An oil and gas professional turned movie producer, Blessing Amidu, has teamed up with her daughter, Emmanuella, to produce a family-powered animated series titled ‘Secrets of the Multiverse’.
A spin-off of the acclaimed 2020 feature, ‘Lady Buckit and the Motley Mopsters’, the new series explores themes of leadership, morality, and sacrifice through a futuristic African lens. Speaking during a virtual media parley during the week, Amidu noted that her inspiration for the project came from years of bonding over cartoons with her children.
“Animation was just a genre I fell in love with, especially because I spent a lot of time with my kids watching cartoons during their growing-up years. And I was enticed or influenced by the characters on TV. And I could see that we didn’t really have African stories to showcase in Nigeria. That was how animation came to be,” she said.
On how she chose her daughter to write the series, Amidu explained that she stumbled on Emmanuella’s storytelling gift while searching for writers. Shocked by the high cost of hiring professionals and unimpressed with the story options available, she decided to look inwards.
“I stumbled on my daughter’s talent. I had asked her to write a few short stories, and as God would have it, one of the short stories she wrote had so much potential for expansion that I just asked her to write six episodes. When I sent an episode to Adebisi Adetayo, who was the director for LBMM in 2020 and who also directed for SOTM, he was surprised,” she said.
Reflecting on the creative process, Emmanuella added, “I wanted something new. When children or even older people move abroad for a little while, it’s easy to lose that connection with yourself, your family and culture. That’s one of the reasons I wrote ‘Secrets of the Multiverse’. It was to remind me of who I am back home, all the things I’ve experienced and the things I’ve learnt. It’s also for people my age to remember what makes us proud Africans.”
The young filmmaker added that she hopes the series will inspire young African audiences, especially girls. “The aim of this project, actually, is to remind teenagers and young adults that they can go on to do or to achieve anything they set their minds to. You will always achieve more with a little bit more determination and resilience,” she said.
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