Iwájú is an all-new animated series that marks the first time that Walt Disney Animation Studios has collaborated with an outside studio. The Nerds of Color had a chance to talk to director and writer Olufikayo Ziki Adeola, along with production designer Hamid Ibrahim and Tolu Olowofoyeku about working together with Disney animation, telling a story through an authentic lens, and which animal they would have as a companion if they were to go out on an adventure.
While Walt Disney Studios Animation is a studio that needs no introduction, working in collaboration with another studio like Kugali is an uncommon practice. So when Iwájú was first announced in 2020, it was an exciting opportunity to create and tell long-form African stories with African artists and share it with a global audience. “It was a really fun experience. First of all, working with artists who I believed in the place that the story we’re creating. You could tell the passion, because how special this project was with most artists you work with. And that was very, very special,” Ibrahim said. “So that’s in terms of the African artists and also the experience they had working with artists from Disney, which if you if somebody grew up in Africa looks like such a far fetched thing. So this allowed them to kind of bridge that gap just to see them as other human beings who are also good at art and they could connect in that level and shatter that wall between us.”
Ibrahim was impressed with how the Disney team were genuinely curious about the Lagos culture and the efforts to depict it in a way that was respectful but also entertainingly informative. “It was very interesting working with them and watching that happen to the artists based in Africa,” he said. “The artist on the international stage, it was a lot of fun seeing the the curiosities they had to try and understand the culture in Lagos. Talking to the artists, the culture consultant – a lot of questions to come to this. It was an amazing thing.”
While the collaboration and intrigue was something to be celebrated, Ibrahim said one of the most challenging things about the production was the time difference between Walt Disney Animation Studios in the U.S., and Kugali in Lagos. “The most difficult thing was probably the time, we only had like four hours of actual working time, because of the different time zones,” he said. “The efficiency we pulled off in those four hours was absolutely magnificent because of how small the artist staff were.”
One of the most surprising things about an animated series like Iwájú is its honesty with how it addresses and portrays the nuances of Lagos, both on the mainland and the island. “With Iwaju, specifically, we wanted to tell a story about Lagos. On a personal level, I’m from Lagos. As a storyteller, I always wanted to tell a story about my about my hometown,” Adeola said. “So as we started to ideate, on this story, we considered what sort of themes do we want to cover? What sort of characters do we want to cover, and as all these pieces came together, the story kind of organically grew out of it.”
“One thing that I often say is Lagos is actually divided into a mainland and an island, the island is where the wealthy live the mainland is where the working class and poor people live. And so you have a place whereby the geography supports the socio economic divide,” Adeola said. “Therefore the theme of inequality makes a lot of sense. But we don’t just want to accept the world for the way it is, we want it to tell a story that is aspirational and inspires people. So that’s where the theme of challenging the status quo comes from. So it’s the intersection of all of these elements through which the story is born.”
Though Iwájú is set in the future, it is still very much grounded in real-life. So, it was important for production designer Olowofoyeku to imbue the spirit of Lagos into his hometown while also spotlighting its potential socio-economic future through various imagery. “We looked at real life, Legos, there’s an island and the mainland. he island has the richer people. If that continues 100 years into the future, what would the island look like? It’ll get richer,” he said. “So it will have these nice tall buildings that look like pieces of art.”
Olowofoyeku also wanted to reflect how a future in Lagos could look like while also being honest with its potryal of the population and how it affects the socio-dynamics and future of the city’s infrastructure. “It’s overpopulated. It’s the largest city in Africa, I believe, in terms of population. So if more people keep moving from other parts of Nigeria, into Lagos, and most of them cannot afford to stay on the island, so they stay on the mainland” he said. “If that happens for the next 100 years, what would the mainland look like? That’s why we put created those towers in the mainland, those towers are not in real life, Lagos. But we figured if the place has become overpopulated and they’ve run out of space, they’re going to start building upwards, and packing and lots of people into that space. So this the way this method is what we use throughout the entire thing.”
All six episodes of Iwájú debut on February 28, 2024, exclusively on Disney+.
