Khumba

Khumba is a 2013 South African computer-animated comedy film directed and co-produced by Anthony Silverston and written by Silverston and Raffaella Delle Donne. The film stars the voices of Jake T. Austin, Steve Buscemi, Loretta Devine, Laurence Fishburne, Richard E. Grant, AnnaSophia Robb, Anika Noni Rose, Catherine Tate, Ben Vereen, and Liam Neeson. It is the second movie made by Triggerfish Animation Studios and is distributed by Millennium Entertainment in the US. The International distribution rights are being licensed by Cinema Management Group. The film is about Khumba, a zebra who is half-striped like a quagga and blamed for the lack of rain by the rest of his insular, abusive, superstitious herd, except his dad, mom and Tombi. He embarks on a quest to earn his stripes. The film was dedicated in memory of The Quagga Breeding Project founder Reinhold Rau, who died on February 11 2006. Rau was known for efforts to use selective-breeding to recreate the extinct quagga, a close relative of the plains zebra. The film premiered at the TIFF on September 8 2013, and was released on 25 October 2013 by Indigenous Film Distribution. Khumba received mixed reviews from critics and was a box office disappointment, only grossing $28.4 million worldwide against a $20 million budget. Plot In South Africa within the Great Karoo, a half-striped zebra named Khumba is born into an insular isolated herd of all-striped zebras where he's raised by his sick mother Lungisa and his father & the herd's leader, Seko. Rumors that the strange foal is cursed spread and before long he is blamed for the drought that sets into the Great Karoo. As he matures, Khumba is picked on and remains ostracized by most of the herd with the exception of Tombi, a young female zebra friend close in age - whom Khumba has a crush on - and uncomfortable in the herd due to her tomboyish manners. When a mystical African mantis appears to Khumba, he draws a map to what could be interpreted as either water or stripes between it. Khumba jeopardizes the herd and gets into trouble when he attempts to admit several gemsbok into the watering-hole enclosure when their wise elderly healer needs water. A murderous African leopard, Phango, warns Mkhulu that he and the herd can't stay in their enclosure forever. Seko berates and scolds Khumba for putting the herd at risk and for the next week, he'll drink half of his rations.