By Darren Gilbert

Collectively known as Triggerfish Animation Studios, their journey to success began 20 years ago. Back then – this is 1996 – the studio focused on producing stop-motion animation for commercials for local ad agencies. Within two years of operation, they had extended their services to produce animation for Takalani Sesame. Within six years, Stuart Forrest had joined, and in 2005, together with James Middleton, they became sole partners in the company after the founders left.

This change in management meant a change in focus too as they slowly moved away from stop-motion toward long-form animation. This transformation was completed in 2007 when Anthony Silverston and Mike Buckland joined the team and Triggerfish relaunched as a computer animation studio. During this time, their script for Adventures in Zambezia (Zambezia) was being shopped around, having been written in 2006. It eventually went into production in 2009. 

Silverston, head of development, was a co-writer and acted as co-producer. He chuckles while reminiscing about the film that established Triggerfish as an international-quality animation studio. “The creation of original intellectual property is one of the hardest and most expensive things to do,” he says. “And, when we started on Zambezia, we didn’t know the process so we learned as we went. If we had known, we probably wouldn’t have gone through with it.”

Fortunately, they did, and what better way to prove that it was the right decision than at the box office. Not only was Zambezia momentous for the animation industry but also for the local film business. The film pulled in $34.4-million globally at the box office. You can now add Khumba, which was written and directed by Silverston, to Triggerfish’s impressive résumé. It collected $28.42-million at the box office.

Those figures are staggering. They make it seem that Triggerfish has the recipe for animation success. Silverston won’t ever say that. He’s far too modest for that. But what he will say, without hesitation, is that South Africa is an animation force to be reckoned with.

“We are definitely on the same level as our international counterpart,” he states. “It just comes down to capacity.” Fortunately, the talent pool is growing, which is due, in part, to the global success currently enjoyed by Triggerfish.

Having said that, the one aspect that does need to be worked on is the quality of the story that is pitched, believes Silverston. “We know, visually, that our artists can achieve anything technically. So we need to focus on the other aspect of the film; a good story,” he says.

Not spending enough time on this aspect can mean the difference between appealing to everyone or no one. Silverston explains; “With animation, you have a movie that aims to appeal to a broad audience. This makes it more challenging because you have to care about everyone, rather than just a select few.” This is in contrast to a crime drama for adults, for example, which is arguably easier to make; simply because you know exactly who you’re appealing to.

Regardless of whether it is harder to make a globally appealing film or not, Triggerfish have hit on a good thing. It’s now up to them to continue their run. “For us, it’s about establishing a slate of long-form feature film animation,” says Silverston. “And we do have that pressure to produce, but it’s more an internal thing than anything else. The fact that we’ve done it before certainly helps.”

When Triggerfish started work on Zambezia and Khumba, they had no track record. There were questions around whether they could do it. Whether Africa could do it. A simple glance at the box office will show that not only did they do it, they owned it.

For more information, visit www.triggerfishstudios.com. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook, Twitter or on Instagram.