How the Creators of ‘Iwájú’ Challenged Disney — Then Collaborated With Them

“Iwájú,” a new animated series on Disney+, is unlike anything else on the service. And really, it’s unlike anything in the history of Disney Animation – a collaborative project between Walt Disney Animation Studios, Kugali Media (a Pan-African, British-based entertainment company) and Cinesite (a long-running visual effects and animation studio headquartered in England). A truly global affair, “Iwájú” imagines a futuristic Lagos, Nigeria, where a 10-year-old finds herself embroiled in a high-stakes, technologically advanced tug-of-war.

And it all started with some good, old-fashioned trash talk.

Hamid Ibrahim, cocreator of “Iwájú” and the project’s production designer, said in 2019 that Kugali wanted to “kick Disney’s ass.”