Iwájú review
A uniquely sweet flavor of sci-fi
This is exactly the kind of story I want when my nerves are frayed and I need just enough tension to feel the mirrored satisfaction of escape, but without added anxiety.
Perhaps because my DNA includes Nigerian genetic roots (that my skin didn’t inherit) through my Trinidadian grandfather, and with dear Nigerian friends, I perked up when Iwájú came out. What a joy to find out that Disney partnered with this show’s Nigerian creators, because those creators lend a whole new level of authentic cultural reflection—including Nigerian pidgin dialogue—that Disney’s regular fare can’t match.
An excerpt from my review (https://cmgenton.ca/iwaju-miniseries-review/):
A ten-year-old girl, who lives on the Island, an affluent part of Lagos separated from the rough life of the mainland, is faced with increasingly difficult obstacles to getting what she wants: her father’s attention.
The story unfolds from several viewpoint characters in such a way as makes them genuinely human and relatable, including the antagonist. The plot’s gentle pace, the characters’ cultural expressions, a cute animal, and good overcoming bad make this a uniquely sweet flavour of sci-fi. A real pleasure, and easy to watch over a day or two in its 20 to 25-minute snippets with my 12yo son [at the time] ever-pulling to watch the next episode.
Iwájú, like Treasure Planet, is a lesson in how to write sci-fi for children that fascinates adults and makes any childlike heart smile. This style features a low-grit factor, meaning gentler language, threatening characters balanced with less threatening settings, and a sense of belonging being removed then restored.
We all need stories like this to keep us human.