Brutal Nature, the story of an Indigenous Colombian warrior, will be the first animation to come out of the development deal set by IDW and Latin American studio Ánima. The story is based on a comic book by IDW Publishing.
The narrative revolves around a collection of masks that shapeshifts an Indigenous young man into a vast array of beasts and monsters. He uses the power to aid the battle of Indigenous Colombians against the colonizing Spanish empire. Brutal Nature was published in 2016 and is a creation of Luciano Saracino and Ariel Olivetti, and the animation is being produced by Fernando De Fuentes and José C. García de Letone alongside the IDW team.
The Argentine Olivetti is a comic book penciler who worked on major titles such as Daredevil, X-Men, Space Ghost, and Punisher: War Journal. His compatriot Saracino has a long list of children’s and young adult comic books, including The Adventures of Fede and Tomato and Cayetano.
Brutal Nature is another example of Indigenous People gaining the long overdue protagonism of their narratives, be real or fictional, in entertainment products, such as the recent Prey (2022) picture, and not being portrayed just as sidekicks or the bad guys.
IDW Entertainment is a powerhouse with projects like Netflix’s Locke & Key, based on the comic book series by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez, and the upcoming Apple TV+’s Surfside Girls based on the graphic novel by Kim Dwinell. Ánima is headquartered in Mexico City and has spread to Madrid, the Canary Islands, and Argentina. The animation studio focuses on 2D and CGI animation and has under its belt titles like Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires, Legend Quest, and Space Chickens in Space.