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- Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes is a locally-produced animated series that premiered earlier this month on Disney Junior.
- The show was created by Kelly Dillon, Marc Dey and Robert Vargas.
- Dillon and Dey sat down with News24 to talk about the show.
Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes is a locally-produced animated children's series that premiered on 4 September on Disney Junior.
Kiya (Dineo du Toit) is a 7-year-old superhero in her utopian hometown Kimoja City. She has a special crystal headband with mystical energy that gives her superpowers. Kiya's two best friends, Motsie (Fontina Fourtounes), aka Tech Racer and her stepbrother Jay (Ian Ho) aka Flying Rockstar are also part of her team that ensures trouble stays out of Kimoja.
The show was created by writer Robert Vargas, and the local scriptwriters and executive producers Marc Dey and Kelly Dillon.
The series was produced by Triggerfish Animation Studios based in Cape Town, Frog Box and France Télévisions.
Dillon and Dey sat down with News24 and talked about the show.
Long road
It was a long road to get Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes on screens, Dey shared. "I felt every emotion going along that eight-year journey. But overwhelmingly it's been fantastic, not only a learning experience but also a growing experience for all of us."
Kiya is based on Dey's eldest daughter, who had an alter ego named Ninja Princess. That inspired him and sparked the idea for the show.
For Dey, and those who worked closely with him and Dillon, one of the best parts of the experience was the collaboration.
"We've gotten to work not only with some of the biggest studios like Disney, eOne, Hasbro, Frog Box and Triggerfish, but we've also gotten to work with some really great people," he said.
"What's been a really great thing is the amount of different people from all walks of life that we've managed to work with, to build and grow the world of the show."
'Dream come true'
Dillon added, "For Marc and I, we've never worked on a show in this capacity before. It was something of a dream come true for us."
Dillon remembered when the show was getting some interest, and she and Marc looked at each other and shared a moment of disbelief. "Can you imagine if something we came up with actually gets made into a show and people around the world watched it?"
They could barely believe that it was going to happen.
"Flash forward to a couple of years later, it's really quite incredible that we've gone through this experience," she added. She also felt that working on the show had been a great learning opportunity, since they were still figuring the process out in the early phases.
Flavour and authenticity
The series is for a growing audience of young viewers, Dey said. From a global point of view, the show hits the themes that most kids love, like family relations, superheroes and adventure, he said.
According to Dey, the show has a flavour and authenticity to it that is specific to South Africa, since it features African creators, writers, voice actors and lead characters.
"There's a lot of terminology. There's a lot of little references that the voice over guys make that roots and grounds [the series] in our country."
That, he explained, is what makes the show so special and even surreal to him.
Dillon said the local lingo used in the show was not scripted and came directly from the cast's adlibs. "I think just for kids to watch a preschool show which has people of colour, diverse looking cast as superheroes, I feel like it's been a long time coming."
She was surprised that a show like Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes hadn't been done before, but they were glad to fulfil the need. It also makes it more special that the show is set locally.
Kiya embodies someone who balances different parts of her life and uses them to do good for her city.
At its core, the series sets out to show its audience, across the world, that they don't have to compromise – they can be who they want to be.
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:
