*Do you need six minutes of heartwarming happiness?
Watch “Hair Love” the animated short film about an African-American father whose been tasked with doing his daughter’s hair.
The passion project debuts tomorrow in front of “The Angry Birds Movie 2.” EUR correspondent Fahnia Thomas sat down with writer and director Matthew Cherry and producer Peter Ramsey at Sony Pictures Animation.
FT: What was the first Black cartoon or book you read or saw?
MC: “Bébé’s Kids” our co-directors Bruce W. Smith’s project.
PR: I’m gonna date myself, I’m old enough to have been around when “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids” were on TV. Then as far as books there was “The Snowy Day” by Ezra Jack Keats.
FT: Why was it important for you to write “Hair Love?”
MC: I got the idea a couple years ago when I notice there weren’t a lot of African-American characters in animated movies before “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” came out. I remember thinking, ‘it’s really only been “Bébé’s Kids,” “Home” and “The Princess and the Frog” in a feature format.’ Then all of these viral videos of dad’s doing their daughters hair kept coming up on my timeline and something funny would happen with the rubber bands breaking and hitting the dad in the eye. It always felt like the hair had its mind of its own…That was kind of the basis for it.
FT: Why did you choice Issa Rae to be the voice of the young girl’s mother?
MC: We always wanted to have a strong natural hair person presence in the short because it’s a world we wanted to introduce to the mainstream and Issa is synonymous with that. Plus, she has an amazing hairstylist Felicia Leatherwood. We really wanted her to be a part of it because we knew she would bring a nice level of authenticity.
PR: And she has a beautiful voice.
FT: What made you want to produce “Hair Love?”
PR: I was always impressed by Matthew and then we struck up this friendship on Twitter and he said, ‘hey, I have this idea for a short film and I’m curious if you think it will work in animation.’ He sent me the script and I was really touched by it. There’s so few animated projects where you see people of color so it’s important for creators who have quality or stance…this is the time to get it out there. “Hair Love” plays into all the great things animation can do.
The animated short film hits theaters August 13th exclusively with “The Angry Birds Movie 2,” click here for more details.
The picture book “Hair Love” was released in May and became a New York Times Bestseller.
Follow #HairLoveMovie
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