcom than much of what we see from today's animated series. I imagine it had to be so when adapting the short. It was

. We explored moments of fun and tried to utilize the animated medium through several fantasy sequences, but the short one was the bar we were aiming for. It was tricky because we weren't starting from scratch. We had this short film with a book that sold a billion Youtube views and nearly two million copies. So we already had this legitimate fanbase that was developing a series that we didn't want to alienate. We saw other series like Craig in Creek, where we would have made something entirely within the world of Zuri, or simply could have made something like a straight adult like Boondox. But it was really important to see this family right, as we didn't want to alienate young kids who were familiar with books and short stories, but adults and grandparents also enjoyed sitting down

The show was animated by Vancouver-based Atomic Cartoons and has a storyboard for Toronto's House of Cool, and you can see it on your phone. You are in the United States. Especially with Covid and everyone being in remote areas. It's weird when you don't get that face time, and I think it takes time to find our rhythm. But, you know, everyone was so professional. They brought really great talent to the table, so if they could communicate the vision effectively, they could have existed in live action, like a love of great hair that would help us find aesthetics, and that's what we wanted to lean into the series. I love what you said it reminded me of a family sitcom from the 1990s. We wanted it. All expressions had to be in a certain way; I had to feel the character's movements and the way he walked were correct. It was a big challenge at first, but once you get into the rhythm, it was an amazing process to witness.

The love of hair had a huge impact on the world of animation. Just this year, Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur did an episode that was a clear tribute to the short one. You've noticed a change in the industry since your short came out -

I love that show so much. When we did Kickstarter in 2017, the animation wasn't as diverse as it is today. I think we've seen better natural hair expressions both in the animation space and in the publishing world. I was a consultant on Spider-Verse, and it was so cool to see the sequence in which Spider-Byte goes through different hairstyles. Such moments may not have existed 5 or 10 years ago.