African Company Takes on Disney

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Manhattan, New York, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) November 9, 2010 -- Disney's first black princess comes 72 years after Snow White with their production The Princess and the frog.

Now just a few guys with a startup budget of less than 5,000 dollars have produced titles that can be compared with Pixar and Dreamworks productions at the highest level.

Founded in 2005 by Segun Williams and Obinna Onwuekwe, TransTales Entertainment is the first film company to produce African themed 3d animation films from the perspective of African filmmakers and with that filling the void with myriads of authentic African animation stories.

The titles which are available for download on the company's website transtales.com is widely acclaimed by industry experts and has recently won the United Nations World Summit Award for the use of technology to promote African culture.

'Mark of Uru' is an animated series written and directed by Obinna Owuekwe and produced by Segun Williams. Owuekwe also lends his voice to two of the characters: The Warrior and Isi Agu. The costumes and makeup are Authentically African and the series has a woman empowerment theme embedded in it. You can also hear varied accents mostly Igbo and Efik from West Africa.

Very few countries rival the diversity of Nigeria across the world, 250 ethnic groups, 500 languages and a population of over 160 million. Such diversity brings with it unique experiences and stories that need telling, whist Nigerians have explored film, music, arts and literature to tell their stories, animation has been absent; but this is about to change.
 
African Screens speaks to the creator Obinna Onwuekwe, to give us an insight into thoughts behind this animation web series and its uniquely African aesthetics.
 
African Screens: Where did you draw your inspiration for the imagery in Mark of Uru?
 
Obinna: Mark of Uru is an original concept inspired by African folklore and mythology and especially through my Grandmother's tales involving these elements. I was driven by the heavy integration of humans, animals and elemental beings in African folklore.
 

The characters are original and have no connections with the characters of the African folklores that I know of, with the exception to my own impression of a few notable mythical characters derived from Igbo mythology, like the god of thunder, Amadioha.
 
African Screens: With a lot of serious films, 'comic' characters are usually used to lighten intense moments. Have you used a character to provide comic relief?
 
Obinna: Mark of Uru will have a fair share of comic relief. Be rest assured, there won't be any imbecilic character gallivanting from tree to tree trying, so as to make everyone crack a couple of ribs or pull out a few strands of hair in frustration. The comic relief will come from characters with very unconventional beliefs and convictions.
 

Their actions and utterances are not always in sync with the norm. Tari, the reckless warrior princess is one of such characters, because of her absolute lack of understanding of the concept of pain, death and fear.
 
African Screens: There is something very romantic about Isi-agu speaking in Igbo. Does your decision to make him speak in Igbo have something to do with the romanticized manner in which some folktales are narrated in the Igbo language?
 
Obinna: I felt that it was necessary to inject a Nigerian language into the series.? And so I thought it would be nice to have Isi-Agu speak in a different language since he is an elemental being, instead of fabricating and subtitling some incoherent gibberish.
 

Also the truth is that there are numerous comments in Igbo that cannot be replicated in English, without eroding most or all of the effects. The moment you translate a line to English, it becomes a simple line dealing with a serious topic with no iota of humor.
 
African Screens: What do you think makes animation story telling different to storytelling through film? Do you think Mark of Uru can be realized as a series with real actors, just as it is realized as an animation?
 
Obinna: I do not think there is any difference in terms of story telling. The differences creep in during the production process where you make use of virtual cameras (animation) and the synchronization of audio with animation.
 

Mark of Uru can be realized as a series with life actors. Actually, I started working on the script back in 2004 as a life feature film but my skill in animation then was not sufficient for the accompanying visual effects. But in 2007, I dusted the script again, modified and converted it to the animated web series.


Interview by Chinaka Iwunze

African Stories     African Tales     Trans Tales     TransTales Entertainment