The Oscar-winning animated short film, Hair Love, was an instant classic. The story of a father trying to do his daughter’s hair before they go see her mother in the hospital was beautifully moving and culturally impactful. Now, four years later, we get to reunite with Stephen, Angela and Zuri in the new Max animated series Young Love. The story picks up with Angela fully recovered from her battle with cancer and ready to return to her regular life. This leads to an awkward readjustment period for the family, as everyone must figure out what their new normal is.
The series is just as beautiful as the movie, but with deeper character development, an unapologetic celebration of Black families and a star-studded voice cast. Creator/showrunner Matthew A. Cherry spoke with The Root about expanding the Young family universe.
The first thing you’ll notice about Young Love is how stunning the animation is. Cherry and his team decided to stick with the classic 2D animation style used in the short film. It’s a brilliant choice that makes the series feel real. Though animation allows the show to lean into some absurd dream sequences, you forget pretty quickly that this is a cartoon and not an old fashioned family sitcom. It also helps that they had the film as a solid foundation to build on, so that mitigated some of the exhausting basic world building involved in creating an animated series. Because so much of today’s animation is computer generated, presenting the show in 2D gives it a nostalgic feel, which is what Cherry was going for.
“We always loved the idea of coming with the 2D animated production, it just feels classic,” Cherry told The Root. “We wanted the show to feel like those classic live action shows that we grew up watching. Thankfully, we already had a lot of this initial work done because of the short film and it really was just a matter of carrying that over into the larger world of the series.”
At the core of the story is the love between this family and how that’s what got them through their toughest fight. Each episode features the three of them going off to have some wild day full of ridiculous twists and turns. However, no matter how crazy things get, it always concludes with the family sitting together reaffirming their love and support for each other. It showcases how truly special Black families are and celebrates their strength. Young Love is the definition of a feel good show.
Much like Hair Love, the scene-stealing star of Young Love is Zuri. She’s this unapologetically confident, smart, boss-in-the-making. She’s the kind of character I wish I’d been able to see on TV when I was younger. It’s exciting and fulfilling to know that little Black kids will have Zuri to look up to. Seriously, prepare yourselves because she’s about to be your kids’ new favorite.
“Zuri really was the hook for this whole thing. Animation is really the first form of media that kids see,” Cherry said. “But if you don’t have characters that actually look like you, it really can do a bit of a number on your self confidence. We really just wanted to have Zuri be a character that was super confident, loved herself, loved her hair. Also somebody who represents Gen Z. Zuri is the type of kid where they’re so selfless and it’s all about making things better for everyone. She may not have the best method sometimes, but she’s gonna have a plan and she’s gonna go all in.”
Starring Issa Rae; Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi; Brooke Monroe Conway; Loretta Devine; Harry Lennix; Tamar Braxton; and Sheryl Lee Ralph, Young Love is now available to stream on Max.