Malala takes her passions to small screen with Apple TV+
NEW YORK — Malala Yousafzai is a Nobel laureate known around the world for her activism, but she’s also a cartoon fan and is taking her love of television and film to Apple TV+.
Yousafzai, 23, who graduated from Oxford last June, recently announced that she has partnered with Apple in a multiyear deal to develop dramas, documentaries, comedies, animation and series for children.
Yousafzai was the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, in 2014, for working to protect children from slavery, extremism and child labor.
In her home country, Pakistan, she was outspoken in insisting that girls have a right to an education. She was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman while riding a school bus at age 15. She recovered and went on to fight against girls’ oppression worldwide.
This interview with Yousafzai has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: Your new deal with Apple includes comedy and animated shows. Are you a comedy fan?
A: In my childhood, it was Cartoon Network and, you know, seeing “Tom and Jerry,” “Courage,” “Scooby Doo” and all of those TV cartoon shows. When you are a child — and especially when terrorism started — to know that there is sort of this world in cartoons where you can escape from the reality around you and just giggle and laugh and just entertain yourself. You know, I have been watching comedy movies from Bollywood to Hollywood, and I am a big fan of animation as well. I have not missed a single animation movie. It just keeps you engaged and entertained and also gives you very beautiful messages.
Q: You’ll also be developing documentaries and maybe covering your world travels to help girls?
A: I definitely want to do documentaries and nonscripted shows, and it will cover a lot — hopefully my own journey as well — and the incredible girls that I meet . ... But there’s so much more to explore and to learn. I’m excited. You know, I’m still at the stage where I’m exploring ideas. I can tell you that there are so many incredible ideas, and it’s so difficult to pick and choose one.
Q: A stat on your website suggests it will take 100 years until all girls have access to education. Sometimes the news is so dark, how do you maintain hope?
A: I think when you raise your voice, it can have an impact and it can bring change. What will make me pessimistic is if we don’t do anything. So as long as we keep doing our part, there is optimism, there is hope. I think it’s just
the silence that keeps things going as they are.
Q: Many girls look up to you as a hero. Who are your heroes?
A: I have many, many heroes, from my parents to historical figures like Benazir Bhutto, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela. But the people who have actually and truly inspired me are the young girls that I have met in my journey. Girls from Iraq to Brazil, Nigeria, Kenya. So many of these girls have incredible stories that they have seen — wars, conflicts. They have become displaced. They have been forced into marriages at early ages. But they do not give up on their dreams, and they are still fighting for the right to education, for their right to a safe future. If they are not giving up on their fight for education, then why should we?
Q: How has it been in quarantine at home?
A: I spent the last two months of college at home because of COVID. And I was taking my exams at home and I graduated at home and it’s all just been home, home, home. I have
two younger brothers and it’s quite difficult to manage your work while they’re in the house. They have their own sort of schedule and timetable. And I would have an important call and they would just come to my room and not appreciate that. But still, you know, they are my brothers and I love them. So we’re just coping with it and trying our best not to argue too much.
Q: What is your message for young girls who want to be activists?
A: My message to young girls is always, never underestimate yourself. We are often told that you have to grow older and get a Ph.D. or something, and then once you are 50 or 40, then you can change things. Follow that path if you want, but you can change things now as well. Do not underestimate the power you have, even in the small actions that you take, whether that is raising awareness, doing fundraising for a cause you believe in, talking to somebody that doesn’t agree with you . ... Talk about why women’s rights and girls’ rights are important, why climate change is important. All of these things matter.
Like an innocuous kid version of “The Purge,” Miguel Arteta’s “Yes Day” imagines an annual 24-hour holiday of lawlessness.
The concept comes from the late Chicago author Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s 2009 picture book, which suggested a day when parents — regularly such fonts of “No!” — have to answer in the positive to their children’s demands. For some, the idea had real appeal not just for giving kids a shot at decision-making freedom but for momentarily relieving parents of the burden of constant disapproval.
One parent, in particular, took to “Yes Day”: Jennifer Garner. The actress has previously spoken on social media about holding the holiday with her three children. And she’s a producer of the film, which debuts Friday on Netflix.
“No is part of the job,” narrates Allison Torres (Garner) in the film’s opening scenes.
But so stern is Allison — the bad cop next to her more easygoing husband Carlos (Edgar Ramirez) — that her three children’s school projects suggest a dictatorship in need of a coup. One makes a video comparing her to Stalin and Mussolini.
When a guidance counselor (Nat Faxon) suggests “Yes Day” as a remedy, Allison goes along, with a few stipulations. You can’t break laws and you’ve got to stay within 20 miles of home. This leads to a day of wall-towall fun, with bed-jumping, ice-cream feasts, a carwash trip with the windows down and a surprise theme-park visit. The day tests both Allison’s helicopter parenting impulses and the kids’ own desire for independence. That’s especially true for 14-year-old Katie (Jenna Ortega, an impressively poised young actor), who wants to attend a concert without her mom.
It’s all lightly predictable as the family works out a level of comfort that isn’t all yes or entirely no. There’s something to be said for lowerstakes family films, a genre that has increasingly aped the world-ending scale of superhero films. (One pandemic discovery for my family was 1974’s “Swallows and Amazons,” a charming British film about kids just playing on a lake. On their own, they’re plenty capable of making their own tents and adventures.)
“Yes Day” isn’t nearly so sweet. Arteta (“The Good
Girl,” “Cedar Rapids”) has an underrated ability at crafting comic, humanistic movies out of commercial concepts.
But “Yes Day” slides too often into contrived, loudly scored montages of “fun” that don’t transfer to those of us watching. And while Garner and Ramirez are both very fine actors, neither of them is funny. Not to be negative on “Yes Day,” but it would be a lot better if, say, Will Ferrell
and Maya Rudolph played the parents. (Though what movie wouldn’t be improved with that casting?) The film’s best moments come curtesy of Faxon and the very funny Arturo Castro, the “Broad City” actor who makes every scene he’s in better. Here he plays a hapless and needy police officer.
Of course, after a pandemic year that has ruled out so much
for kids, “Yes Day” may be a welcome reprieve for them. My kids, naturally, loved the idea and will probably take me to task for saying anything but “Yes” to “Yes Day.”
MPAA rating: PG (rude and suggestive material and language)
Running time: 1:26
Where to watch: Netflix