Patrons oversubscribe, hail Jesse Sunkwa-Mills’ 3D 'Asantewaa' movie

Mills Media Limited’s animation movie titled ‘Asantewaa’ has received rave reviews from patrons.

The 3D film premiered at the Silverbird Cinemas on Saturday, 10 December 2022 at 6 PM.

The film, not more an hour-long, starts in contemporary times and recollects the 1900 war fought between the Ashantes, led by their warrior queen Nana Yaa Asantewaa, and the British colonisers.

Speaking to Class News’ Prince Benjamin in an exclusive interview, the creator of the movie, Jesse Sunkwa-Mills, Creative Director at Mills Media Ltd, noted how one showing surprisingly became six by the end of the night.

“From what we were seeing on social media, we knew people were excited about it for sure, but you know how sometimes Ghanaians can be excited and they will show you love online but they won’t really show it physically. At some point, we knew one hall was already sold out, from what we were seeing from our short code sales but we didn’t expect the place to be packed and filled up.

“It happened that we filled up one hall, we had to do another screening, but then the pressure that was coming meant that the second screening which was supposed to have happened 20 or 30 minutes later had to happen right there and then while it was happening, another screening had to happen again and it was a bit overwhelming but really encouraging,” the animator said.

Highlighting the significance of the oversubscription, he added: “This really showed how much Ghanaians have been waiting and yearning to see their stories being told, and I feel that the fact that it’s being told by their own even makes it a lot more exciting for them.”

Jesse had television star Nana Ama McBrown voicing the lead character, Yaa Asantewaa, in the film which is his team’s first after doing “little tiny snippets of short animated art for individuals and businesses and stuff like that.”

Some patrons speaking to Class News shared their views on the movie.

26-year-old Kabukuor, over the robust drumming of traditional drums and dancing in the foyer of the cinema, said: “I thought it was a very good project, it loved the outcome of it and I thought it was very realistic to me as a Ghanaian.”

“I really did enjoy the movie and it surpassed my expectations, and I feel like the audience it’s reaching out to is perfect because a lot of children don’t have something like this, so it’s a great movie, and I enjoyed it,” 26-year-old Elsie said with a smile.

According to 19-year-old Dudzie, “It was fun, it was funny, it was educational, and I was really impressed especially knowing that it was made-in-Ghana.”

“I think that the movie was a little scary for me,” said 7-year-old Nhyira. “The fighting scenes were scary. It was the guns. I think they should take those ones out. I liked it when they were about to fight, though.”

“It was very great. At least we learnt about Yaa Asantewaa and her bravery,” 18-year-old Emmanuella excitedly shared, leaning on an empty cinema seat. Her favourite scenes were where Yaa Asantewaa sought help from the deity Asaase Yaa and fought in defence of her kingdom and to protect the golden stool.

“At first, she was scared but when she went to seek the help of Asaase Yaa, she gained the power to overcome all her enemies. It made me feel, we women can do anything. What a man can do, a woman can do better. So maybe if my brother does something, I can do better.”

Yvonne, looking on as Emmanuella spoke, was eager to speak.

“It was really interesting,” she said with apparent joy on her face. “It was mind-blowing but it was too short. But I know more is to come. However, it was really motivating, knowing how she [Asantewaa] was so fearful and later, she sought help from Asaase Yaa, even though she was not able to defeat the White men she was able to, at least, do something. I like the facial expressions of the characters in the movie. I’m a proud Ghanaian because of this movie.”

Another patron Emmanuel commented, saying: “I feel it’s a huge step for us as Ghanaians as a whole, in the animation industry. I haven’t yet seen much of Ghanaian animation that has really interested me but this is a really huge step. And it highlights the cultural heritage – though it’s more of an Ashanti thing, I feel proud to watch something from my country. The way they highlighted certain parts of history inside it was also profound. They were able to touch me with the way they put in the background music, the fight scenes, and how they were able to touch on the audience’s feelings, it was really good.”

Edwina, a theatre graduate, said:"I don’t think that historically it was accurate enough," and granting that, "if you’re the storyteller, you get to tell it anyhow you want to," she continued: "It’s a good attempt. It’s a good start because we don’t get our stories told in this manner so I think it’s a good start."

"They should have shown the other parts of her life," though, she added. "Did she have children? How was she like? Because at the end [of the movie], they said she was kindhearted but there was no implication of her being kindhearted. We didn’t see her interacting with anybody. She just called for war, she trained and went for war.

“Overall, I think it was great, great, great stuff, and what I loved most was the sound scoring. It was on point. From the beginning to the end. Like when she was giving her pep talk before the battle, it was the sound [music] that did everything.”

Fafa, a cheeky and eloquent young woman with an air of creative competence around her, made some observations in English and Pidgin: “For a small team and animation studio they did a yeoman’s job. I’m assuming this is also their first attempt at making something long like this. On the animation, I would say, probably with the resources they had, this is what they could do and it’s fine because animation is expensive – 3D animation is very expensive to do, so we’ll give them credit for what they’ve been able to do.

“The fight scenes were interesting, I like the energy it brought to the film. The training montage too and the film score was fantastic, the one who did it did a good job. A lot of the sound fit the scenes which was good.”

She hoped also for improvement for casting and scripting for future projects “especially if they’ve got money from six [unexpected] showings.”

Kadi, a lively gentleman sporting a nose ring, was happy to join in: “I’m really happy about this because this is will technically be the first time a comic book has been adapted into film in Ghana. Originally, it was a comic – the comic doesn’t have a lot of stories and you can kind of see that play out here also where there’s not a lot of stories to go on, although this is definitely a jump from what the comic had – I’ve read the comic.

"I really liked the score. The score was really good, although sometimes I felt it was overdone, but I think the theme song for the whole film, the theme song by Eno Barony, it fit really well with some of the scenes.

“I hoped they’d have done 2D because with their level of strength, they would have pulled it off more nicely," he noted and considering the future said: "It’d be interesting to see what kind of collaborations this kind of film will spark.”