JUNIOR NYONG’O, JUNE GACHUI & MKAMZEE MWATELA STAR IN ANIMATED SERIES TWENDE

Showmax has just released an adorable first trailer for Twende, the first Original 2D animated series.

Twende follows a pangolin of the same name, the slowest moving animal in the savannah. “Twende’s belief that, ‘life is about the journey, not the destination’ is constantly at odds with his job as a boda boda driver in the bustling, fictional East African city of Milima,” says South African showrunner Greig Cameron.

 Twende is voiced by Junior Nyong’o, while June Gachui plays his unlikely best friend and navigator, Nuru – a whip-smart bird who always looks out for her bestie, even if his chilled-out vibe drives her crazy sometimes. Kalasha Awards nominee Elsaphan Njora voices Boss, the perennially broke and exhausted hyena who owns the boda boda agency where Nuru and Twende work. He’s a single dad with more mouths to feed than he can count. Fun fact: there are no fun facts about Boss, just sadness. 

The all-Kenyan voice cast also includes Charles Ouda as showy stunt driver Kimbe and Mkamzee Mwatela as Boss’s rival, Madam Mongoose, CEO of the evil tech empire Goober. Also listen out for Kalasha Awards winner Nyokabi Macharia, Joyce Musoke and seasoned voice actor and director Khaemba W. Edward. Although poaching is not dealt with directly in the series, pangolins are the most trafficked animals in the world and are now on the endangered species list. 

“It’s such a shame that this is happening to this amazing and unique animal,” says Kenyan executive producer Kwame Nyong’o. “Twende is a super silly show, but we hope that, between all the humour and all the hijinks, our audience will fall in love with pangolins as much as we have and do their part to help protect them.”

Twende’s creators Charlie and Regan Maas came up with the concept as they toured East Africa. “My older brother is always late, so we were constantly yelling at him, ‘Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go.’ And the guide started saying, ‘Twende! Twende! So his nickname for the trip became Twende the Pole Pole Man. We wrote the original theme song in the back of that Jeep and sang it about 100 times over the next few days” says Charlie.

“Driving through Nairobi later, we were astounded by the traffic. We couldn’t believe the many matatu buses and boda boda drivers weaving in and out of traffic. That really left an imprint on us, so we started to imagine the slowest man on the Savannah driving a boda boda, and what that might look like. And so, in true Twende fashion, it took a long, meandering yet overwhelmingly positive journey to get from there to where we are now,” said Reagan.

Key to that process was leaning into local creatives. “If you want to accurately reflect the feel of the streets in Africa, you need people who drive on them daily. We knew we needed to go out and find the best African writers, directors and animators to make this,” Charlie Added.