The Creators of ‘Lulu Is a Rhinoceros’ Discuss the Important Message of Their New Apple TV+ Animated Special

Apple TV+’s Lulu is a Rhinoceros is a new musical offering created by Jason and Allison Flom. The 45-minute animated special, which premieres on the streamer on today (Friday, May 30), features the voices of Auliʻi Cravalho (Lulu), Alex Newell, Dulé Hill, Paul Rust and Utkarsh Ambudkar. The show centers on a kind and fun-loving character who believes she’s a rhino when she looks in the mirror.

We recently had the chance to chat with the creative New York-based father-and-daughter team to learn more about how they adapted their self-published children’s book to a 2D animated special (produced by Bento Box):

Jason Flom: Well, it all started with the publication of the book Lulu Is a Rhinoceros back in 2018. We worked really hard to get it out into the ether, and to our delight it became a successful project and had a positive impact on many children’s lives. We’ve got the wonderful anecdotal stories from the many different sets of parents, so that’s been just a really humbling and joyous experience. Ben Silverman, who is a good of mine, had the vision to turn it into a TV show. Ben is a producer/exec producer of many great shows — Ugly Betty and The Office, to name a few. This was his first time doing an animated show. His kids loved the book, and thought the book would make a great TV show. So luckily for us, Ben arranged a meeting with Apple TV+, and they believed in it from day one and never wavered. They’ve been incredible partners.

Allison Flom: It’s been 10 years since we first came up with the idea, and the book was a great engine to get this story into the world. Having the opportunity to adapt it for Apple TV+ meant that we were able to take this little world of Lulu, where kindness is cool and everybody belongs, and build it out and explore it abundantly for this 45-minute special. It has more characters, wonderful story points, adding visuals and music. There was more room to explore our main themes and messages. The team at Bento Box (Los Angeles) was brought along in 2019, and they created a little vignette with our director Angela Stempel. She was also hugely responsible for finding the amazing cast for the show … We’re based in New York, so we worked coast to coast, and a lot of the incredible work was done remotely. Boulder Media in Ireland also contributed to the animation. I have to give a shout out to the team at Bento Box … I got to be on Zoom with our woman-led production team. I just can’t overstate the joy of working with them all.

Allison: My favorite thing probably is the music video sequences and how they make this kind of hyper-real, heightened version of the already very colorful world of Lulu. When Lulu first meetings Corey, her very optimistic friend, they start singing their song and then the world literally becomes rose colored. Things turn pink, and they’re dancing with the Sun and the Moon, and everything works beautifully because it’s so masterfully packaged into these music video sequences and utilizing the real art form of the music video which is getting rarer these days. But I grew up watching music videos and enjoyed seeing how music was used to tell a visual story at maximum capacity and I think that’s what we’ve done with all five of the original songs. My dad loves the “Good Morning, Beautiful You” song sequence, and he is hoping the clip of the song will go viral. Music offers such a great opportunity to create these repeatable, simple self-affirming messages One of my dreams is to be on the subway in New York and hear someone singing “Good Morning, Beautiful You” or “The Perfect Me” song out loud.

Jason: love the fact that it’s based in New York; I was born in New York, and Allison was also born and raised in New York. We’re lifelong New Yorkers. You get a really great sense of the city with this special, and there’s lot of the park in it, too … I think green spaces, the environment and community space are so important all of us, so it’s really fun to see these animals going through their adventures in the park and through the streets of New York City. I believe it offers a different perspective than we’ve seen in many other wonderful animated shows.

Jason, you’re a veteran music producer. How did that background help you with the musical components of the project?

Jason: I’ve been in the music business since I was 18 and I’m 64 now, so that’s 46 years! This was so fun for me because it’s something different than I’ve ever done before. I’ve worked primarily on pop and rock records. This special features a lot of great pop music, but it also has a powerful message throughout, and it’s also so magical to see how the music is woven so organically throughout. I’ve made many music videos, albums, tours, etc. but I never had the experience of showcasing about 5 1/2 songs in a 45 minute piece in a way that feels like a tapestry. I give credit to Allison and everyone on the team that was involved in the process of having created this tableau.

Allison: It’s cool that Universal is also releasing the soundtrack [available from Apple Music and streaming platforms], because the music stands on its own. I love the fact that Alex Newell is singing my lyrics from our show … we were at my dad’s house last summer and we were blasting the songs on the speakers as if it was a song on the radio that we love!

You wrote the book almost a decade ago under a different political and social climate. I would love to hear your thoughts about how we are all experiencing a completely different world where the very important and positive message of your book and show may not be embraced as openly as, say, just a few months ago?

Jason: Well I’ve always been inspired by stories of people who were told that they couldn’t “be” because they weren’t smart enough, they weren’t strong enough, they weren’t tall enough — right? Recently I came across the story, which I didn’t know about, of Mookie Betts, who is the major star outfielder for the world champion Los Angeles Dodgers! What many people don’t know about him is that when he was five years old, he was very small, and he was told that he couldn’t play baseball because of his size. Nobody would let him play. So his mother started a team for kids just like him. He persevered and became one of the greatest players of all time. I think Lulu’s story is timeless because there will always going to be people who put you down and tell you that you have to live with certain limitation. There will be people who misunderstand you or those who don’t want to take the time to listen to you or be curious or who judged you.

Allison: And the message of the book and the show is to prioritize kindness. This is for anyone who’s ever felt you misunderstood or felt differently than how they’re perceived. The goal is remind us that self-confidence, kindness and curiosity continue to prevail.

Jason: This is certainly a time when this message may resonate even more strongly. When I was a kid I wish I would have had some of these messages, because I endured bullying and it really impacted me deeply. If we can prevent that from happening to other kids, even just one other kid, then I consider this project a success.

Allison: As Lulu says, “I’m easy to love. I’m good enough!”

Lulu is a Rhinoceros streams on Apple TV+ today. It was produced by Propagate Content and Bento Box Entertainment and developed by Jason and Allison Flom, who serve as executive producers with Ben Silverman, Howard T. Owens, Rodney Ferrell, Brett Coker, Scott Greenberg and Dana Tafoya-Cameron. The show was directed by Angela Stempel and features original songs by Leland with lyrics by Allison Flom. The score is by Jina Hyojin An and Shirley Song.