Nick Jr. Made by Maddie producers deny copying Matthew A. Cherry's Oscar-winning Hair Love

TheWrap

Several Twitter users started noticing similarities between the recently announced Nick Jr. preschool series Made by Maddie and Hair Love, Matthew A. Cherry's Oscar-winning short film. The similarities include shoulder-length locs on the dads, mothers with natural curls and the little girls wearing pink bows atop their updos. Both also feature gray cats. "It's wild. Coulda been a dog, fish, anything," tweeted Cherry. Cherry, a Black man, made Hair Love -- which follows 7-year-old girl Zuri and her father Stephen as they attempt to style the little girl’s hair by following an instructional video narrated by her mother (voiced by Issa Rae) -- with the help of a 2017 Kickstarter campaign. In July, HBO Max announced it was turning Hair Love into an animated series titled Young Love. Made by Maddie was created by Paula Rosenthal, a white woman. It centers on Maddie, a quick-thinking girl with a big personality and a huge heart who has a passion for fashion, plus her talented fashion designer mom Dee and her super cool and upbeat musician dad Rashad. Cherry noticed the similarities, retweeting some of the allegations and obliquely commenting using an inquisitive-looking emoji. But Silvergate Media CEO Waheed Alli denied Made by Maddie is a ripoff, providing The Wrap with date-stamped images from 2017 and 2018 -- before Hair Love was released in August 2019. “Silvergate Media has been working on the series for the last five years and throughout the production has taken steps to ensure a diverse production team and an appropriate voice cast lending their expertise and talent," said Alli. "As creators ourselves, we have the utmost respect and admiration for Matthew A. Cherry and Hair Love, and our hope is that when people watch our show, they will see it is its own story with its own adventures." A representative for Cherry declined to comment to The Wrap, while Sony Pictures Animation and Lion Forge Animation did not immediately respond to the publication's request for comment.