If you walk into our studio on a random weekday, you’ll likely find our director, Chekwube Okonkwo aka Chekz, hunched over a drawing tablet, another animator drawing so intently, and the faint (or not so faint) sound of music playing from someone’s speaker. There’s always chatter; somewhere between frustration and excitement or just regular animator banter.
But what you won’t see immediately is what it’s taken to get here. To this moment. To this film.
What does it take to create a hand-drawn 2D animated feature film in Lagos, Nigeria? Blood, sweat, tears and a whole lot of files.
The Passport of Mallam Ilia (POMI) didn’t just start as an idea, it started as a burning need to bring an African story to life, using a medium that’s often overlooked on the continent – 2D animation.
And this is the story of how we’ve been doing exactly that.
It All Started With a Book…
In 2018, we stumbled (actually, we voted in the studio) on Cyprian Ekwensi’s classic novel, The Passport of Mallam Ilia. A novel that pulsed with history, emotion, and the kind of drama only Africa can birth.
After our voting, we found out that Netflix also put out a poll asking people what book they would like to see turned into a movie. Of course, POMI was right there. Dare I say, in the tie-and-dye textiles. We even documented the journey in a travel film.
Our goal? Authenticity.
We wanted this film to feel like it came from the soil.
What we learned became the lifeblood of our art direction.
Our Production Pipeline: Building a Film, Brick by Brick
Back in Lagos, story development began. We brainstormed for many days on the best shape the story should take. When we finally arrived at what we thought was a good place, then scripting began.
We wrote, rewrote, and rewrote some more. Before calling in the professional voice actors and the people who would eventually play the characters, we recorded the entire script using our own voices; a budget-friendly step usually called “dummy recordings.” They helped us test the flow, tweak dialogue, and get our pacing just right before moving to the next phase.
Then came the storyboards. Think of them as the film’s skeleton; thumbnails of rough sketches that make up the movie”. Once those were approved, we moved to animatics which are all the rough sketches put together plus audio. It’s like watching the movie in pencil form, no colour yet.
After storyboards and before animatics, the actual voice recording is done with the original actors.
We reviewed the animatics as a team. During this time, everyone gives their feedback about what they think and our director, Cheks, takes this feedback and makes his executive decision about what should be implemented.
The animatics is reviewed by the team over and over again And then again.
With every round of edits, the story sharpens.
One night, after watching the animatics ending, someone shouted, “Nooo, this can’t be how it ends!” The entire studio erupted and this is because we were hooked, and engaged by the storytelling, that everyone found themselves in it, in the shoes of the protagonist. Suddenly, everyone was a director, a scriptwriter, a crime series analyst. Turns out, we have a few 1000 Ways to Die fans among us and half our team are low-key crime drama connoisseurs.
That night taught us two things: one, we needed a more emotional ending. And two, we were making something people deeply cared about.
Once the final draft of the animatics is approved by the director, production (animation) kicks off in earnest. The characters are brought to life with colour.
For us, to show a little bit of what we have done so far, we released The Passport of Mallam Ilia First Look. It is a teaser, sort of built from the actual film to excite fans and attract investors.
To brag, our first look caught some buzzzzzz. Everyone that saw it either exclaimed about how good it looks or left us some $$$.
Not that we are there yet but what usually happens after production, is *drum rolllll* post-production. This is editing the film, adding transitions, sound design, music scoring and finally, preparing our DCP (Digital Cinema Package). Music scoring, especially if the film is deciding to use original music can begin alongside production. The Director meets with the artiste and tells them the direction of the songs and they start writing, recording and producing the songs. Sound design on the other hand has to be done when the complete animation has been put together so that the engineers can get a complete feel of it and give the right sounds to each scene as required.
Blood, Sweat… and a Crashed Hard Drive
Of course, not everything was laughter.
One of our lead animators lost three months of work in a hard drive crash. Just like that, everything was gone.
We all felt it.
The studio was silent that day. He had poured his soul into those scenes. It took time, strength, and a lot of encouragement to rebuild.
That’s the thing about animation: it asks everything from you. And then asks again.
The Hustle for Funding
From day one, we knew animation wasn’t a quick-money game. It’s a slow burn. And in 2018, not many investors in Africa were ready for that kind of fire.
So we bootstrapped. Every naira and dollar earned from client work? We funneled it back into The Passport of Mallam Ilia.
Eventually, word spread. Friends of the studio started pitching in. A few bold investors came on board.
And then something really humbling happened.
After watching our First Look trailer, legendary Nigerian filmmaker Niyi Akinmolayo called us. And then he gifted us ₦5 million. Just like that. No strings.
“You people are doing something special,” he said.
That was a defining moment for us because it is one thing to get support but it is a whole other thing to get support from industry makers because they see the potential of what you are doing and the hard work you are putting in.
Has finding funding been easy? Absolutely not but we are figuring it out as we go.
Why We’re Telling You This
Because we want you to see more than a beautiful first look.
We want you to see the long nights. Cultural pride. The heartbreaks. The breakthroughs.
We want you to know that it is possible to tell African stories, in African voices, using African animation studios. And that The Passport of Mallam Ilia is just the beginning.
We want you to feel inspired, maybe a little emotional. And if you feel moved to support, share, or even invest? Even better.
Because this isn’t just a film.
It’s a movement.
Watch our First Look, follow our journey on social media, and help us take African animation to the world.
Magic Carpet Studio is ready. And the world is watching.