In Disney+’s attempt to broaden its global image, the media platform has just released Kizazi Moto: Génération Feu Wednesday. The animated sci-fi series was created by young African filmmakers and was supported by the co-director of Spider-Man: New Generation, Peter Ramsey.
The future of Africa remains largely unknown to many, leading the 14 content creators to produce ten independent, ten-minute episodes mixing 2D and 3D to explore the continent’s future.
“Kizazi Moto” is the shortened Swahili expression “Kizazi cha moto,” which means “generation of fire.”
Disney+ is also working with the pan-African entertainment company Kugali to produce another futuristic film set in Lagos, Nigeria.
“For Kizazi Moto, the artists involved drew on the continent’s history and diverse cultures, blending myths, extraterrestrials, gods, monsters, and futuristic technologies, while dealing more or less head-on with climate change, colonization and the excesses of social networking,” reads a report in AfricaNews. “In Mukudzei, for example, an influencer is projected into a parallel reality where Zimbabwe has not been colonized, while Surf Sangoma, set in 2050, follows thrill-seeking surfers in the South African city of Durban, where rising waters have led to a ban on sea activities.”
The series is co-produced by South African studio Triggerfish. Peter Ramsey, who co-directed of the Oscar-winning film Spider-Man: New Generation, said that the animation draws largely from Marvel’s blockbuster hit Black Panther.
“But it’s something we’ve never really seen before”, as the series relies on “individual creators with authentic personal stories and experiences,” Orion Ross, Vice President Animation for Disney EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) told AFP.
Ramsey added: “[All of them] were really excited about the opportunity to express something to the world through Disney+ in a way that had previously been inaccessible to them. What we tried to do with +Spider-Man: New Generation+ was to reproduce things that had already been tested in short films,” he added.
