Latest news with #HappyFamilyUSA
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Secret Level' creator Tim Miller explains how he gets writers to create short stories based on video and role-playing games
In putting together episodes of Secret Level, creator Tim Miller utilized a very similar system that he used when doing the show Love, Death + Robots. He assembled this group of novelists and short story writers and helped to give them key information about various video games to build stories off of. 'We make these big decks that tells you all the do's and don'ts and we send them to the authors and then they pitch us. We'll usually ask five or 10 authors to pitch us on any given game. Then we pick the best idea that we like and they write a prose version of that story which we then adapt into a screenplay,' he tells Gold Derby during our recent Meet the Experts: TV Animation panel. Secret Level, which is available to stream on Prime Video, is an animated anthology series that tells standalone short stories based various video games and role-playing games. Among the games that were used as the basis for episodes in the first season were Dungeons & Dragons, Mega Man, New World: Aeternum, Pac-Man, and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. Miller has won three Emmys in Best Short Form Animated Program for Love, Death + Robots in 2019, 2021, and 2022. More from GoldDerby As Joel returns to 'The Last of Us,' cinematographer Catherine Goldschmidt explains what went into killing him off TV Animation roundtable panel: '#1 Happy Family USA,' 'Secret Level,' and 'Arcane' '#1 Happy Family USA' co-creator Ramy Youssef reveals how animation was the perfect way to capture the middle school experience Miller is a longtime lover of short stories and how flexible the format is in allowing one to tell different narratives. He gave an example of how this translated to television by remembering a pitch for a television series he made about lesbian necromancers in space and how the people in the meeting stopped him before he could get any further. However, to pitch something like that for Secret Level wouldn't cause anyone to bat an eye. 'That kind of freedom is impossible to get with the heavy lift of a movie or a series and you have to worry about it being popular to kids, grandmas, moms, dads, and everybody else. We can afford to be niche.' When looking to what might serve as the basis for episodes in the second season, Miller doesn't divulge any specifics but does demonstrate that there are four categories of games they work with: nostalgia games, indie games, games that are coming out, and games that are currently out and popular. He especially loves the ones that fall into nostalgia because of the memories that they can they can bring back for him. 'Like Pac-Man was the first video game I ever played and so it has meaning to me. I still remember putting that quarter in the slot and so I love the fact that we can kind of go after anything in that regard and sort-of control the narrative and go after what we think is interesting instead of a commercial vibe.' This article and video are presented by Prime Video. Best of GoldDerby Making of 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' panel: Bringing the Balrog to life was 'like doing a slight of hand card trick' TV Animation roundtable panel: '#1 Happy Family USA,' 'Secret Level,' and 'Arcane' '#1 Happy Family USA' cocreator Ramy Youssef reveals how animation was the perfect way to capture the middle school experience Click here to read the full article.
The Guardian
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
US TV's first lead cartoon hijabi: how I animated Muslim women to look real
If you've seen a hijab on a screen – animated or otherwise – it's likely that this Islamic head covering was one specific style. Think Princess Jasmine in the 1992 movie Aladdin, Claire Danes in the series Homeland, or the Zamins in the animated show The Proud Family: Photograph: Showtime/Disney In these fictional worlds, there's typically a little hair poking out of a shawl that can be quickly slipped off. And people really do wear the hijab that way. But it exists in so many more iterations than this one particular style. There's a whole world of choices between a niqab and nothing: The way that the hijab is depicted matters. Not just for the half a billion people in the world who wear them, but for all Muslims, because this head covering has been a target for Islamophobia from France to the US. And since the right tends to conflate religion, race and culture, the hijab has also become a target of growing anti-Arab sentiment too. When I was commissioned to create a hijabi character for Ramy Youssef and Pam Brady's animated TV show #1 Happy Family USA, I thought a lot about how to draw it. This was the first time a main character in a US animated series would be shown wearing a headscarf and I wanted to get it right. Hijabis don't usually wear their headscarves when they're in private spaces with family members. I thought about what the mother character, Sharia, would look like at home and outside of the house. The designs shouldn't be totally separate. She's still got a certain taste in color and comfort. Outdoors, her clothes are also part of her hijab. Sharia chooses to wear loose items that cover most of her body. Indoors, I wanted to be able to see this character's sexuality without sexualizing her (unlike most in adult animations, this female lead doesn't have thin thighs and a squeezed waist). But another character in the show, Sharia's mom, plays by her own rules. When her son-in-law suggests she takes off her niqab face covering to better blend into the community, Grandma objects. She won't have a man tell her what to do! Ever! She even wears the niqab indoors as a feminist 'fuck you' to the racist, Islamophobic world around her. Only her slippers change from the inside world to the outside world. And then there's the show's teenage daughter, who doesn't wear the headscarf and has never been asked to by anyone in her family (this was my experience too). Three generations of women, three different choices about what to do with their bodies. But how to get those depictions right? First of all, how can you show that this fabric is often light and thin, not the bulky, cumbersome material often depicted in cartoons? And then how can you go beyond bland colors to show that there can be personal expression in wearing hijab? The hijab looks different from the right profile and the left: And because it's covering hair, that should be reflected in the shape. Most on-screen hijabs weirdly follow the shape of a skull, without considering the bun or ponytail that is often underneath the fabric. And then there's the fun of animation. The hijab has to move. Just like any other item of clothing. A view of a woman wearing a green outfit and purple flapping hijab, who is chasing after a car with a food truck attachment behind it. At the bottom it says 'objects in mirror are closer than they appear' The character shouldn't simply ignore their hijab. How they use it is a part of their character. Do they adjust it when they're nervous, sleepy or feeling especially proud of themselves? A woman adjusts her hijab with pride and then scolds a man inside a family living room, as an older woman in a niqab watches TV in between the two And they should use it, too! To make a hands-free call, shield themselves from a fart or polish their glasses. For Sharia and so many others, the hijab isn't just an outward expression of inner values. It's as practical and fashionable an item of clothing as any other. It deserves to be depicted as such. Special thanks to Kendra Melton who contributed to character design and development for the show #1 Happy Family USA is on Prime Video
The Hindu
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Watch: Kesari 2, #1 Happy Family USA - Revisionism & Representation
When does creative liberty cross the line into propaganda? On this week's FOMO Fix, Sudhish Kamath dives into Bollywood's obsession with rewriting history — and how filmmakers like Tarantino and Sorkin show a smarter, more honest way to do it. In this episode: Hype Check: Kesari 2 turns a national tragedy into jingoistic fan fiction, with F-bomb punchlines and dishonest representation TV Gold: Ramy Youssef's #1 Happy Family USA is the sharp, poignant satire you need to be watching right now Heads Up: Crazxy — terrible title, surprisingly good thriller. Superboys of Malegaon — a sincere and entertaining film that still raises tough questions about credit, voice, and representation. You (Netflix) — the stalker saga ends, and you're better off skipping the finale. Skip the cringe. Stream the gold. Your weekly film companion, Bollywood reporter, and TV guide is here.
Mint
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
A brilliant animated series satirises Muslim life in post 9/11 America
It's easy to forget that 9/11 was really just a Tuesday. The first episode of Ramy Youssef's brilliant and nutty new animated series #1 Happy Family USA (streaming on Prime Video) is set on 10 September 2001. Two girls decide that the next day is the best possible day to come out of the closet, since one of them knew she was gay since she was 9 and the other since she was 11. What, they reason, could be a better day than 9/11? Understandably, these young ladies don't quite get the spotlight the next day—or at least not the spotlight that they want. Youssef's unlikely sitcom is about a Muslim family left struggling to fit into post-9/11 America, with FBI agents infiltrating their mosques and suddenly suspicious schoolmates. Suddenly, as the father of the Hussein family says, it isn't okay to look like themselves. Even if they're from Egypt. This week in India, where heinous terrorist attacks in Pahalgam, Kashmir, have reignited the cyclical firestorm of anti-Muslim sentiment, the show's relevance hits like a steel-toed boot. It's tempting to view the American Muslim experience as removed from our own local discourse, but hatred has a way of mirroring itself across borders, language and decades. The Hussein family's struggle to exist without setting off alarms — literal or societal — feels painfully close to home. Much of the humour hits uncomfortably hard. A middle-schooler, all braces and budding armpit hair, casually drops 'code-switching" into conversation—as naturally as one might talk about boy bands or Pokémon cards. This idea of code-switching, wherein a person of colour approximates a potentially less objectionable version of themselves to fit in with the majority, has never been spelt out clearer. It's not a whispered confession, not an awakening. It's just a thing he and his friends do. Like passing notes, except the note is yourself, reworded and whitewashed. This is the way of children of colour trying desperately to survive the Land of the Free and the Home of the Paranoid. The show opens with a title card that simply reads: 'Rated H—for Haram." That's not just cheeky; it's a dare. This is television that goes for the jugular, giggling all the way. Animated in an exaggerated, Looney Tunes-on-LSD style, this is not your grandma's post-9/11 trauma sitcom. This is trauma that dances, that sings, that slaps on a fake moustache and a Stetson and calls itself Hank. Patriarch Hussein Hussein—voiced with manic brilliance by Youssef himself—is the kind of man who puts the 'ass' in assimilation. His son, 12-year-old Rumi—also voiced by Youssef, all nervous energy and gummy-mouthed glee—tries to blend in by befriending a literal sacrificial lamb, one he has named Lamby. Lamby wants only to be killed, but this deadpan creature is the only one who seems to know what's coming. The lamb's fate, much like the show's humour, is uncomfortably prophetic. Youssef, of course, is no stranger to toeing the line between the sacred and the sacrilegious. His previous series, Ramy (streaming in India on Lionsgate Play) was a revelation—a raw, riveting dramedy about faith, sex, and falafel that made viewers squirm with its honesty. #1 Happy Family USA is like Ramy after several espressos and a stint at Cartoon Network. It's a funhouse mirror version of that show: more outrageous, more absurd, and, somehow, even more true. The animation is retro in all the right ways. Landline phones with curly cords dangle from walls like umbilical nostalgia. Tangerine iMacs glow like radioactive fruit. Kids wait hours to download and burn songs on to mixtape CDs. It's a world that seems far removed, yet the cultural paranoia it satirises remains horrifyingly intact. Youssef masterfully turns the audience's gaze inward. Every joke—and there are many—is a landmine. You laugh, then you realise what you're laughing at, and that uneasy pause you feel? That's the show winning. That's the show telling you that complicity is not just for the villains. #1 Happy Family USA is not comfortable viewing. It's not designed to be. Instead, it's blisteringly clever, subversive, fearless and funny. It doesn't play respectability politics. It doesn't ask to be liked. It hijacks the conversation, throws glitter on it, and demands you watch, preferably while eating an 'all-American" hot dog. This is the kind of cartoon, provocative and political, that I daresay will find the Edward Said seal of approval. It's hilarious, horrifying, and hyper-aware of its audience. The humour is politically incorrect but never lazy, or edge-lordy. It's surgical. The blind spots it targets are literal. In one episode, a school initiative called 'See Something, Say Something" teaches children to rat out Muslim 'behaviour." A blind child enthusiastically raises his hand—and is immediately shut down. The gag is absurd. The gag is cruel. The gag is perfect. It reveals the hollowness of institutional bigotry, dressed up as civic duty. Don't miss out. I've seen #1 Happy Family USA , and this show really is something.
The Guardian
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Andor, Pink Floyd at Pompeii and Conclave: the week in rave reviews
Disney+; new episodes Wednesdays Summed up in a sentence Star Wars for grownups returns for a final season, as thrilling as our reviewer said 'Under the hard-nosed stewardship of writer Tony Gilroy, Andor bins the magic and myth and replaces them with the reality of anti-fascist struggle, where the good guys are ready to risk their lives for freedom. It's the Star Wars spin-off with the strongest claim to being a proper drama – but, season two shows it can do sly, wry comedy too.' Jack Seale Read the full review Further reading 'It feels deeply human': Andor's Genevieve O'Reilly on turning a tiny Star Wars role into one of its biggest BBC One & iPlayer, new episodes Wednesdays Summed up in a sentence Five brave duos battle the epic 14,000km trek across Asia … and this time, there are teenage lovers and a separated couple. What our reviewer said 'Of course, nothing goes to plan – but, as always, the joy comes from watching the pairs come way out of their comfort zones and bask in new experiences. Or, as one contestant puts it while working on a farm: 'If I wasn't being stabbed every three seconds by the thorns, it would actually be quite relaxing.'' Hannah J Davies Read the full review Channel 4, new episodes Mondays Summed up in a sentence A shocking glimpse into the sinking NHS and the under-pressure doctors and nurses staffing it. What our reviewer said 'It is rare that doctors are shown swearing in frustration, even in documentaries more tightly focused on the problems in the NHS than this one. But there are many such moments here, as the number of equally critically ill patients demands the kind of decision-making no human should have to make as part of a standard working day.' Lucy Mangan Read the full review Prime Video, full season available Summed up in a sentence A surreal, quietly subversive tale of a Muslim family's life in post-9/11 America. What our reviewer said '#1 Happy Family USA is all about the modern Muslim experience, feeling adrift from the world, and the extent to which you should change yourself to fit in. And what better way to underscore this often excruciating, existential experience than to make our lead an insecure, hormone-plagued teen, coming of age in the wake of the September 11 attacks.' Hannah J Davies Read the full review Further reading 'I had a recurring dream that Bin Laden was in my kitchen': Ramy Youssef on his 9/11 comedy Disney+, full season available Summed up in a sentence Michelle Williams stars as a woman with terminal cancer on a mission to make better love. What our reviewer said 'Perhaps uniquely in the annals of modern television history, Dying for Sex feels like it could do with longer episodes or a longer season, so that more justice could be done to all parts of the life of its lead character. But perhaps the pell-mell rush is in keeping with her pressing need to do all that she wants before the inevitable arrives. There is never enough time.' Lucy Mangan Read the full review Further reading 'I've never masturbated on film before': Michelle Williams' orgasm odyssey in Dying for Sex' In selected cinemas now Summed up in a sentence A star player at an elite tennis school stays silent when the head coach is suspended in an absorbing study of things unsaid and subjects avoided. What our reviewer said 'A tense movie of silences and absences, of difficult terrain skirted around, of subjects avoided. It's a reminder that in key situations, to keep quiet is a stressful, strenuous and, crucially, public activity – and a survival instinct that many young people have to learn.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review Further reading 'Where is the adult?': how Leonardo Van Dijl filmed the story of a child tennis star's abuse In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Filmed in 1971, this outrageously indulgent yet vivid film captures the Floyd playing live in an ancient amphitheatre. What our reviewer said 'The band are shown performing in the late afternoon, but not to an audience as you might assume, but weirdly and almost haughtily alone. The banks of amplifiers are pounding out the music just to the ancient stones and pillars and to the film crew facing them. It really is a beguilingly weird film.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review Further reading Pink Floyd to rerelease restored 1972 Pompeii concert film in Imax In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Shocking violence is tempered by silent sequences in a Georgian abortion drama about an obstetrician under investigation. What our reviewer said 'The power of April is that it shows how very illusory the idea of modernity is. In these spaces, the same old male attitudes and prejudices hold sway – effectively unchanged over centuries. Women's bodies are at the mercy of men. A deeply unsettling meditation on sexuality and transgression.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence A documentary love letter to the good old-fashioned art of sailing. What our reviewer said 'Filmed over three years and shot on 16mm film, there are some gorgeous images here that would give Turner a run for his money, like a milky sky melting into the white sea. It's a feast for the ears, too, with a soundtrack of waves, creaking wood, the clank of metal and shrieking oystercatchers.' Cath Clarke Read the full review Prime Video, available now Summed up in a sentence Gripping – and suddenly very timely – drama about the election of a new pope. What our reviewer said 'Edward Berger's drama is adapted with masterly flair by screenwriter Peter Straughan from the Robert Harris page-turner; Ralph Fiennes is on sumptuous form as the deeply troubled Cardinal Lawrence at the centre of a murky Vatican plot. The result is a high-camp gripper, like the world's most serious Carry On film.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review Further reading Experts talk realism of Conclave movie: 'Gets a lot of the details right' Reviewed by Rowan Williams Summed up in a sentence Why you should quit your job to make the world a better place. What our reviewer said 'At its best it offers a bracingly hopeful perspective, insisting on the necessity of doing all you can to allow yourself to be sensitised and resensitised to that which eats away at the dignity not only of humanity but of the entire living environment.' Read the full review Further reading No, you're not fine just the way you are: time to quit your pointless job, become morally ambitious and change the world Reviewed by Sarah Perry Summed up in a sentence Exquisite debut about teenage gay love from the acclaimed poet and memoirist. What our reviewer said 'Hewitt seems to me to be working, with immense fidelity and skill, towards a singular vision, in which profound sincerity of feeling – and the treatment of sexual desire as something close to sacred – is matched with an almost reckless beauty of expression.' Read the full review Reviewed by Matthew Cantor Summed up in a sentence The battle to reform English spelling. What our reviewer said 'In his amusing and enlightening new book, Gabe Henry traces the history of these efforts, beginning with a 12th-century monk named Orrmin, continuing through the beginnings of American English and the movement's 19th-century heyday, finally arriving at textspeak.' Read the full review Reviewed by Rita Bullwinkel Summed up in a sentence A gritty first world war tale of secrets, guilt and desire. What our reviewer said 'Griffiths grew up in Aberdeenshire and her use of the vernacular vividly conveys the period and a God-fearing, closed community, used to hardship and quick to judge outsiders. She writes well about forbidden desire, shame and the seasonal rhythms of a rural community on the eve of radical change.' Read the full review Further reading On my radar: Nell Zink's cultural highlights Reviewed by Thomas McMullan In a sentence A cool satire of perfectly curated hipster lives in Berlin. What our reviewer said 'Anna and Tom are expats living in Berlin in the 2010s. As freelance digital creatives, their Neukölln flat is affordable, their windowsills are plant-lined, their armchairs are Danish mahogany. Meanwhile, their social lives are curated around gallery openings for art they do not much care about, cooking and the occasional attempt at an orgy.' Read the full review Out now Summed up in a sentence The Irish artist's folk-inflected shoegaze sound is both unnerving and alluring on her luxuriant second album. What our reviewer said 'These songs reveal themselves to be unusually swollen with texture and detail: harps twinkle like broken glass and baggy breakbeats reverberate widely. Somerville has an expansive purview: part of the thrill of Luster is listening closely enough to pick up on the traces of pop, hymnal, trip-hop and experimental electronic music that lies beneath.' Shaad D'Souza Read the full review Further reading The bands saving shoegaze, from Deafheaven to Feeble Little Horse Out now Summed up in a sentence The Guardian's folk album of the month is by a Dublin-based French-American singer and guitarist, whose songs swim from country to blues and French chanson. What our reviewer said 'Bookended with canonical traditional songs and sung in eerily bright a cappellas, Gamble is a confident, self-produced debut by an exciting new voice. This is a nourishing, impressive 11-song set, with Basha's voice swooping high and low like the Appalachian mountain music she loves.' Jude Rogers Read the full review Out now Summed up in a sentence Rebecca Lucy Taylor works through her worries in real time on her new album – to fascinating and confusing effect. What our reviewer said 'The music on A Complicated Woman reaches for feelgood stadium singalongs, evokes sweaty dancefloors and aims itself at the dead centre of 21st-century mainstream pop … But for the most part, the songs thrash about and contradict themselves as if Taylor is, right in front of your ears, working out exactly how she feels about ageing, drinking or her career.' Alexis Petridis Read the full review Further reading Self Esteem on stardom, self-doubt, and making it in a man's world Out now Summed up in a sentence Benedetti is joined by the Aurora Orchestra in a fun and free performance. What our reviewer said 'The recording was made in studio conditions but with all involved playing from memory, as is Aurora's trademark. Does that make a difference in an audio-only context? Perhaps – there's certainly a sense of freedom, of phrasing that isn't bound by bar lines. In any case, the result is music of irresistible ebullience.' Erica Jeal Read the full review Out now Summed up in a sentence Forty years into their career, the Mississippi gospel band deliver a life-affirming debut. What our reviewer said 'These are great, powerful, moving songs, made all the more potent by the fact that they're recorded live, without an audience, in a church in the band's home town. The plain production makes Can't Lose My (Soul) feel as if it's happening before your eyes, adding a vividness and urgency.' Alexis Petridis Read the full review
