It’s Not Only Likeable, It’s Hair Love-able!
Sony, if this short film is an official apology for The Emoji Movie consider yourselves forgiven! The new short film that recently won an Oscar for โBest Animated Shortโ, Hair Love is a definitely loveable short film by Sony Pictures, adapted from the Children’s book of the same name by Matthew A. Cherry.
The animation features a little girl named Zuri trying to get her hair done all nice and pretty for her mom, with the help of her dad. This film was sweet, cute and had tear-jerking moments.
Hair Love succeeds in portraying a wide array of emotions. It consists of various underlying messages from determination and perseverance, to acceptance. It teaches audiences to take pride in their situation, to make the best of things, and, most importantly, to love.
Love exudes itself throughout the film. Love is shown when the little girl and her dad go head to head to make Zuri’s hair something that would impress her mom. It is shown in Zuri seeing the beauty in her mother even after cancer had taken away something she took pride in, her hair; most prominently shown when Zuri shows her mom a drawing of their family, still crowning her as a queen in light of a dark moment.
In terms of animation, it was impressive that Sony incorporated the actual hair textures for black women, accurately showing the struggles of dealing with hair, and adding a twist of humor amidst the foreshadowing of a serious illness Zuri’s mother faces. The film is impressive with the smoothness of the animation and humor despite there only being few words spoken.
What is really enjoyable is the childlike feel of the animation. With the subtle use of different animations, like the background. The scene sometimes appears as it is drawn with a crayon, making it look more like a drawing by an excited kid, giving the story a more innocent, joyful feel then it already has.
The whole atmosphere and tone is cleverly set with little to no words involved. The short film also wonderfully takes up the difficult topic of cancer and parents with cancer and puts it in a modern perspective, making use of technology for how to do a particular hairstyle and the mother dealing with cancer.
In comparison to other animations by Sony, this one has nothing to do with promoting a movie and is not branched off anything they had made previouslyโ it was purely a stand-alone short film with a lot of heart and thought. The first of many more hopefully!