The series 'Garbage Boy and Trash Can' will premiere on Cartoon Network Africa in 2022.
Cartoon Network has announced that Garbage Boy and Trash Can will be made into a series of 10 animated-short episodes.
Two-dimensional Nigerian animator, Ridwan Moshood, is the creator of Garbage Boy and Trash Can – which has won Cartoon Network’s Africa Creative Lab Competition in 2018. The story follows Garbage Boy, a self-proclaimed superhero who believes he has real superpowers, and his sidekick, Trash Can, on their mission to fight for justice.
Speaking about the project, Ridwan Moshood said: “When I was a kid growing up in Nigeria, I used to be bullied by the other kids, so I created a superhero cartoon to help other kids deal with this problem. I then taught myself to animate watching Cartoon Network classics on TV and doing tutorials on YouTube. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that my show would eventually be produced. Take that bullies!”
Garbage Boy and Trash Can is the first Cartoon Network superhero animated comedy series to be produced in Africa. It will be made in collaboration with the newly-formed animation production company, Pure Garbage, a South African company specially created to produce the new series. The studio is a partnership between Moshood, Mike de Seve, and Nick Wilson, a for-profit social enterprise that’s instigating and coordinating the development of animation capacity across the continent. This global collaboration marks the first innovative model in animation between talents from Nigeria, South Africa, Europe, and the US under the umbrella of Cartoon Network’s creative production process.
John Fountain will be the Supervising Director for the show.
Mike de Seve, Baboon Animation’s President and Executive Producer at Pure Garbage, added: “Garbage Boy really popped for us as a character. He comes from the heart of a brilliant young African – the amazingly talented Ridwan Moshood. But any kid, anywhere in the world, will connect with this hilarious, endearing character and laugh at his antics.”
Nick Wilson, founder and head of projects and content for AAN, played a key role from the conception of the Cartoon Network Africa Creative Lab venture, to co-creating the production company, Pure Garbage. Garbage Boy and Trash Can is also the first local series to be used as a training programme for new African cartoon writers and animators. “This international collaboration aims to contribute to skills sharing and production upliftment in the animation industry across Africa,” commented Wilson.
Ariane Suveg, Kids Content Director for WarnerMedia Africa, France and Israel, stated: “Ridwan has so much talent, and his series is a perfect fit for Cartoon Network’s diverse and original content. We are proud to build an innovative collaboration process empowering local animators and we are excited to produce and bring on air a pure African story featuring a fantastic Nigerian comedy hero in Garbage Boy and Trash Can! This global partnership is a response to our audience expectations wanting local, and inclusive, content.”
The series will premiere on Cartoon Network Africa in 2022.
