Latest news with #YorubaCulture
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Iyanu' Creator Roye Okupe & Creative Team On 'Weaving The Emotional Journey' With Cultural Authenticity & Empathy
Animation has always been one of the best mediums for storytellers to reach young audiences, especially for a young Roye Okupe who says it was his 'first love'. After creating a successful graphic novel series, and a meeting with Lion Forge Entertainment facilitated by Impact X Capital's Erica Dupuis, Okupe managed to make his dream of creating an animated series come true. Based on Okupe's graphic novel series Iyanu: Child of Wonder, the Cartoon Network series follows Iyanu, an orphaned teenager living on the outskirts of civilization who discovers she has divine powers and a destiny to save the ancient kingdom of Yorubaland. Okupe's dream was to infuse the culture he grew up with into the series, along with the help of some veterans of the animation industry – story editor Brandon Easton, writer Kerri Grant and supervising director Vincent Edwards. More from Deadline How Independent Animation Underdogs Like 'Flow' And 'Memoir Of A Snail' Are Disrupting The Awards Race: There's "Never Been A Better Time" 'The Last Of Us': Neil Druckmann On Directing Pivotal Joel & Ellie Flashbacks That Pinpoint "Where The Relationship Explodes" 'Found' Star Shanola Hampton Unpacks Season 2 Finale Rollercoaster That Leaves Gabi & Sir In Jeopardy Although the first season has yet to have its finale, the series has already been renewed for a 10-episode second season as well as two feature-length films. The first animated film, The Age of Wonders, is set to release later this year. The season finale on Cartoon Network is on May 24th, and will be available to stream on Max the following day. DEADLINE: Roye, what made you want to bring your graphic novel into the animated space? ROYE OKUPE: I've always been a fan of animation since I was a kid. For me, animation was my first love, and I think it has obviously stayed that way. I grew up watching Ninja Turtles, Batman, X-Men… I can literally go on for hours and hours. I moved to the U.S. in 2002, and the closer I got to Hollywood, the more I felt the desire to create an animated show that was based on some of the things that I learned growing up about my history and my culture. I started off in the graphic novel because it was a lower barrier to entry, and then fell in love with the graphic novel medium. But for me, the motivation has always been to showcase Africans, specifically in this case, with the young Nigerian culture to a global audience. And I think there's no better medium than animation to do it. There's something that Brandon always says, and ever since he told me this in the writer's room, I've always held onto it. 'The more specific you get, the more global and the more broadly acceptable your story becomes.' So, from day one, we wanted to lean into what made this show special culturally. For me, as someone who is a Yoruba person, it was the ultimate privilege. It was also a very, very delicate task to balance imputing culture into a story without, as Vincent would say, 'making people drink through a water hose' where they're just overwhelmed with so much new information. Finding the right balance of story comes first, but at the same time, let's not shy away from what makes this different, what makes this beautiful, what makes this authentic. I'm extremely proud of this because, as specific as we get with the culture, it's never done in a way where it excludes anybody who doesn't know anything about Yoruba culture or Nigerian culture. DEADLINE: Kerri, Vincent and Brandon, as three people who have worked on different animated series, how do you go about making sure you're infusing this culture without singling it out? KERRI GRANT: I think what Roye said earlier, we all kind of learn as writers really early on. That whole thing about the more specific you are, the more universal the story is… the reason for that is these are just kids. They're kids on a journey, on an epic coming-of-age journey that includes some pretty amazing fantasy and supernatural elements. But at the core of it, it's about telling this coming-of-age, fantasy, adventure, epic tale. That in itself as a foundation, makes it appealing and universal for anyone who loves good stories. I think what's different and cool about Iyanu is a lot of people aren't as familiar with Yoruba culture and the cultures within it, so it's exciting that people get to know these specifics about the culture, even the details from the costumes, the clothes they wear, the food they eat, the differences in the parts of the land that they travel to and encounter… But ultimately, at the heart of it, it's about this girl who's coming into her powers, and it's a classic hero's journey. BRANDON EASTON: What made it a lot easier also was that Roye was in the writer's room with us, as a writer and a producer. Every step of the way, if there was a question, he was there to answer it or to make it make more sense for us in a storytelling context. But most importantly, the doorway is always emotional accessibility with these types of stories. It doesn't matter whether you're talking about ancient fantasy Nigeria or you're talking about Iraqis or you're talking about things that don't exist, there is an emotional path that we all love as consumers of story content. We all want to walk the same emotional path, and I feel like Iyanu's is, 'Who am I? Why am I here?' I've never spent time in Nigeria, but there's things that are kind of universal that we can tap into, and Iyanu's journey is a very, very relatable one. VINCENT EDWARDS: And to speak to the cultural authenticity aspect of it, in any story universe, you have to have a clearly realized vision of what that world looks like and what the people in it look and sound like. If you break your own rules, the audience disconnects because they don't feel like it's authentic to what you're trying to say you're doing. In terms of Iyanu, the cultural authenticity aspect of it was really granular and consistent throughout the production of the show. The look of food, the look of clothing, the look of props… all the different visual styles, even though it's a mythological fantasized world, it has to still feel like it's real and authentic to the point where if a bowl of rice doesn't look like what it's supposed to look like, Roye's like, 'Hey, that doesn't work.' This would be analogous to if we made a show about America and we had a hamburger with a purple bun. We would be like… What? So, all that stuff really combines to create an authentically realized world that supports all of the more thematic and character driven elements of the story. DEADLINE: It's obviously a different culture, but this series reminds me of being exposed to a new culture as a kid when I first watched , and I think would have had a similar effect on me back then. OKUPE: I always tell people, you have no idea how much influence entertainment has over the minds of children and adults. Actually, I think we're in an age where there's information all around us and everything is all mangled up, but when it comes entertainment… It's funny you mentioned Avatar, because I fell in love with New York by watching Spider-Man. So eventually when I came to the U.S. and I was able to experience it, it was a different kind of emotion because I've been so far away from it. And when I finally got here, it was this visceral feeling where it's like, 'Oh, wow, I'm actually in the same place as Peter Parker,' even though he is a fictional character. It goes back to the roots and the inspiration behind all this, to try to show what I saw growing up, what I heard about, what I ate, and some of the things I went through. Obviously, like Brandon said, it's also weaving the emotional journey for each of these characters because, as much as we love the authentic parts of this story, it's icing on the cake to me. If you lose people with the character moments, all the other stuff becomes a flaw. But I think one of the big things we try to do with this show, one of the big themes, is empathy. And it was very important to intertwine empathy with everything that has to do with Iyanu. Her powers, her mission, her story, her journey… all of that is encompassed around empathy. Because I think we live in a time now where we as human beings could use a lot more of that. And it's important for children from a very young age to understand the power of empathy, even though it's a very difficult emotion to express. Best of Deadline Every 'The Voice' Winner Since Season 1, Including 9 Team Blake Champions Everything We Know About 'Jurassic World: Rebirth' So Far 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out?
Irish Times
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Re:Incarnation review: A vibrant celebration of the eternal cycle of living
Re:Incarnation Abbey Theatre, Dublin ★★★☆☆ In Re:Incarnation the choreographer Qudus Onikeku not only brings the vibrant and colourful energy of Lagos to the stage but also draws on a deeper connection to the past and the Yoruba belief in Ìbí (Birth), Ikú (Death) and Àtúnbí (Rebirth). Here the soul is in an eternal cycle of living, dead and unborn awaiting reincarnation, unlike the more linear concept of the eternal afterlife following death. The 10 dancers of the QDance Company portray this endless succession by reconnecting to myths and presenting identifiable images, such as death as an old man with a stick who clubs his victims, or reciting some of the many proverbs and aphorisms in Yoruba philosophy. What speaks loudest is the immediate physicality onstage, a mishmash of styles that both signify the collective through unison sequences and establish individual identity through solos. All the time, the musicians Fabiyi Abiodun Samuel and Simeon Lawrence provide a chaotic soundtrack evoking bustling Lagos, through live and recorded music and historical speech. READ MORE Less impactful are long sections, particularly in the middle section, Death, when the physical dynamism gives way to gestural literalness. Overall, Re:Incarnation asks how we embody the past. If it is accepted that everybody carries their life experiences in their body, then can we embody the experiences of our ancestors? In posing these questions the work refuses to be subjugated by the past and weighed down by tradition. Rather it celebrates the diverse experience of our ancestors through the youthful and joyous physicality of the present generation. Re:Incarnation is at the Abbey Theatre , as part of Dublin Dance Festival , until Wednesday, May 21st
