by Thinus Ferreira
Two African teenagers, a mama and their gogo, including a crazy uncle with secrets - all portrayed by comedian André Lembwa - are back for further episodes in the second season of the surreal CN to the Rescue South African series on Cartoon Network (DStv 301) that blends zany live-action humour with "rejected" animation cartoon characters in a story about imagination, adventure and family.
Is the new mysterious family member, Uncle Ezekius from Cape Town, a good guy - or is he plotting evil?
I sat down with Howard James Fyvie who is the CN to the Rescue creator, producer and director, and André Lembwa skillfully portraying all five characters again, including the new long-lost uncle.
With André, doing all of the roles, how many times did you have to film the same scene?
Howard: We'd shoot the same thing 5 times from multiple angles. We didn't actually keep track of the takes - there are just too many. All I'll say it is a headache - but a joy. It was a joy and it was a pain. Like childbirth.
Can you talk about the origin story of CN to the Rescue, how did the show and name come about?
Howard: The original brief was kind of a marketing exercise and the brief to me was "make a show that was going to highlight Cartoon Network".
So we started with this character called Tapiwa, and I just wrote down an idea that he basically likes Cartoon Network so much, and he gets himself into danger, and then Cartoon Network comes to the rescue - his imagination becomes real.
So the name - Cartoon Network essentially represents imagination, CN literally comes to the rescue.
I first met WarnerMedia when I entered a competition in 2016 and me and my co-writer, Andrew Phillips, we won the Kids' Animation Pitching Competition at DISCOP. Our prize was being introduced to Cartoon Network.
After three years they gave a brief for a new local show and asked if I could develop an idea. They gave us a shot and the first season came out in 2021 and now in 2022 season two.
How have you've been able to expand the story from the first to the new second season?
Howard: The first season felt like a pilot. The second season feels like a real show.
What we've been able to do was to work on these four characters - gogo, mama, Tapiwe and Garcia - and we knew by the end of the first season what they would do and wouldn't do.
So what we needed to do was to introduce a new character - a spicy character that would change everything.
The second breakthrough decision - I never wanted to make standalone episodes. I wanted to make one long continuous story and I asked Cartoon Network not to do an episodic show. Otherwise for every episode you have to reset back to the beginning. You can't grow emotional depth.
The decision of one long storyline opened up a massive sandbox for us and then we could just dream.
Emotionally, CN to the Rescue's second season is way deeper than the first season. It touches on real issues like fatherlessness, it touches on a woman's anxiety of being a single mother, it touches on children not respecting their parents and real issues but obviously in a comedic way.
Pixar does that so well where they tackle real-life issues and they have brilliant comedy in it at the same time and that's my model of what I'm trying to follow.
Putting on different wigs, playing all the characters - it's performance art. How difficult is it to switch from one character to another when they're all very different?
André: To be honest, it's not really difficult. With me it comes with the outfit.
When I have a wig on and a dress, I go: "Okay, I'm not a male now, now I'm mama." I'm my mind I select different blocks: Mama, Tapiwa and the rest. I've mastered different accents and how to keep it going.
Every now and then I'll be busy being Garcia and I would realise I've now heard Tapiwa.
Episodes hilariously end very cliff-hangery, we have dramatic music in-between, did WarnerMedia tell you to end on cliffhangers to make CN to the Rescue "binge-worthy" viewing or was that your idea?
Howard: I had to motivate to them and explained and said "We're going to end it on a cliffhanger, and people are going to want to watch the next episode even more so than if the story wrapped itself up in a single episode".
We intentionally wrote every episode to end on a new dramatic beat. Ideally, it makes you as a viewer just want to watch the next episode.
While it's made primarily for children and a youth audience, it's not just over-the-top caricature. If you look at Mama or any of the others, there is subtlety in the big actions.
There are hints of something deeper than just humour and something more than just playing for laughs. Does Howie tell you to do and bring that or is it you?
André: I don't have any professional background or education behind the acting.
Howard's been a really cool mentor and would sit me down and explain that "After mama says this, it would make more sense for so-and-so to react this way". I would go: "I can see that, I can relate, because I live with my one aunt and my aunt would have do it this way."
I get to put myself in my aunt's shoes and to wear the story and to make it mine. It's not all my own instincts, I ask Howard what way he wants me to bring something across.
How difficult is it to switch between the accents?
André: I won't lie, originally Uncle Zeek, he was meant to be someone from the UK.
Howard: Yep, British.
André: Which honestly I haven't quite mastered fully. We actually off shooting with that accent.
Howard: Two days.
André: We shot two days and then sat down and said we don't feel that it's quite working. I felt "eish" I'm not feeling this character, it's not coming alive in me. It doesn't feel like acting but being told "do this, do this".
I was kind of scared with that accent, building up to it. I sat down and we moved to a more comfortable accent which is the Cape coloured side for Uncle Ezekius and it clicked.
Different family members, all with their own motivations, do still help each other. What is the message of the show?
André: Family face issues together and realise that they have to unite to make things work and to progress in life. As an African, I grew up with my aunts. There wasn't a mom and a dad. Most African homes have either just a mom and the kids, or it's single dad.
In CN to the Rescue you can see there's no dad in the house.
That's why these kids are behaving in certain ways, there's never been a father figure to direct them. Moms do a great job but the mom can't fully fulfil the dad's role. It shows how important family is.
How do you and co-writer Andrew Phillips work?
Howard: It's brilliant. It's amazing. Me and Andrew at his house, sit on the couch - I normally stand and pace - and we just say: "What would be cool?" Then we just throw out crazy ideas.
Andrew's got a very good sensibility for emotional authenticity. So he'll say: "Ja but the mama shouldn't hide the fact that she's feeling hurt by the kids".
We've both got good story instincts and we write out a bunch of cards on a wall we put them into order, and I would for instance say "Here by episode 3 something bad must happen between the uncle and mom".
And Andrew would go: "Yes, maybe Uncle Ezekius betrayed her when they were young". And I would go: "Yes, because he wanted the house!" We literally finish each others' sentences. We've been working together for almost 6 years. Me and him won that original competition.
You went to go and live in a Dunoon township - no shower, no bath, washing in a bucket - why did you go live there and what did you learn from that experience?
Howard: I'm curious by nature and as a filmmaker even more curious.
Seventy percent of South Africa live in townships and I thought that as a white dude I need to experience that. I moved there for one year and 3 months. I've been visiting the township for five years before that.
I think if every South African can spend just one month living in a township, what would it change in our country? That's the question I had going in. If we all had to do this, what would change?
I returned after a lot of conversations and experiences. People go through a lot of suffering. Just your average challenges: Your house is small. Dust. Wind. Dust everywhere - on your bed, your pillow. You close the door, dust comes in. I had a much bigger understanding of all of South Africa's workforce that comes from townships to get to your house.
Maybe I would have been angry with a domestic worker who comes half an hour late in the past.
I would say, before you want to shout at someone for being late, ask them how many taxis they've had to take to get to your house. As them what time they woke up to get to your house by 8.
The answer would be they woke up at 4 and they had to wash in a bucket, walk for 20 minutes, take two trains, one taxi and then walk another 20 minutes. And then you go: "You're late!"
You've also spoken about the paralysis of perfection. Have you've overcome some of that with this project and what message would you have for young creatives in a country where going into animation is difficult, and the attempt to make everything be perfect?
Howard: If you're into anything creative you want it to be so good.
My answer is take your ego out of it. When my ego was out of the equation, I could work more freely. When I'm worried about "How does this make me look?" I worry more and until it's perfect, I'm not going to want to release it because my name is attached.
God took me out of serious live-action, drama content that I've always wanted to do, and put me into kids and youth entertainment.
No-one cares about you in kids entertainment. Nobody talks to the directors of kids shows - nobody even knows them - except the guys at Pixar but nobody else cares.
My ego is no longer attached to it and that frees me to make mistakes. And it's been my best work. Some of my friends don't even know that I'm the one making CN to the Rescue. Find stuff that doesn't stroke your ego as much.
For young kids who want to get into this industry, my advice is: Start with whatever is in your hand. Do you have a pencil in your hand? A piece of paper? Start writing a script. Start drawing something.
Practice and get better with that. Don't let what you don't have, stop you from doing what you can do. André is a classic example of that. He started with his phone and recording on his phone.
What message do you have for local content creators in Africa?
André: Honestly there no perfect time to wait until you get a quality camera, or whatever.
Start with what you have. I started with a low-quality cellphone, shooting my own content and videos and sending it around, just doing everything I can to put myself out there and it landed in the right hands at the right time. Now I'm here.
Don't limit yourself, don't underestimate yourself. Start with what you have and the rest will follow.
CN to the Rescue season 2 is on Mondays at 18:10 on Cartoon Network (DStv 301), from 21 February
