Culture news The best sci-fi series of 2024 is not on Netflix: Disney+ continues the successes after Shogun!
Soon available on the Disney+ platform, this new animated series is winning over critics. A new success in sight for the SVOD service.
An Afrofuturistic adventure soon available on the Disney+ platform, Iwájú (which roughly translates to “the future”) was recently listed among the animated programs to watch with your children in an article in the Washington Post. This mini-series is set in a futuristic Lagos, Nigeria, where a criminal network operates that kidnaps children in exchange for ransom. We particularly follow the journeys of Tola, a young island heiress, and her best friend Kole, a genius of new technologies..
The series is the result of a collaboration between Walt Disney Animation Studios and Kugali (and more particularly director Olufikayo Ziki Adeola), a pan-African entertainment company. “Iwájú’s writing is a creative alchemy that draws on Lagos’ cultural richness and futuristic visions“, director Olufikayo Ziki Adeola said about him. The release date is set for April 3. At the same time, you will be entitled to Iwájú: A New Day, a documentary which traces the atypical journey of the founders of Kugali and their collaboration with Disney.
Subscribe to Disney+
New success for Disney+
For now, the series has a superb score of 100% on the press side on Rotten Tomatoes. Decider is full of praise for the series, saying Iwájú is “a visually fascinating look at a futuristic Nigerian city, with plenty of clever character moments and an Afrobeat soundtrack that ties it all together“For its part, CBR writes that Iwájú celebrates the vibrant culture of Nigeria”through its little characters while showing the dark side of reality“. Common Sense Media, however, is more severe in its criticism: “It’s hard to think of an American-produced children’s series that takes such a hard look at our own racial and class realities. Iwájú has a lot of good ideas, but falls a little flat in execution“. Finally The Guardin seems completely won over:
This delightful coming-of-age adventure, set in a futuristic Lagos, is decidedly optimistic, wonderfully voice-acted and full of beautiful scenery – even if it’s difficult to follow.
The public also seems rather excited by this first burst of episodes, boosting the audience score to 83%.
Recently, the Disney+ platform, whose new features are generally more discreet than its competitors, has had a string of critical successes. Before Iwájú, the Shogun series was presented by Screen Rant as a “first worthy replacement for Game of Thrones”. It also had a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes for a few days, before dropping to 99%. Adapted from the best-seller of the same name written by James Clavell, it takes us into the much-loved great era of feudal Japan to follow the dangerous adventures of John Blackthorne, commander of a stranded Dutch ship.
This page contains affiliate links to certain products that JV has selected for you. Each purchase you make by clicking on one of these links will not cost you more, but the e-merchant will pay us a commission. The prices indicated in the article are those offered by the merchant sites at the time of publication of the article and these prices are likely to vary at the sole discretion of the merchant site without JV being informed.
Learn more.