{"id":20611,"date":"2023-11-28T15:05:38","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T13:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/?p=20611"},"modified":"2023-11-28T15:05:41","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T13:05:41","slug":"twende-the-first-showmax-original-2d-animation-premieres-this-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2023\/11\/28\/twende-the-first-showmax-original-2d-animation-premieres-this-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"“Twende”, The First Showmax Original 2D Animation, Premieres This Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Twende<\/em>, the first Showmax Original 2D animated series, premieres on Friday, 1 December 2023, with five episodes available to binge.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Twende\u2019<\/em>s pilot screened in competition in 2021 at Annecy, the world\u2019s premier animation festival. Since then, the bar for African animation has kept on rising, but as 702 entertainment commentator Yalezo Njuguna says on his All That Yazz<\/em> podcast, \u201cTwende<\/em> is genuinely my highlight of things I\u2019ve watched within African animation. It is so funny.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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To find out more, we caught up with showrunner Greig Cameron (Seal Team<\/em>, Supa Strikas<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s Twende <\/em>about?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twende<\/em> is a pangolin, the slowest moving animal in the savannah. His belief that, \u2018life is about the journey, not the destination\u2019 is constantly at odds with his job as a motorbike-taxi driver. He’s the kind of guy who gets you to your meeting three hours late, but you still give him a big tip because you loved hanging out with him so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who is your spirit animal among the cast?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My personal favourite is poor old Boss, the perennially broke and exhausted hyena who owns the boda boda agency where Twende works. He\u2019s delightfully unscrupulous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is also constantly tortured by his children, who are eating their own homework, their desks, and definitely their dad. As the loving parent of two young children myself, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s just about getting people to suffer with you, but watching Boss\u2019s kids harass him gives me joy every single time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twende<\/em> is technically aimed at 6-11 year olds, but it\u2019s definitely also for parents, because I\u2019m working through my own parenting issues throughout this show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How\u2019s the feedback been from your kids? They tend to be the most honest critics.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My three-year-old has really started emotionally manipulating me because she knows she can’t watch TV after supper – so she wants to watch daddy’s Twende<\/em> then. Which I suppose is a good sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You worked with an amazing writing team on Twende<\/em>, including the likes of Supa Team 4 <\/em>creator Malenga Mulendema and Kizazi Moto<\/em>\u2019s Vanessa Kanu, with Sheldon Bengtson as head writer. What\u2019s it like working with Sheldon?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheldon is hilarious, a prolific writer, and a delightful weirdo –\u00a0all of\u00a0my favourite things! We totally resonate on the same frequency. I am so used to being the guy pushing the jokes further and further, so me having to be the person to say: \u2018No, dude, that\u2019s too weird. We can\u2019t\u00a0do that.\u2019 was a really fun role reversal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And your cast?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My last animation was a feature for Triggerfish called Seal Team,<\/em> and I was very, very lucky to go to Hollywood and work with some A-list stars [we\u2019ll namedrop for Greig here: think Oscar winner J.K. Simmons, Emmy winner Matthew Rhys, Emmy nominee Kristen Schaal, Grammy winner Seal and action legend Dolph Lundgren, among others]. With that in mind, I have been blown away by the comedic talent of our Kenyan actors. Some of these people were born to make cartoons; they are hilarious. We have Junior Nyong\u2019o as Twende, so our tiny goal is to make him bigger than his sister by the end of the show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you hope kids take away from Twende?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twende<\/em>\u2019s really about the humour and hijinks, but we also want to introduce audiences to the colourful culture and traditions of East Africa, teach them a few Swahili catchphrases, and make them fall in love with pangolins, which are the most trafficked animals in the world and now on the endangered species list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At its core, Twende<\/em> is also about two unlikely friends – Twende and his navigator Nuru – who celebrate each other\u2019s differences, even if they drive each other crazy sometimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s about slowing down, which we feel is incredibly important for kids to recognise in a world that is increasingly disconnected and fast-moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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