Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire

Kizazi Moto is afrofuturism done right . It has a lot of heart, loving local nuances, black writers who bring in those textures that hollywood would not know and every short has its own distinct look that celebrates the continent. The revolution is being televised and I am all for it.

The respect the anathalogy series shows to African Spirituality whilst also showcasing alternative futures with different animation styles is impressive. Theres different tonality to the animation, voice acting and stories, reflects the diversity of our continent and is captured beautifully.

Well done to the team, I'm hoping this is a start of seeing more black penned animation projects out of the continent.2023 is the year that animation is making a major comeback on all fronts, whether it be Super Mario, Across the Spider-verse now we can enter Kizazi Moto to that list.

It's rare in the current TV and streaming landscape to find a show as fresh and exciting as this. Each episode in this anthology series is very concise (average runtime is around the 10 minute mark) yet contains the kind of stunning imagery and emotional punches that hour-long series and feature length movies often struggle to deliver. The diverse animation on display across the ten pieces perfectly complement the speculative and culturally-dense African stories.

Highlights include episode 2 'Mhuzi: The Spirit Racer' and Episode 7: 'Hatima', though it's hard to find lowlights when what's on offer is such storytelling and visual gold.

In my review of the latest volume of Star Wars: Visions, I spoke of the upsides of streaming (which is beginning to lose people, especially as movie theaters are coming back with a vengeance, with their Barbenheimers and Tom Cruise extravaganzas and what-have-you), arguing that streaming is best "when it gives an outlet to smaller creatives who may have gone unnoticed in the past"; something that also helps the output quotas of the platform in question and theoretically keeps people watching. Something else I mentioned was a studio called Triggerfish, a South African animation firm that created the final short film of that volume.

As chance would have it, they now get to bring their own animation anthology to the Disney+ screen and the millions of eyes that look there.

Of course, the operative word is "new", and although more and more people are getting tired of remakes, superhero titles, et al., I don't think the word "new" is as exciting to people as it might've once been. I first heard about the show in a discussion on Twitter, regarding representation in media and how tired people are of "race-bent characters" in the place of NEW and ORIGINAL characters to represent people of color. Sooner or later came this response, roughly paraphrased: "If you mean it, why aren't you talking about Kizazi Moto?"

Why indeed. This is, as dramatic as I may sound, a show that truly NEEDS to be a success. It's not just because it's "new" representation (unique voices being amplified, hailing from an area whose art so often gets pushed aside by mainstream slop) or "new", period -- as in, not based on an IP.

It's also because it's a really good show where each episode/short film is expressive, genuine, and imaginative in its own right -- even if some concepts feel a bit half-baked. The world-building and style of almost every episode suggest a pretty good would-be TV series, but we'll see if any of these concepts ever spin off into anything in particular.

It is an unfortunate fact of shows like this that they're sort of a modern-day What A Cartoon! Show, except none of the pilots get picked up.

Never in my wildest dreams wuld I imagine Disney of all things would support an afrofuturist* anthology. And although it's a shame to connect this work of art to Disney, it is still a solid anthology.

* I say afrofuturist but a lot of the shorts revolve around gods and spirits, so it's a very science fantasy afrofuturism.

While I feel a few shorts either had subpar animation or generic plots, most were surprisingly refreshing and play with cultural aspects, like bottled astrology in Stardust. It just goes to show that more filmakers from Africa need to tell their stories, which are inspiring.

Both as an African and having worked on one of these episodes, it's been so incredible to see the realised journey of so much African talent. I've seen reviews discussing how they wish there had been more stories about ancestors and existing myths of Africa, but the point is that Africa is not only about this one facet of story telling- we have so much more to show and tell and it really is apparent in each and every episode here. The cultural relevance and local colloquialisms that are woven into each story bring out that sense of 'ubuntu' or 'togetherness' that we as Africans- whatever race or history you might be- take pride in. I highly recommend giving this series a watch- the more support, the more likely a season 2 gets made! Let's go!!