IWÁJÚ // FIRST NIGERIAN-BASED ANIMATION SERIES ON DISNEY

The excitement I have felt from seeing the thriller of the film until I finished watching it can be likened to that of a child who was handed a candy.
My goodness! This stems from the joy of seeing an original African story represented unreservedly. Everyone who had heard me speak about this movie had registered their surprise that I was so hyper about a movie, more so an animation. The thing is, it just gave me the nearer to home feeling. This was the first time I saw a movie thriller and got through to seeing the full movie. Haven't done that in years. Actually, I've never ever done that. I'm not a fanatic of movie screens.

Source

IWÁJÚ(translated in the YouTube language to mean THE FUTURE), is a six-episode animated series produced by Kugali media(which consists three African artistes) and co-produced by Walt Disney animated studios and a host of other brains and creative hands, was released on the 28th of February, 2024.

PLOT

Set in a futuristic Lagos, Nigeria(fused with ai technology, flying cars and next level gadgets), Iwaju tells the story of a bright, cheerful, brilliant and self-will ten-year old Omotola Abile Martins(Tola) and her wealthy dad(Tunde Martins) who is a scientist cum IT guru/consultant working for a tech company with Ms Happiness as the director.

Haven spent ten years growing up on the island, eager to see what life looks like on the mainland of Lagos, Tola would be seen convincing the family's gardener(Kole Adeola) to take her to Ajegunle against hee father's instructors. Their family driver(uncle G) subsequently lured into the scheme, getting him into trouble. This singular act would then spiral into a series of panic as the vilian of the story(Bode DeSousa) is set on a mission, Tola's pet(Otin the agama lizard) attempting a rescue with its advanced skills

MY THOUGHTS

The series show the divide and massive gap between the rich and the poor and how the wealthy would want the lower class to eat from the palm of their hands.

What makes me love Iwaju the most is that it is garnished with plenty of orishirishi of the Nigerian pidgin English. The most impressive part is the use of the original authentic Nigerian accent. Could not be a prouder moment.

Although this was super interesting, entertaining, intriguing, and breathtakingly beautiful to watch, I wished the producers had added some well aligning specific afrobeat musicals/songs to it. Would have been a perfect icing on the cake for me.

There's just some appeal that musicals give. And to me, theme songs or soundtrack in series or movies of this genre often make for a great marketing strategy.

It was too short to have been cut up into episodes. One-time production would have sufficed.

Seeing Nigeria with a spice of that much touch of technology made me look forward to that future, cause imagine boarding tricycles and buses that could fly. Not in a hundred years?? We'll see about that. Oops! That's if we'd be here by then.

I did some findings on the voice over artistes fir some of the roles and found the likes Femi Branch(Bode), Kehinde Bankole(mama Kole), Bisola(Happiness) Shafffy Bello on the team. Amazing! See what I meant....originality.

I enjoyed Otin's character as a .... lizard -Activating IJA mode. Very hands-on. Might consider getting a pet lizard. Who knows?
Either way, Iwaju was brilliant.
A whooping 9.5/10 for me.

Enjoy this short clip from the official thriller. I hope it interests you so much that you hurry and go see the entire film.

Thanks for gracing this post.
Greetings!