The Dragon's Cache: Crocodile Dance Announcement

Thursday, January 15, 2026

Crocodile Dance Announcement

Kosi Harris has shared some exciting news with us in the past. Foremost among them is Iyanu, the graphic novel from Lion Forge that has spun into an animated TV series, movies, and games. Here's the scoop on another cool film project currently underway.

Africanfuturist Animated Feature Crocodile Dance Exceeds Kickstarter Goal, Raising $95,157

Africanfuturist Animated Feature Advances to Development Following Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

Atlanta, GA — Crocodile Dance, an Africanfuturist animated feature in development, has successfully concluded its Kickstarter campaign, raising $95,157 and surpassing its $70,000 goal. The milestone marks a significant step forward for the project, funding a polished three-minute animation test that will anchor the film’s next phase of development, financing, and co-production discussions.

Rooted in West African mythology, Crocodile Dance is a mythic thriller centered on Roukia, a Northern Nigerian griot whose voice and music hold the power to confront Mami Wata, a feared and revered water goddess. When a generational curse resurfaces and threatens Roukia’s family, she must reclaim her voice, confront ancestral fear, and reshape her destiny. While the film delivers moments of heightened drama and supernatural tension, its emotional core explores grief, self-belief, ancestral memory, and the reclamation of power through creativity.

TRAILER: Crocodile Dance - Full Teaser 4K

Writer and co-director Shofela Coker shares: "Crocodile Dance elevates the origin story of the most reviled and venerated African supernatural being – The Mami Wata. From the shores of Senegal to Nigeria, and beyond, these beings in their many incarnations have influenced psychology for millennia in a manner equally dark and beautiful. It is this duality our film seeks to explore and find truth in"

Coker is a Nigerian illustrator and director whose animated work includes the Disney Plus short film Moremi from Kizazi Moto. His creative practice draws deeply from Yoruba mythology, sculpture, and the printmaking traditions of Southwestern Nigeria.

Co-director and head of story Nadia Darries adds: Crocodile Dance is about memory, ancestry, identity, and transformation. It's a love story not just between people, but between a woman and her own power. It is the journey of remembering and discovering who we are, piece by piece."

Darries is a South African Annie Award-winning writer and director of Aau’s Song, a Star Wars: Visions short film for Disney Plus. She is also a musician and the founder of Goon Valley Animation.

The Kickstarter campaign represents the first concrete step toward a full-length animated feature, which the creators estimate would require approximately $8 million USD to complete. Funds raised will support pre-production, production, rendering and compositing, editing and post-production, and sound and music for the animation test. The team’s long-term vision is to produce as much of the film as possible on the African continent, partnering with Lucan Animation in Cape Town to establish the film’s visual language and production pipeline.

“This story of spirits, identity and transformation needs partners who not only believe in its beauty but in its boldness,” Producer Ingrid de Beer notes:

De Beer is a South African producer and partner at Lucan Visuals. Peter Ramsey, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind Rise of the Guardians and co-director of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, serves as producing consultant on the film.

Additional key creatives include Nathan Minier, French composer and multi-instrumentalist; Ummi Yakubu, Nigerian producer, director, and founder of Abuja-based Griot Studios serving as story and cultural consultant; and Shobo Coker, Nigerian writer and executive producer known for co-creating the Africanfuturist graphic novels Bronze Faces and New Masters.

The film’s visual world is shaped by Nigerian production designer Yinfaowei Harrison, whose credits include Netflix’s My Dad the Bounty Hunter and Disney Plus’s Kizazi Moto anthology series. He is joined by a global animation team including Aya Akl, Godwin Akpan, Tim Hennig, Kuolon Tzeng, and Gary Luo.

Visually, Crocodile Dance draws inspiration from real Nigerian locations including Badagry, Idanre, and Ibadan, blending painted 2D environments with 3D character animation influenced by Southwestern Nigerian printmaking and sculptural traditions. The film’s setting, the coastal town of Itesi, merges vintage 1970s West Africa with neon-lit 1990s futurism, creating a world where myth, music, and modernity collide.

In addition to the animation test, Kickstarter backers unlocked key creative deliverables including Roukia’s History, an illustrated novella, and The Art of Crocodile Dance, a 120-page artbook featuring concept art, character designs, storyboards, and behind-the-scenes process. Digital rewards including the original score, wallpapers, and posters are slated for release beginning March 2026, with the artbook and novella expected in October 2026. The completed animation test is targeted for April 2027.

Crocodile Dance is developed by Coker CoOp, whose previous works include Outcasts of Jupiter, New Masters, and Bronze Faces. Members of the creative team have collectively worked on projects including Kizazi Moto, Star Wars: Visions, Eyes of Wakanda, Iyanu, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and The Lamplighter’s League. The Kickstarter campaign was fiscally sponsored by

Legends Animated, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization supporting independent animation.

With the campaign complete, the team is now entering a focused development phase, pursuing co-production partnerships, financing opportunities, and festival strategy.