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Nigerian Characters Bino and Fino Finally Come to Life

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 25 Oct 2010   |   

Bino and Fino creator, Adamu Waziri, wanted African kids to be able to identify with characters that look like them, speak like them and go through similar everyday life issues. And so the sister and brother duo were born, Bino and Fino. Read more articles here.

But a new cartoon out of Nigeria may start to broaden some preschool minds. The animated series Bino and Fino, piloting in October, will feature the workaday life of a family in an African city. The children, Bino and Fino, have a fairy friend who teaches them the preschool TV show basics: counting, animals, language…it’s like Dora the Explorer, creators say, from an African perspective.

As a miniseries, Bino and Fino is slated for release on DVD in Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, English and French. But its creators have a larger vision — they want more languages, more publicity, more airplay. They want those adorable googly-eyed kids to become a global sensation, and they’re raising funds to do so.

If Bino and Fino happens…(please please please)…I hope there are all-star guest voiceovers. Lola Okusami should play a neighbor. Nneka would have to be a singing school teacher, obviously, or president or something. Any one of our top Nollywood stars should play the talking animals, assuming there are any.

• Read the complete article at mtviggy

Here’s the video of Bino and Fino, an African cartoon for children. We produced it in house at EVCL in Nigeria. Tell us what you think.

This episode focuses on the idea of 2010 being an important year in Africa’s history as many countries are celebrating their 50th year of independence from colonial rule. To be honest this, subject matter is a bit heavier than those that will be handled in the episodes on the DVD. We just saw a rare opportunity to address an important historic African event in a children’s cartoon format. It’s definitely not a topic Disney would handle! That’s the beauty of being able to tell one’s own stories.

• Visit Bino and Fino here

Archbishop Tutu Gives his Voice to SA's Premier 3D Animated Movie

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 15 Apr 2010   |   

Johannesburg — SA IS to launch its first 3D animated movie, Jock of the Bushveld, featuring a number of well-known local voices, including that of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, with lyrics by Sir Tim Rice of The Lion King fame.

The animated version of Sir Percy FitzPatrick’s classic South African novel is being produced in Johannesburg at a fraction of the price of a US animated movie, with just 21 locally trained animators. And if snippets of the movie shown yesterday to media are anything to go by, it will hold its own.

Taking its cue from other successful animated movies, the real money will probably come, not from ticket sales, but from a merchandise range, including clothing, toys, pet products and books which are to be released alongside the movie – another first for SA. Andy Rice, head of Jock Marketing and former strategic planner for Ogilvy & Mather, said yesterday that George Lucas was the first to waive his directors’ fee for Star Wars in return for royalities on merchandise because he recognised that it was lucrative.

He said that money from merchandising often brought in 10 times more than income from the box office for animated movies in particular.

Rice is in talks with retailers, toy manufacturers and Penguin publishers who are likely to produce a series of books on the movie for different age groups.

Rice said the response to the format had been “enormously positive” with one retailer immediately saying it wanted one of the designs featuring the puppy Jock for its baby range.

• Read complete article at All Africa

One of the key driving forces behind the two films was Duncan MacNeillie, who’s also the director and producer of the first animated film version of Jock of the Bushveld, due for South African release in December 2010. MacNeillie’s big challenge on this latest project, it seems, will be how to please both sets of audiences. A figure “not much less than” R50-million has been sunk into South Africa’s inaugural full-length animated feature in 3-D, and if there’s ever going to be an international distribution deal, it will follow the local release next year. It goes without saying that success here is a prerequisite to securing a buyer there.

Given that his private investors include the likes of Standard Bank chief executive Jacko Maree and Hollard Insurance founder Miles Japhet, MacNeillie obviously understands what’s at stake. As the man who owns the trademarks on all Jock of the Bushveld characters and paraphernalia, he isn’t taking too many chances. He’s hired an incredibly impressive team – local brands and marketing guru Andy Rice will take care of “the year-long marketing drive,” Grammy Award-winning lyricist Tim Rice (Andy’s brother) and Johnny Clegg are contributing to the soundtrack, and some of the top animators in the business are busy with the graphics. Also, Desmond Tutu will be doing a cameo voice-over for the spiritual leader of the local community.

Will it all be enough to justify the investment? Andy Rice reckons so. He makes the point that while live action films get most of their revenue from box-office sales, animation gets just as much from licensing the characters. “It all started with George Lucas,” he says, “who told Steven Spielberg he could keep the box-office receipts from Star Wars if he [Lucas] could keep the merchandising. It was a decision Lucas made before he knew how big the films would become. Nowadays, a major part of every animated film is in the spin-offs.”

So negotiations with local retailers, publishers and other interested parties have already begun. Jock of the Bushveld toys, books, games and clothes are as good as in the pipeline, while quick-service restaurants, vitamin brands and eyewear companies consider the prospects. December 2010, if Andy Rice has his way, will be Jock time in South Africa – a merchandising phenomenon looks set to sweep the country the likes of which we’ve never seen in our own cultural product.

• Read complete article at The Daily Maverick

Cape Town's Clockwork Zoo Starts Animation on Book Turned Disney Series

by Bontle on 16 Mar 2010   |   

Cape Town-based Clockwork Zoo has started key animation on a series that will be seen on Disney UK later this year. With funding from South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry, Florrie’s Dragons is a collaboration with one of the UK’s top pre-school content creators: Wish Films. The series will be based on the popular children’s books by show creator An Vrombaut.

The two Dear Dragon books are about Princess Florrie who lives in a castle with her best friend Dear Dragon whose not like your average dragon. Thanks to an unexpected accident where Dear Dragon swallowed Florrie’s bubble blowing soap, he now blows bubbles, not fire!

The biggest animation studio in southern Africa, Clockwork Zoo, is the creator of 104 episodes of URBO: The Adventures of Pax Afrika on SABC and has delivered outsource work for Welsh, French and UK companies as well as the South African/ Canadian co-production Caillou with Cookie Jar Entertainment.

• Read More at ScreenAfrica

Book details

• Dear Dragon by An Vrombaut
  Ages 9 to 12
  EAN: 9780340881507
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Disney's First Curly Haired Princess

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 15 Dec 2009   |   

Finally for the first time a Disney Production has a Princess with curly hair and a dark skin in The Princess and the Frog.

Recently, my 4-year-old came downstairs clutching in her hands her severed blond ringlets. Why did she cut off her corkscrew curls? “Because no princesses have curly hair,” she said.

I was astonished, though I probably shouldn’t have been. She’d been complaining for a while that no Disney princesses have curly hair like hers. We even went so far as to seek out a ringletted royal online, where we discovered we aren’t the only family that has detected anticurl prejudice. A thread on Yahoo! Answers asks, “How come no Disney Princess has curly hair?” YouTube led us to Princess Giselle, as portrayed by Amy Adams in Disney’s half-animated Enchanted, but my daughter roundly dismissed Adams’ gorgeously coiled tresses because the princess she plays has barely a hint of curl whenever she inhabits her cartoon self. My daughter’s takeaway: in the fantasy realm that is Disney’s raison d’être, straight hair is the stuff of dreams.

• Read the complete article