Jabari & the Zig Zag Escape Dance
The Story: follows the story of an elephant mother living in the African forest and her young son Jabari who has a special magic trunk (which means he can sing/trumpet healing songs and any water he consumes then sprays heals those it lands on) and is coming of tusk age (18 months), who loses his father during a tussle with an ivory hunter after which Jabari learns the Song of the Forest from his mother which can be used to summon help in times of need. In order to protect Jabari and to protect his tusks from the persistent ivory hunters, Kiara disguises him by painting him black and white to pretend he's a zebra then sneaks him into a zebra herd to hide him until she can find them a new safer home for them both due not only to the hunters but also deforestation and so that he can learn to zig zag escape danger. However, the zebra's zig zag escape dance proves to be a huge challenge to Jabari and is tricky for him to master at first due to his larger frame, legs and feet and so he often gets teased and left behind at the waterhole by the members of the zebra herd where he has to practice his clumsy zig zag steps on his own and one day while doing so, he makes friends at the forest waterhole with his mother's worst nightmare, a human child.
The human child, Amali, then helps Jabari to find his own individual way to dance the zig zag escape dance by teaching him how to coordinate moves with familiar tasks and as Jabari steps into and embraces his own strengths, one day he manages to save some members of the zebra herd by stopping some trees that are being logged that are falling from crushing them. Later Jabari meets Amali's grandfather (and her guardian) who is ill that he might or might not be able to help because he has never tried his healing gifts on humans before and his healing gifts my only apply to nature and a shadow lurks in the family home because Amali’s older cousin is training to become a poacher. However, just as Jabari and Amali 's friendship starts to grow stronger, human and natural realities rapidly start to close in that threaten to extinguish it as the ivory hunters and loggers circle their waterhole of safety then tighten and reduce their safe zone as the predatory humans move in and nature swiftly tries to move out but Amali has a possible solution and convinces Jabari to enter the Jamboree National Talent Show in the city with her to perform the Zig Zag Dance to try and win the prize money which would allow her family to purchase that part of the forest to keep it safe as she also tries to convince her cousin to join her and to try and save the animals in the forest by becoming a conservation ranger instead. In tune with Jabari's gifts, when the poacher who killed his father gets attacked by a lion and Jabari finds him in the forest, Jabari then has to make the ultimate decision of healing forgiveness or revenge as the hunter becomes the prey when the lion returns to finish what he started. When Jabari's mother does not return and is missing, he then sings the Song of the Forest to summon the Protectors of the Forest but much to his surprise when they appear, once they help him find his mother, they let him know that it is time for Jabari to step into his destiny and become a protector of the forest himself. Written by Jill Thrussell
Duration: 90 minutes
Note: This story will form part of the Extinct or on the Brink series but will also be told as a separate standalone project
Project themes: care for nature, teamwork, differences
Age Range: 4 to 10 years
Soundtrack Songs:
- Trunk Full of Troubles
- Love is the Heart of Our Family/So I've Got to Leave Your Side to Keep You Alive
- When Every Tomorrow Seems So Far Away/My Heart Will Never Be Far Away
- So Sometimes You Have to Zig Zag in Time (Sometimes Our Wildlife isn't a Straight Line)
Note: developed from a joke in a script written last year where Ginger the cat mocks a female character for thinking and assuming that he cares about people and says that he's cat and he doesn't give a dam about anyone and that she must be mistaking him for a dog who he refers to as 'human footrests' because they lick people's feet.
Note: the storyline surrounding Amali's cousin was already in the script and film outlines last week and came from other projects I've been writing and working on. (Nate Fossy, Adventurina Ranger etc.)
Note: African forest elephants are now regarded as Critically Endangered according to the IUCN
Genre: Family Film & Magic Realism