Kids Are Growing Up, a documentary that focuses on The Kid LAROI‘s rise to fame over the past few years, debuts on Prime Video on February 29. What makes it different from other documentaries is the wacky animation that links each segment, which LAROI says was inspired by another artist’s documentary.
“I watched … the Kurt Cobain documentary, and I really loved the way that they incorporated their style of animation, and that felt really cool,” LAROI says, referring to the 2015 film about the late Nirvana singer, Montage of Heck.
“We didn’t want to do a straightforward project, in case you can’t tell from watching it,” director Michael B. Ratner adds, noting that the animator they hired, Devin Flynn, “knocked it out of the park.”
“We always kept upping it and upping it and upping it and going crazier and crazier,” Ratner notes. “There’s really heavy moments. … And then you have these, like, really fun cartoons. So I think it balanced it out really well.”
Those “heavy moments” include LAROI’s mental health struggles and his memories of loved ones who’ve died, like his mentor Juice WRLD and one of his childhood friends.
“Some of it’s a bit of a tough watch,” LAROI says, but overall he’s “really happy” with it — even though he thinks parts of it made him look, as he put it, “like a f****** loser here.”
At the start of the film, LAROI says that if fans want to know what he’s about, they should listen to his music. So what’s the purpose of the film?
“Just to hopefully inspire people … [and] help people with whatever they might be going through,” LAROI says. “And just letting them know that, like, it’s O.K. to be vulnerable and put yourself out there.”
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