[groovy music]
- I am Rodney Lambright II.
I am an animator, a TV artist and producer
for Wisconsin Public Television.
Most of the work that I do is under
the program of "Wisconsin Life."
In January, I started by creating this comic strip.
I got the great opportunity to turn the comic strip
into an animated short called "Something About A Flower."
It's a story about an African-American family.
The characters in the animation is Rose and she's about three.
And she's a little girl who's the daughter of Greg.
And Greg is her father.
And the grandparents' names are Larry and Prim.
Larry is "that" dad.
Shows you no love, but he loves you anyway.
He's an interesting character just because of the fact
that he does all these things indirectly to show his love,
but doesn't give you a hug.
It's kinda that struggle between
what it's like to be a masculine father in current day
and then also just like kinda those generational breaks.
Greg is that son that always wanted a hug from his dad.
He's a single father raising his daughter Rose.
Prim, she is the grandmother
or I'd say like the mother of all mothers.
Stepping in as like kind of a primary mother for Rose
because her mother isn't around.
She is a caretaker,
but then also is the one person who's very stern with Rose
and can withstand her cuteness, I would say.
The last character that I forgot to bring up before
is Tina actually.
Tina is basically Rose's best friend,
like any imaginary friend that you have,
you talk and play and have fun with.
But she tells Rose
exactly what she probably doesn't want to hear,
but at the heart of it,
I think that's what being a true friend is.
I think the best part about this animation is you get to
see a culture that you don't see in cartoons very often.
[music]