[imagesource:disney+]

This Pan-African Animated series is helping Disney bring animation from studios on almost every continent to their millions of Disney+ subscribers.

Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire takes advantage of the anthology format to bring together African sci-fi and magical realism stories, with animators from Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe each putting in futuristic and fantastical spins on stories from their cultures.

The series – directed by Ng’endo Mukii and executive produced by Oscar-winning director Peter Ramsey (Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse), Anthony Silverston of Cape Town-based Triggerfish Animation, and Tendayi Nyeke – uses visual language from stop motion, CGI and 2D-animation to take on various art styles and experiments with what this medium can achieve.

Its experimental approach was laborious and ultra-technical, and its results ended up being inventive and now, award-winning.

‘Enkai,’ the tenth and final episode of Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire, has won the award for Best Limited Series Episode in the TV/Media category of the 2024 Annie Awards.

“That was really a difficult practice in terms of lip-syncing, trying to put the shapes at the right frame, having this stepping motion, that I found so beautiful, but in CGI, people are not used to seeing that,” Mukii told OkayAfrica last year.

Kizazi Moto was also nominated in four other categories at Saturday’s ceremony in Los Angeles. Its third episode, ‘Moremi’, was nominated for Best Direction and Best FX, as well as a co-nomination for Best Character Animation, alongside the episodes ‘Surf Sangoma’ and ‘Stardust’. The penultimate episode, ‘You Give Me Heart’, was up for Best Character Design.

Kizazi Moto‘s win is an achievement worthy of celebration, for a project that centres on African storytellers and illustrators.

Co-produced by Triggerfish Animation Studios, it also underscores how the South Africa-based production company is playing a key role in elevating the visibility of animators across the continent.

At the Annies, Triggerfish also celebrated winning Best Music in TV/Media for “Aau’s Song,” an episode on the second season of Star Wars: Visions. “We owe an enormous amount to Disney for collaborating with us on ‘Aau’s Song’, Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes, and Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire,” Triggerfish CEO Stuart Forrest told OkayAfrica last year.

These wins at the Annie Awards are a reminder of the inherent multiplicity of African creativity, and a validation that African animators can pull off world-class, inventive work.

Laduuuuuma!

[source:okayafrica]