
Japan’s Custom Nuts and USA’s Baboon Animation have officially greenlit Ibn Battuta, a culturally-charged, hybrid animated comedy-adventure series, following its buyer debut at Annecy/Mifa 2025.
The series flips the legacy of the iconic 14th-century Moroccan explorer on its head, recasting him as a wide-eyed boy with boundless curiosity, a magical travel trunk, and a fast-talking donkey. From desert kingdoms to dense jungles, young Battuta’s chaotic journeys spark as much trouble as they do wonder.
Ibn Battuta (1304–1368/69 or 1377), born in Tangier, Morocco, is revered as the greatest medieval Muslim traveler, celebrated both within the Muslim world and in Western literature. His unparalleled journeys spanned 75,000 miles—covering what are now 44 countries—including regions such as Mecca, Cairo, Iraq, India, China, Andalusia, and beyond. His travels, marked by extraordinary adventures and cultural exchanges, inspire the vibrant storytelling and cross-cultural exploration at the heart of Battuta.
Two seasons of the series are now fully funded and in pre-production, with production spread across Japan, USA, and the Mena (Middle East and North Africa) region. Slated for delivery in mid-2026, Ibn Battuta is being helmed by Custom Nuts co-founder Silas Hickey and Baboon Animation founder and CEO Mike de Seve — both veterans with deep roots in the global animation space.
“Over the years, Mike and I have had the privilege of working with incredible talent, and we’re thrilled that some of the best in the business are coming aboard Battuta,” said Hickey. “Expect some exciting announcements soon.”
The companies will share first-look materials by appointment, alongside three more anime-hybrid titles built around iconic Middle Eastern characters — including Hamza, a teen/YA series inspired by the legendary exploits of Amir Hamza. Together, these projects make up a fresh slate of genre-bending, culturally rooted content.
This latest announcement builds on the growing collaboration between Custom Nuts and Baboon Animation, who first unveiled their global partnership at Mipcom 2023, with a shared vision of creating animation with local flavour and global appeal. In December 2024, the two studios announced a co-development pact with Karachi-based AzCorp Entertainment to bring South Asian stories to global screens — signalling a broader ambition to tap underrepresented markets and reframe storytelling for new audiences.
The hybrid anime model has emerged as a strong bridge between Eastern aesthetics and Western narrative formats — and with titles like Ibn Battuta, Custom Nuts and Baboon appear to be carving a lane of their own, rooted in myth, wrapped in comedy, and aimed squarely at the world stage.
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