Showmax has released a trailer for Twende — the first Showmax Original 2D animated series. The show follows a pangolin — an endangered species which is the slowest on the savannah and the most-trafficked type of animal in the world — who makes up for his natural lack of speed by driving a motorcycle taxi.
“Twende’s belief that, ‘life is about the journey, not the destination’ is constantly at odds with his job as a boda boda driver in the bustling, fictional East African city of Milima,” says South African showrunner Greig Cameron, who also wrote and directed Seal Team, which cracked the Netflix Global Top 10 film list in January last year, as well as the hit soccer animated series, Supa Strikas.
The series pilot debuted at Annecy 2021, and the trailer was recently premiered at the Cape Town International Animation Festival. MultiChoice Studios is handling international sales and will present Twende at MIPCOM next week.
Twende is voiced by Junior Nyong’o (The Legend of Lwanda Magere, Hamlet), while June Gachui (Crime and Justice, Nairobi Half Life) plays his unlikely best friend and navigator, Nuru — a whip-smart bird (specifically, a lilac-breasted roller, Kenya’s national bird) who always looks out for her bestie, even if his chilled-out vibe drives her crazy sometimes. Kalasha Awards nominee Elsaphan Njora (Super Sema, Kati Kati) voices Boss, the perennially broke and exhausted hyena who owns the boda boda agency where Nuru and Twende work. He’s a single dad with more mouths to feed than he can count.
The all-Kenyan voice cast also includes Charles Ouda (Crime and Justice) as showy stunt driver Kimbe and Mkamzee Mwatela (Mali) as Boss’s rival, Madam Mongoose, CEO of the evil tech empire Goober. Kalasha Awards winner Nyokabi Macharia (Super Sema), Joyce Musoke (Second Family) and seasoned voice actor and director Khaemba W. Edward (Ogas at the Top, The XYZ Show) provide additional voices.
The concept was created by Charlie Maas and Regan Riskas Maas while they were touring East Africa. “My older brother is always late, so we were constantly yelling at him, ‘Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go.’ And the guide started saying, ‘Twende! Twende!’” says D&AD and Cannes Lions winner Charlie Maas. “So his nickname for the trip became ‘Twende the Pole Pole Man.’ We wrote the original theme song in the back of that Jeep and sang it about 100 times over the next few days.”
Regan Riskas Maas (assoc. producer, Transformers: Age of Extinction) adds, “Driving through Nairobi later, we were astounded by the traffic. We couldn’t believe the many matatu buses and boda boda drivers weaving in and out of traffic. That really left an imprint on us, so we started to imagine the slowest man on the Savannah driving a boda boda, and what that might look like. And so, in true Twende fashion, it took a long, meandering yet overwhelmingly positive journey to get from there to where we are now.”
The creators felt it was important to enlist local writers, directors and animators to bring the concept to life, which they did through a partnership between London-based Braintrust and Mind’s Eye Creative in Johannesburg — a leading 2D studio in South Africa which has created award-winning international content for Cartoon Network, Disney XD, Netflix, Nickelodeon and more for over a decade.
Twende’s co-creators are South Africans Mike Scott, a Triggerfish Story Lab winner who has well over 100M views on YouTube, and Kayla Archer (DISCOP Animation Du Monde pitch finalist Hiraeth). The writing team includes Zambian Malenga Mulendema, who created Netflix’s first African animated series, Supa Team 4; Nigerian Vanessa Kanu (Supa Team 4, Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire); Kenyan J. Njogu Macharia, winner of ScreenCraft Animation Competition 2021 and Coverfly Pitch Week 2022 finalist; and South African head writer Sheldon Bengtson, a DISCOP Joburg Animation Pitch winner who was shortlisted for the Triggerfish Story Lab.
Twende also features original music from Kenyan producer and Kalasha winner Eric Musyoka (Rafiki), with a score by top South African music studios The Music Works, Phonographic and Pressure Cooker Studios.
While the subject of animal poaching isn’t directly addressed in this light-hearted comedy, the producers hope their animated pangolin star will help spread awareness of the species and the threats facing them.
“It’s such a shame that this is happening to this amazing and unique animal,” says Kenyan executive producer Kwame Nyong’o (Annecy official selection, The Wonderful Story of Aisha, Ali and Flipflopi the Multicoloured Dhow Boat), who was also part of the team behind the multi-award-winning Most Eligible Bachelor Tinder campaign with the Ol Pejeta Conservancy for the last Northern White Rhino on Earth. “Twende is a super silly show, but we hope that, between all the humour and all the hijinks, our audience will fall in love with pangolins as much as we have and do their part to help protect them.”
Twende will premiere on Showmax across Africa on December 4. New episodes will roll out on Saturdays.
