Transcontinental studio collaboration in the production of Disney’s African anthology: Kizazi Moto

The African-futurist, animated anthology Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire was released on Disney+ in 2023 as part of Disney’s extension of their streaming platform into Africa. The 10 animated shorts, billed as African content made by and for Africans, with 13 directors selected from a call-out for ‘fresh new African voices’ was a global production by Disney EMEA with service studios based in Europe, North America and Africa. This presentation explores the complex creative labor networks that underpinned this project within the context of their colonial and imperial legacies. Based on a series of interviews with key actors in the production process, the research highlights areas of friction where the animation tools and production norms were contested, revealing skewed perspectives and ideological assumptions baked into processes, software, and global studio culture, pointing to a need to redefine and acknowledge the creative impact of animation workers ‘below the line’, service studios and popular culture production’s ongoing ‘continuous and necessarily uneven ..dialectic of cultural struggle’ (Stuart Hall: 1972).