DISNEY IN NIGERIA / BIRTH OF A NEW CARTOON AGE IN NOLLYWOOD
BY OFFICER N

It's no longer news that the multi billion dollar conglomerate, Disney Inc. which birthed the Golden cartoon age that led to the American Animation Renaissance is set to establish a major project in West Africa, Nigeria. Disney Media distribution EMEA has already established connections with Mo Abudu of Ebony Live Tv to jointly produce a Nigerian version of the iconic hit series 'Desperate Housewives'. This new series to be shot in Lagos will patronize indigenous African actors and the production will showcase the Nigerian flavour whilst retaining the format and storylines of the original US version.

According to Vanguard reports, the Desperate Housewives series already has five different versions produced for EMEA and Latin American audiences including a Turkish version 'Umutsuz Ev Kadinlari', an Argentinian version 'Amas de Casa Desesperedas', the Colombian/Ecuadorian version, the hispanic version 'Donas de Casa Desesperedas' and the Brazilian version.

Disney is reputed worldwide as the largest multinational mass media company in terms of revenue and their success story from a small cartoon studio in 1928 to its present level inspires a new sense of faith in the cartoon industry. Their gradual progression from cartoons such as Mickey Mouse, Popeye, Pinnochio to collaborations with Metro Goldwyn Mayer in cartoons like Tom and Jerry and the productions of other standard productions like Lion King, Snow white and Madagascar, makes one wonder when Nollywood will achieve such feat but thankfully enough, the cartoon revolution has already begun in Nollywood.

The basic problem with foreigners telling the African story has always being the misrepresentation of the African worldview. In the Animation industry however, whenever Africa is portrayed, characters are usually depicted as animals like in Lion King and Madagascar. When African characters are not animals, they are relegated or largely portrayed as bush people like in Tarzan. It is imperative to note that cartoons and comics are the first form of media most likely loved upon encounter by our future generation - the black children worldwide. Hence, the portrayal of black children heroes (like in a black Ben 10 cartoon) with familiar African values will definitely make African children feel more relevant to the cosmos and spur the creative spirit in them.

In a bid to partly fill this void, Adamu Waziri created the 'Bino and Fino' cartoon in 2010 which is presently featured in BBC worldwide, MTV, Vox Africa and other local and foreign media partners around the world. Although not sponsored by Disney, Bino and Fino is a potpourri of sociological statements. Waziri often likes to refer to it is an educational cartoon. In his exact words;

"I always watched cartoons as a child, I later did a Masters in Computer Animation in London after convincing my parents I wasn't mad. The world's largest black nation does not produce any animated content for its children. I mean, doesn't that sound crazy to you? .... they watch exclusively white cartoons with no representation of who they are."

He also attributed the major challenges of Animation in Nigeria to the inability of our Universities to teach animation and the general lack of animation experience. One really wonders when the third most influential film industry in the world - Nollywood would develop the animation culture not only in cartoons but also to further enhance realism in film productions. It is pretty obsolete and unrealistic to see fake gunshots on screen just as it is unrealistic to have criminals with toy guns terrorizing a community. When will Nollywood produce an Academy award block buster like 'Lord of the Rings' or even 'I-Robot'? Such are the products of refined animators.

In this new dawn of the Cartoon age, how do we bell the ugly cat called Acquired Immune Technological Deficiency Syndrome (AITDS)? What is the way forward?



**No trees were harmed, neither was any paper destroyed as at the construction of this article**



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