This post originally appeared as Africa Gets Animated on DStv’s website and highlights three African animated shorts that will show on Cartoon Network in 2020. It has been slightly modified with visual cues.

One of DStv’s School of Laughter channel partners, Cartoon Network, has answered the need for animated stories that African viewers can really relate to.

Graphic designers, writers and animators all came to the party when Cartoon Network Africa invited creatives to produce humorous content for the African audience.

Stories that relate with randomness, craziness and sheer absurdity while being innovative is what Cartoon Network Africa hoped to achieve with the competition – and the winning entries prove they got even more than they bargained for.

The uniqueness of the winning projects shows that Africa is bursting with talent and it’s time for African animated stories to make their presence felt.

The winners of the Cartoon Network Africa’s Creative Lab were announced a year ago, and their entries screened at the recent DISCOP conference, having gone through a year-long creative process, assisted by the experts at Cartoon Network. The continent was really represented, with the winners coming from Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

Garbage Boy and Trash Can

Ridwan Moshood, a Nigerian animator, was one of the winners with his animation titled Garbage Boy and Trash Can. Garbage Boy’s a self-proclaimed superhero who believes he has real superpowers, along with his alien-tech friend, Trash Can, on their mission to protect the City of Dippledome. Will he be able to use his imaginary powers to save the day?

Majitu

Kenyan Mark Kinuthia’s animation, Majitu, is about a mystical world with a phantom hunting hero trying to rid himself of a spell cast on him. Just what lengths will he go to get his taste back? Follow the adventures of phantom hunting heroes Jasiri and Bokari, as they travel a great distance through an Afro-fantasy world.

Intergalactic Ice Cream

Andrew John Phillips from South Africa created Intergalactic Ice Cream, a dairy-fuelled adventure between Mak, a no-longer cool kid and his friends, Sally, Milton and Chicken Leg, whose after-school job delivering for an ice cream parlour launches them into the craziest, danger-filled, and dairy-fuelled adventures this side of the Milky Way! Their customer? A hungry pie hole.

“In our quest to develop genuine African stories with unique aesthetics and a sense of humour which truly connects with our local viewers, we’re excited that the stories we have received, and ultimately produced, are unique in their genre and style,” says Ariane Suveg, Programming Director and Head of Kids Content for Cartoon Network.

You can watch the winning shorts on Cartoon Network on 11 January at 17:15.

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