Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire’ On Disney+, Animated Shorts Showing Stories In Futuristic Versions Of Africa

Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire is a series of animated shorts that show a futuristic vision of Africa. The shorts are written and directed by African filmmakers and voiced by African voice actors, for the most part, and the animation styles differ among the ten episodes.

KIZAZI MOTO: GENERATION FIRE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: The sun comes up over a windswept desert landscape.

The Gist: We watched three of the 10 episodes:

“Herderboy”, written and directed by Raymond Malinga, takes place in a futuristic version of Uganda. A teenager named Ndahura (Koono Blair Matthias “Wonders”) wants to join a revered trio of herders, led by his big sister Katono (Florence Kasumba). The herders keep their herd of cyborg cattle protected from evil and deadly spirits. Katono sends him away, but he goes after a calf after its taken by a hyena monster.

“Moremi”, directed by Shofela Coker and written by Coker and Vanessa Kanu, is inspired by Queen Moremi of Ife. A spirit boy named Luo (Toluwanimi Olaoye) is rescued from his exile in the realm of gods by a Nigerian scientist named Moremi (Kehinde Bankole). She brings him to her lab to try to retrieve his lost memories, while fending off giants that are after Luo.

“Surf Sangoma”, directed by Catherine Green and Nthato Mokgata and written by Green, Mokgata and Phumlani Pikoli, takes place in a coastal city called Durban, which has been walled off from the ocean because of dangerous sea levels. Ocean activities are banned, but friends Njabulo (Mandisa Nduna) and Mnqobi (Omega Mncube) want to surf on the open waves. They end up having to join a criminal gang to do it, but Njabulo confronts his past to save himself and his friend from being turned completely by the gang.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Think of Love, Death + Robots, but taking place in a future version of various African regions.

Our Take: Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire can at times be mesmerizing to watch, with the various filmmakers envisioning future Africa through their respective stories and animation styles. As in most sci fi, though, the stories may have a lot of tech and gadgetry, but at heart they’re relatable to audiences whether they’re sci fi fans or not.

What we liked about the three stories we watched was that they were complete stories, even though most of them ran about 10 or 11 minutes. Most of the time the characters are kept to a minimum, which gives the filmmakers just enough time to give them at least some backstory, even if it’s just a little bit.

We did find some of the shorts got a little lost in their impressive visuals rather than clarify where their stories were going better, but that’s also par for the course in an anthology like this. Sometimes, the visual, like in “Surf Sangoma”, is more the star than anything else. But just the idea that these filmmakers are envisioning what a futuristic Africa would look like makes these shorts worth watching.

What Age Group Is This For?: The shorts have some mild violence and scary moments, so we’d recommend these for kids 7 and up.

Parting Shot: Ndahura calls himself the “legendary hunter of spirits,” and Katono says, “No one’s calling you that.”

Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to the teams of animators who have made the filmmakers’ visions into reality.

Most Pilot-y Line: Some of the dialogue is said in the respective region’s native language, and it’s up to you whether you want to turn on subtitles to get the translation or not.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire shows visions of Africa that are entirely new, with stories that are relatively straightforward but effective.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.