estefan wrote:I personally think it's wonderful they reached out to Kugali and offered to bring their story to a wider audience.
I was actually thinking not too long ago that African films and series don't seem to get much distribution or attention in North America or Europe. And when they do, they're often about slums or war lords, because I guess those are the only subjects American distributors see as commercial, I don't know. The same holds true for India. The most popular Indian films in India tend to be musicals and fantasy films and yet it's mostly films about poverty that find a significant audience outside of India. Brazil applies here, too. They have such a vibrant culture and make films tackling a variety of subject matters and yet the only Brazilian films to receive any attention in North America and Europe are about slums or government corruption. I saw a really lovely Brazilian film years ago called "The Year My Parents Went On Vacation." It was wonderful, but I never saw anyone talking about it. I discovered it by myself.
So, for once, it must be a pleasure for producers in Africa to have an American studio take interest in a different type of story about Africa. And to have it be the most storied animation studio in the United States? I think it's great Disney Animation got involved with them. I probably would never have heard of Kugali if they hadn't.
There was that canned Dreamworks movie 'Monkeys of Mumbai' that could've been good. Sad that Larrikins was also canned. The concept art looked great.
Honestly I don't really believe the whole animated excuse that they couldn't get the story to work. With the amount of time and iteration that goes into each one of these films, we're meant to believe they couldn't get a story to work but then were happy to put out Captain Underpants and The Boss Baby etc.?
And that goes for Disney, Pixar and everyone else as well; Cars 2, Good Dinosaur, Incredibles 2, Finding Dory, Monsters Uni, Onward, Frozen 2, Big Hero 6, Ralph Breaks the Internet - all these were worthy to be put out?