Capturing "what real life is in Lagos, looking to the future to enhance its most interesting aspects". It was one of the starting points for the makers of Iwájú: City of Tomorrow, a brilliant and engaging six-episode sci-fi/family animated series set in Nigeria that will debut on Disney+ on April 10. It is the first production that Disney Animation, in 100 years of history, has created in partnership with an external studio: Kugali Entertainment, co-founded in 2017 by three young artists, Nigerian childhood friends Tolu Olowofoyeku, and Olufikayo "Ziki" Adeola with Ugandan Hamid Ibrahim to tell and distribute stories inspired by and set in Africa around the world, networking and creating collaborations between artists from across the continent, from comics to animation. Iwaju (a word that means future), directed by 'Ziki' Adeola (also co-writer, with Halima Hudson, a Disney talent who worked on Big Hero 6 and Frozen 2 among others), the first original Disney Animation series, i.e. not born as a development of pre-existing material, it was created based on the collaboration of dozens of artists around the globe. The story set in a futuristic Lagos in Nigeria combines classic themes such as the Bildungsroman and the relationship between parents and children, with a captivating animation style. The story of the colorful and vital Nigerian reality in various aspects, from food to music (the soundtrack is by the Nigerian composer King Olunuga) also touches on current topics such as the society divided between a few rich people and many poor people and the phenomenon of kidnappings. With respect to the serious and current topics "that we deal with - director Ziki Adeola says in the remote meeting with the international press - I thought about how we often underestimate children in their ability to understand. We also wanted to insert deeper notes while maintaining the story fun and suitable for everyone." This “is our love letter to Lagos and Nigeria.” At the center of the plot is Tola, a bright and curious almost 11-year-old girl who spends most of her time alone with the servants in a large house in the richest and most privileged part of the city. In fact, his widowed father, Tunde Martins, a talented engineer, is often away and even when he is at home he is too busy with work. The little girl ends up in the sights, for a kidnapping, of a local criminal leader, Bode, intent on taking revenge for the oppression suffered by the rich: the man thus decides to use Kole, a young boy, in need of money, to look after his mother, employed as handyman at Martins and become a great friend of Tola. The kidnapping succeeds but Otin, the special robot lizard created by her father, helps Tola. When Kugali was born "at the beginning it was just the three of us - adds Adeola in the documentary that accompanies the launch of the series, Iwájú: A Day Ahead,always available in streaming from April 10th - with a dream to realize and for which we were working hard". Jennifer Lee, creative director of Disney Animation, met them through a television report where Hamid Ibrahim, smiling, indicated among Kugali's objectives also "to do the c…' to Disney in Africa". From the video "I saw that they were artists, that they were full of passion and that they were getting results" explains Lee. So they started a dialogue and together arrived at the right idea to collaborate. Between among the Disney artists involved there is also a master like Marlon West, an animator specialized in special effects (among others for The Lion King, Pocahontas, Hercules, Mulan, Frozen and Frozen II, Moana, Encanto): "I was working on Encanto and on our internal site I read colleagues talking about Iwaju, saying that it would combine science fiction, Afrobeat, and a crime story... I immediately wanted to be part of the team."
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