Niyi Akinmolayan is going big with Frogeck, purported as Nigeria’s first, full length animated feature. Production budget is N120 million, and he revealed this at the Animation Film Day recently held at this year’s edition of African International Film Festival. His animation company Anthill Studios is helming the project but now, it’s been revealed that Anthill has signed a collaboration deal with a Tunisian studio.
“The initial budget was N120m in development, that is about 300,000 Euros. We have opened up for people to have equity of 35%. We are looking at a N30m budget for marketing amongst other things,” Akinmolayan said. “The second teaser of the movie will be released in February 2019. We are not creating only Nigerian characters but adding characters in French and Swahili as well as distributing internationally. We need Frogeck to travel and reach every part of Africa.”
Directed by Nurdin Momodu, we already know the story revolves around a friendly green alien with a powerful gift who lands accidentally in an orphanage home in Ibadan. Subsequently, the alien teams up with the kids to save their orphanage from a ruthless villain. The first teaser shows us the titular Frogeck in a production that is impressive and puts the movie near Hollywood animations. In what looks like a facility, a space shuttle opens and Frogeck emerges from the inside, tentative as he tries to befriend Snuggles. Frogeck is from Planet Lemolas-9, and has a hi-tech watch and a jet pack. The teaser doesn’t reveal the villain or any lurking evil. Even the orphanage is given a snapshot, picturesque aerial views and lots of shrubs. Other characters include Segma, Lola, Habib, Ada, Mr. Priye, and Mrs. Rose, who owns the orphanage. We are excited for Frogeck and we can’t wait to see what the next teaser will look like.
When Bernard Dayo isn’t writing about pop culture, he’s watching horror movies and reading comics and trying to pretend his addiction to Netflix isn’t a serious condition.
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