Tinniben Animation and E-Networks are set to launch Guyana’s first episodic animated television series, Nancy’s School Daze, which will begin airing in September.
The announcement of the project came on Thursday evening at the launch of GuyExpo 2016.
Alex Graham, CEO of Tinniben Animation, shared that the company will maintain the focus on “developing cartoons for empowering children and for behaviour change interventions.” Aptly named, Graham explained the wordplay in the name of the series, which, although it chronicles Nancy and her friends’ school days, also takes a broader look at adolescence and all the issues that confront young people at once, often leaving them in a “daze.”
The series, which is being directed by Kewan Harlequin, will cover a wide range of social issues, as it extends to documenting challenges school-aged children are faced with. Nancy’s School Daze will follow Nancy and her classmates as they encounter conflict with a gang of mostly older students. Nancy, a release states, “uses her wit and brilliance to help her friends stay one step ahead of trouble and be successful at their school work.”
It is explained that the series seeks to “build a character that continues to connect with children and youth to help them through the daze of growing up and learning life in both its beauty and often ugliness.”
Nancy’s School Daze, which will be aired on E-Networks’ channel, E1, will occupy a half hour time-slot, with two new episodes being aired monthly.
Graham stated that at the end of the season, in May 2017, the episodes will be available for airing on other channels.
In March, Tinniben Animation and Tagman Media, launched Nancy’s Story: Boys Too, which was their second animated short film to address the issue of child sexual abuse. That project fell under the TELL scheme, which is a suite of tools being used as part of the National Plan for the Prevention of Sexual Violence in Guyana.
At the launch of that project, Graham had spoken of a plan for future short films, which included a look at suicide and the issue of human trafficking. When asked whether these plans had been placed on the “back-burner” for the sake of this new series, Graham assured the media that this was not so, stating that a separate team is dealing with that aspect, and plans are very much in the works.
