From zero to superhero: African animation takes off internationally

It's an exciting time for African animation with a number of productions in the works.

There's anticipation for the launch of Mama K's Team 4, which was picked up by Netflix in 2019 as its first African children's animated series.

Garbage Boy and Trash Can, a charming series of 10 animated episodes by Nigerian animator Ridwaan Moshood, premieres on Cartoon Network in 2022.

Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire is an anthology of 10 African futurist animated shorts from a new wave of animators from the continent that will debut exclusively on Disney+ in late 2022.

This is coupled with the creation of Ijawu, a new series by Disney+ and the pan-African comic book entertainment company Kugali, also set to launch in 2022.

Last month, at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and Market in France, the Walt Disney Company announced it was picking up two animations from SA: Kiff by Lucy Heavens and Nic Smal, launching on the Disney Channel in 2023; and Kiya and the Kimoja Heroes by Kelly Dillon and Marc Dey, debuting on Disney Junior and Disney+ in 2023.

Late last year singer-songwriter and fashion pioneer turned award-winning screenwriter Lindiwe Suttle teased a stylish snippet of her upcoming animated web series, Coconut Confidential, boasting an all-African creative team. The project, about Suttle's US high-school story set in the '90s, is currently being pitched in Los Angeles.

AFRICAN WOMEN WRITERS

This African animation momentum is precipitated by the need for representation and inclusivity and for African storytellers to own their stories.

The success of Marvel's Black Panther was a major turning point in validating this need while showing off its commercial viability. Hair Love, the Oscar-winning animated short film of 2019 by Matthew A Cherry, and Soul (2020), Pixar's first film to feature an African-American protagonist, are further validations.

The emergence of streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney+ shifted traditional ways of viewing content and gives African creatives a chance.

Leading local animation studio Triggerfish in Cape Town has been at the heart of creating opportunities and access to the animation industry through its Story Artist Lab.

With the objective to develop and upskill the next generation of Africa's story artists, the initiative was launched as a continent-wide search for local female writing talent in 2015.

The result was Mama K's Team 4, created by Zambian writer Malenga Mulendema in a team of nine Malenga Mulendema writers. The story follows four teenage girls in a neo-futuristic Lusaka working for a retired secret agent committed to saving the world.

Kiya and the Kimoja Heroes (previously known as Ninja Princess) is another project from the Story Artist Lab and was greenlit in February.

In this work, Dillon focuses on a ballet- and martial arts-loving seven-year-old African girl and her two best friends, who protect their community when they put on their magical crystal headbands.

In 2018 Dillon also developed for Triggerfish the award-winning animated short Belly Flop, about an endearing little brown girl confidently learning how to dive in her local swimming pool.

"Story artists translate screenplays into animatics, the loose first version of the movie that then shapes every step of animation that follows," explains Triggerfish's development executive, Tendayi Nyeke.

"Having skilled story artists from the continent in control of how their stories are told is a game-changer, not only in grooming the next African directors but also in giving pre-production artists the opportunity to establish their own voice as they bring African stories to life," she says.

Last month Triggerfish announced a call for entries for another round of its Story Artist Lab, sponsored by Netflix. Short-listed applicants will have three months of paid skills development with international industry experts. The deadline for applications was July 23.

Triggerfish is the curator and producer for the Kizazi Moto sci-fi anthology with Disney+. Boasting creators from SA, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Egypt; and executive-produced by Oscar-winning director Peter Ramsey of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse fame, the project is about portraying a range of perspectives of Africa's potential future.

"We've had many requests to run another Story Lab like the one in 2015, which was supported by the Walt Disney Company, but we also wanted to build on that experience. In that case the search was more for writers - here with Kizazi Moto we wanted to find and support new directors," says Nyeke.

NETWORKING

Organisations like Animation SA (ASA) help give visibility to emerging black animators. ASA contributes to transformation of the local animation industry with funded initiatives into government schools that equip disadvantaged youth and township communities with knowledge, resources and skills that give them access to opportunities.

The African Animation Network (AAN) is also important. The for-profit enterprise aims to advance social cohesion within the African animation sector and empower African animators with skills development, access to audiences and investment.

Founder of AAN Nick Wilson had a major hand in the creation of the Cartoon Network African Creative Lab, through which Garbage Boy and Trash Can came up.

Garbage Boy and Trash Can is the first Cartoon Network superhero animated comedy series to be produced in Africa. It will be made in collaboration with the newly formed animation production company Pure Garbage, a South African company created to produce the new series. The studio is a partnership between Moshood, Wilson and Mike de Seve, head of US award-winning studio Baboon Animation.

"Ownership and equity is the fourth pillar of our core mission at African Animation Network, and Pure Garbage is a proof of concept of this creator-centric model we would like to bring to the African market," Wilson says.

"It's important for creatives and writers to be able to generate wealth for the duration of their lifetime from their creations."

AAN is involved in a number of industry interventions aimed at accelerating development of the African animation industry in the continent. These include partnering with Ster-Kinekor and Cartoon Network Africa in 2017 to launch the first "made in Africa for kids" animation film festival, Fupitoons, which tours the continent; and hosting the Annecy - Mifa Pitches Animation du Monde, an animation pitching competition across five countries in Africa.

EXCITING TIMES

Speaking on what they have been able to ascertain about the state of animation in Africa through their AAN initiatives, Wilson says: "In countries where there are animation communities and no animation associations yet, we engage and advise to help creative communities build their industry.

"We have been able to help with the formation of Animation Nigeria; Animation Uganda and the Egyptian Artists League. Outside of South Africa, Ghana and Kenya, not many African countries have institutions that have animation added into their curriculum. What we find is that there is a lot of talent and that talent is mainly self-taught. But the passion and eagerness to learn is there. Africa is standing up and it's an exciting time to be in animation."