Triggerfish's latest animation to premiere in Cape after five-star reviews in UK

5 March, 2019 - 08:02

Proudly presented by Animation SA, The Cape Town International Animation Festival (CTIAF) kicks off this Friday, 8 March 2019, with the African premiere of Zog, Triggerfishs latest BBC Christmas special with Magic Light Pictures.

Here are eight reasons to book your tickets while you can:

#1. Zog is based on the Julia Donaldson bestseller

Zog is based on Julia Donaldson and Axel Schefflers much loved 2010 picture book, which won the Galaxy National Childrens Book of the Year Award and has sold over 1.5 million copies.

Zog tells the tale of a keen but accident-prone dragon who gets himself into mischief while learning how to fly, roar and breathe fire in his first three years at Dragon School. Each year he meets a kindly young girl who patches up his bumps and bruises, but can she help him with his trickiest challenge yet: its Year Four, and he has to capture a princess!

#2. It stars Kit Harington as Sir Gadabout

Hugh Skinner (Harlots) plays the title role; Patsy Ferran (Jamestown) is the princess with medical ambitions; Sir Lenny Henry (Broadchurch) is the narrator; Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) is the bumbling knight Sir Gadabout; Tracey Ullman is Madame Dragon; and Rob Brydon is many characters, as usual for a Magic Light special.

#3. Its from the team behind the Oscar-nominated Revolting Rhymes

Zog is the latest BBC Christmas special to be produced by Magic Light Pictures and animated in Cape Town by Triggerfish, following on from their multi-award-winning adaptations of Donaldson and Schefflers Stick Man (2015) and The Highway Rat (2017), and Roald Dahls Revolting Rhymes (2016), which was nominated for an Oscar last year.

#4. It was nearly as popular as the Queen at Christmas in the UK

Zog placed fifth on the UKs viewing chart this Christmas, with only 200 000 less viewers than the Queens Christmas broadcast. The Telegraph gave the hypnotising, inspiring tale for all the family five stars; Den of Geek called it a thing of perfectly spherical loveliness; it is lovely from every conceivable angle; The Guardian warned parents once this has been added to iPlayer you may never be allowed to watch anything else again on your TV - ever!; and Donaldson told The Herald that Zog was her favourite BBC adaptation to date.

#5. Its directed by South African Daniel Snaddon, who co-founded CTIAF

Zog is directed by two-time Oscar-nominee Max Lang (The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom) and South African Daniel Snaddon (Stick Man). Fridays screening is particularly special for Snaddon as he was the founding director of Kunjanimation, which grew into CTIAF. When we started the festival in 2011, it was one day of workshops at Wits and two nights of screenings at Alliance Francaise. Its been amazing to watch it grow and be accepted by the international community. This year, they have Peter Ramsey, director of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - just after he won the Oscar! And Aron Warner, who produced Shrek and The Book Of Life... Im proud of the small role I played, but festival director Dianne Makings really deserves all the credit - what shes done with the festival is remarkable.

#6. Youll relate to the clumsy dragon who just wants a gold star

Snaddons looking forward to Cape Town audiences falling in love with Zog, the keenest but clumsiest pupil in the class, who longs to win a gold star at Dragon School. Hes super enthusiastic and he loves what hes doing; hes just not very good at it, says Snaddon. I think a lot of us feel like that. Hopefully not all the time but certainly there are times when you know youre falling short of your aspirations.

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#7. Itll make your daughter want to be a doctor, not a princess

Snaddon describes Zog as this great playing-against-type, progressive story about two people who are told by society that this is the way you do things and say, No, were going to make up our own minds.

But he says hes found it funny that Zog has been hailed as a feminist story. Im delighted, but I do think its an awfully low bar if all were advocating is that women can be doctors, he says. Maybe its because were saying that being a doctor is more aspirational than being a princess. Thats cool. My father-in-law is a doctor and my sister-in-law is studying to be a doctor - its a very worthwhile, noble pursuit.

He recommends Cape Tonians go watch Zog, because its funny, sweet, short and sharp, and it has really good values, especially if you have kids and dont want them to be slaves to other peoples opinions.

#8. Itll make you feel patriotic

Zog really is the product of some of South Africas finest digital artists, says Snaddon. We can get behind the Springboks or the Proteas or Ryk Neethling or any of our athletes because they are exceptional people on top of their game, doing amazing things on a world stage. You should go see Zog for that same reason; itll make you feel proudly South African!

Zog will have its African premiere at 8pm this Friday, 8 March 2019, at The River Club in Observatory, Cape Town. The screening will be followed by Studio Ponocs animation anthology Modest Heroes. Tickets cost R50; bookings can be made at http://www.webtickets.co.za.

About Triggerfish

Established in 1996, Triggerfish is a Cape Town-based film and entertainment company. The studio has produced two of the top five highest-grossing South African feature films of all time: Adventures in Zambezia (2012) and Khumba (2013).

In collaboration with Magic Light Pictures, Triggerfish has also animated four BBC Christmas adaptations: Julia Donaldson and Axel Schefflers Stick Man (2015), The Highway Rat (2017), and Zog (2018), as well as the Oscar-nominated Revolting Rhymes (2016), based on the Roald Dahl classic.

For more information, visit https://www.triggerfish.com/ and follow the animation studio on Facebook,

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