In a little under 7 minutes, the 2019 animated short film “Hair Love” delivered a sweet, funny, touching and memorable story about a little girl who tries to style her hair with the help of a tutorial video made by her stylist mother, and the somewhat overwhelmed but caring and attentive father who helps his daughter while the mother is in the hospital and is getting chemotherapy treatment. The last we see of this family they’re leaving the hospital. Mom is coming home.
Written and co-produced by Chicago filmmaker Matthew A. Cherry and co-directed by Everett Downing Jr. and Bruce W. Smith, “Hair Love” was attached to theatrical screenings of “The Angry Birds Movie 2” and later “Little Women,” and won best animated short film at the 92nd annual Academy Awards. (It’s also a best-selling children’s book written by Cherry and illustrated by Vashti Harrison.) That’s heady stuff for an animated short — and it was all well-deserved.
Cut to four years later, and the wonderful and welcome news is that West Side universe of the Young family has been expanded by Cherry into a Max Original animated series that gives voice to the nuclear family (the original short was almost fully mimed) in terrifically laugh-inducing and endearing and warm fashion. Introducing a bevy of hilarious and sometimes fumbling but well-intentioned supporting characters as well, “Young Love” is set in present day and very much of its time, but it also plays like an animated version of a traditional sitcom from the 1980s and 1990s, where each episode contains a main plot and usually a subplot, some madcap antics involving characters who find themselves (or put themselves) in a pickle — and then it’s all resolved, within the span of a little more than 20 minutes.
With each episode examining a facet of the everyday lives and concerns of the Young family via titles such as “Self Love,” “Work Love,” “Chicago Love” and “Generational Love,” we pick up the story two months after the conclusion of the short film. Angela Young (Issa Rae) is home from the hospital and straightening out some of the earnest but not particularly effective parenting techniques that her husband Stephen (Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi) employed in their duplex apartment while caring for their precocious and whip-smart 6-year-old daughter Zuri (Brooke Monroe). “No more ironing sandwiches [or] nuking pancakes,” notes Angela, who is nervous but also excited about returning to her job as a hair stylist at a neighborhood salon.
Stephen is a talented musician who composes catchy beats and has a few promising potential clients — not that his obligatory grouchy father-in-law, Russell (Harry Lennix), believes Stephen has a real job. He’s forever hounding Stephen to man up and take care of his family. It doesn’t help that Russell, a retired postman, is a landlord whose tenants include his daughter’s family.
“Young Love” has a simple but elegant and pleasantly pastel visual style, with shots of the L and the Riverwalk and the skyline utilized as transitional devices. The animation also opens up the possibility of certain over-the-top antics and fantasy sequences that would cost a lot more (or wouldn’t even be possible) if rendered in live-action style.
The crisp writing often contains sly pop culture references, whether it’s an early mention of actress Yara Shahidi, Zuri title-dropping “The Shawshank Redemption,” or Russell perking up when he’s watching TV and the announcer says, “Stay tuned after the game for Dwyane Wade’s ‘The Cube.’ ” There’s also a steady sprinkling of pinpoint social and racial commentary, as when Stephen meets up with a flock of white advertising bros at their agency, and one says, “When I listen to [your music], I can really feel the gang violence and the poverty … over each and every traumatized beat. Bro, I’m an ally.” Bro. Don’t.
Mostly, though, “Young Love” is truly a situational comedy. Stephen and Angela make a trip to a favorite chicken joint they haven’t visited in years — only to see it’s now Jen T. Frye’s Café. (“Jen T. Frye,” as in gentrify, haha.) Says Stephen to Angela, “We’ll go in there, juice up and get out before a horror movie is made about us. No sweat.” Nearby are businesses with names such as “Burrito Taco,” “Blue Cup Coffee” and “lotions & things,” while a kid on a hoverboard zips past. Yep, the neighborhood is changing.
Other plots involve Angela introducing her old-school boss at the salon to the world of instant booking via apps, Zuri learning to see graffiti in a whole different light and Russell trying to prove to his wife Gigi (Loretta Divine) that he still has some romance left in him after 30 years of marriage. We expect the likes of Scott Mescudi, Issa Rae, Harry Lennix and Loretta Devine to deliver richly layered and vibrant voice performances, and they don’t disappoint — and then there’s young Brooke Monroe, infusing Zuri with an instant likability as we follow the adventures of this little girl with a golden heart and a beautiful family. We hope Chicago, and the world, will be hers.
