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 In a move that signals a new era for African storytelling, veteran Hollywood animator Robert Sledge, whose resume boasts over 30 years of experience at giants like Disney and Warner Brothers, has joined forces with Nigerian creative powerhouse Adebisi Adetayo on the groundbreaking project, “Secrets of the Multiverse.” The brainchild of the mother-daughter duo, Blessing Amidu, a Nigerian film producer, her daughter Emmanuella Amidu, writer of the story, Robert and Adebisi share that his isn’t just another collaboration; it’s a deliberate choice to champion a story with African roots, a move that both men believe will redefine the animation landscape and set a new global standard. In this exclusive interview, they reveal why “Secrets of the Multiverse” is the project they are betting on, its meticulous production process, and how it’s poised to become a new milestone for Nollywood and beyond. TOMI FALADE brings excerpts 

 How did this collaboration happen? I mean, what is it about Secrets of the Multiverse that aligned with your vision? 

Adebisi Adetayo 

A lot of inclusion is on the project, in the sense that it’s not just a project that is centered around Nigeria only. It cuts across the entire continent of the world. That’s one of the things that sprouted the idea that a collaboration is needed, rather than us trying to depict a foreign country we do not know much about. It brings everything together as a whole, and that’s one of the markets for now that the more the inclusion you have on your project, the more the mileage that project is actually going to have. 

From the groundwork of the project, we started working on temporary pre-production on the project since last year, before August, so it’s not a project that is rushed in any way. We are paying attention to every bit, and not just the story. The story is robust, The story is rich. And beyond the story, the visuals that are intended are also of the same light; they all flow together. Then the sound designer that’s also coming on board on it, the music artists are also coming on board on it. We’re not just telling the story in the sense of one good aspect, it is balanced on every aspect. 

Robert Sledge 

The thing that appealed to me most about this, first of all, was the story. I was given a portion to read, and after reading, I was very intrigued by the storylines, the characters and so much. I was planning on taking another job at the time, but I turned down the job to take this one because of that, the script itself and the storyline… I was really interested in working on it. I agree with Adebisi that it’s a story that can be told around the world. It’s not just only culturally fit into one country, but I think the story has appeals to families, to those who are friends. I think it can reach out and have a global appeal to people of the world. 

I’ve worked at Disney and other places where we deal with cultural films. To some degree, I worked on things dealing with Lion King ahnd more, but this is a real story involving people that are from Africa. This isn’t something taken out of the culture and then recreated somewhere else, although they tried to keep that in there. But I feel this is coming from writers who are from Africa, and the culture is being exemplified. As Adebisi was saying, it should fit with all cultures and the different communities. You may have the cultural differences, things you wear, things you say, aspects of life that might present themselves differently, but families are families and friends are friends. This alignment, for me, came from the fact that it was a story that appealed to me. I could see characters that I could get my hands around and relate to. I could see them growing. And for me, the most important part is finding a character that makes a change over there, over the film, they learn, they grow, they become something more than what they started out as. And so that was the big appeal to me, as well as some of the tech that was in it, because I really liked the Sci Fi. I think this film will do well in that way. Everyone’s going to be able to relate to these characters, and so that’s the appeal to me. 

Are we looking to see human characters actually voice or are we going to deploy AI? 

Adebisi 

Very interesting question. It’s actually all human characters. The voiceover actually cuts across different cultures within Nigeria and across the world. So, it’s not just a Nigerian based project. AI has not been involved in this project at all, not even at the research level. That’s why I said we’re taking our time to build it gradually, giving all the research elements and all of that. We don’t want anything to do with IP issues whenever you’re using AI on any project. 

What’s your approach generally to storytelling in animation? How do you translate that to this particular project? 

Robert 

The approach is actually very traditional, a little bit traditional, a little bit traditional, in sense that it all starts with the story. The story is the heart of of the entire thing. From the story, we move straight to concept development, where we do a lot of research, from characters to environment, because here we have multi dimensional environments that cross across different parts of the world. Once all the research is done, we begin to create new ideas based on the research, which is called the concept phase. That’s where you begin to convert all the research that is done into facts based on the story. Let the story have rule and control over the ideas that we’ve actually gathered. So once we have that, we then make sure that all aspects of the concept is unique to the story itself, we are not taking anything from anybody. Everything is unique to the IP. 

It is actually a very robust story. Once all that is needed is done and in the 3d phase, we can start animating it. But for animation, we have the voiceover of all the different characters that are going to be done at the studio level. In animation, we bring the voice and the characters together to actually tell the story within the environment, which has been created for the project. This will take a good amount of time because of the quality of the animation that has been done on it. It’s actually a very lengthy process, but everything is well dotted in this project. 

Mr. Adebisi. I just wanted to get more insight into you. What does returning to work with Blessing Amidu that mean for you? 

Adebisi 

It actually means a level of trust and vision, basically seeing the work that was done far back in 2020, Lady Bucket was produced in full 4k quality, as far back as 2020. To be able to do that far back then is an opportunity, professionally, to actually take it a whole lot further. That’s what I see this to be as, an opportunity. Professionally, we’ve been able to do this five years ago. Okay, let’s see what we’re able to do now, five years after now, technological wise things have changed entirely throughout the world. Capacity wise things have also changed even at the studio level that’s actually doing the production. A lot of things have actually changed, and this gives us the opportunity to actually do a whole lot on a bigger scale, at least about six times what we did far back in 2020 that’s actually what it means for me. Personally, this is an issue of faith. 

Animation and VFX in Nigeria have come a long way in what ways do you think this project will push the local industry forward? 

Adebisi 

This is a new a new milestone in all aspects of the film industry, not just about the visuals, even the visual effects that are on this project, they are on another level. When I first got the script draft of the story, I was asking the SPD producer, is this AI? She said, No, it’s actually humanly scripted. The writer wasn’t thinking about the limitations of the environment and all that. No, she took it completely wide. And when she developed the other aspect of the story, I saw that this is actually going to be very rich. So in terms of visual effects, sincerely, I cannot benchmark this project to any project I’ve seen, the visual effects are crazy. Sincerely, they are crazy, pyrodynamics, destructions at different levels; a lot of visual effects, in this in this particular production. So, it’s going to be a new milestone, not just for animation, but the Nollywood film industry itself. And not just Africa, it’s going to set some standards around the world. 

Is this the first time you’re working on a Nigerian project? 

Robert 

As far as I know, I’ve never worked on one before. I’ve worked in India.