Te Tari Tūtai - the animated action comedy in te reo aimed at overcoming whakamā

A bite sized action comedy about two secret agents is hoping to be a catalyst to help learners of te reo Māori overcome the barrier of whakamā.

Anthony Butters creates and stars in the self-funded show Te Tari Tūtai, which is intertwined with his own journey with te reo.

He didn't grow up with te reo and wasn't in a position to study full-time, instead he taught himself through books, podcasts and TV shows.

"I wished there was something that was kind of pure entertainment for entertainment's sake that was in te reo that I could just watch and absorb and consume.

"We have so many amazing resources, but they are either educational or they are very high level. And I just thought, wouldn't it be great if there was something that was entertaining, but it was at a very simple level, but not for kids either, there's resources for children. So there's all these amazing resources, but I felt like there was just a gap for people my age, grown-ups, who can't take a year off to study full-time."

Butters said for many people the biggest barrier to learning te reo wasn't time, money or ability but whakamā (shame).

That's where the idea for Te Tari Tūtai came from, to be something that was purely entertainment, but it happened to be at a really simple, accessible level of reo, he said.

"But the number one priority is giving people a positive, fun, easy, not intimidating experience with te reo and that's why with Te Tari, no one can watch that and feel intimidated. No one can watch that and feel like, I don't know, I'm not good enough. It is so ridiculous and silly. It's meant to make anyone feel calm and at ease."

Butters did eventually study te reo full-time at Te Wānanga Takiura, so now his focus was on reaching others who might be too afraid to jump in.

"This is to people who feel that whakamā, who maybe feel a bit nervous. Remember, you already know more than you think you know. You belong here, te reo is yours, it's your birthright, even if you weren't born speaking it. It is yours, you belong here, no one can tell you that you don't belong here. So give it a go. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be complicated. The most simple, basic words and phrases are all you need and karawhiua."

'Completely ridiculous, completely silly'

The show is currently in the midst of airing its second season and Butters said he didn't want to write the show in English and translate it, that would defeat the purpose, so it's all written in te reo first.

He said the kaupapa was always made as a resource for his whānau first, who like him didn't grow up with te reo, to make learning a little bit easier,

As for what jokes made the cut he said there was no rhyme or reason other than if it made him laugh it went in.

"Some of the jokes that I was most worried about that seemed kind of even too silly or kind of dumb, really, people really like it. And then the jokes that are kind of more for me, I think a lot of people don't even realise that was meant to be a little funny moment and it's kind of just for me alone, I guess."

When translating jokes into English he said there was a constant balancing act, as sometimes jokes landed in te reo on their own and other times they only landed with the English translation added.

The show's humour is captured in its name Te Tari Tūtai, which translates to something like 'The Surveillance Department', as opposed to the similar sounding Te Tari Tūtae, which is 'The Poop Department'.

"So every time people are like, 'Te Tari, what?' I'm like, yeah, good. That's exactly what it's meant to do and I'm relieved when people react that way. But that's meant to be the whole point of it is it's just completely ridiculous, completely silly, there is nothing to be intimidated by."

How Te Tari Tūtai gets made

Butters said Te Tari Tūtai was still in the proof of concept phase, meaning it's all self-funded and while there were new characters introduced in the second season, for the first it was just him in a room filming himself - purely out of necessity.

"Sometimes when you piece it all together, it doesn't quite work how you imagined and so you have to adapt in post-production, but otherwise it's really just having that clear vision from the beginning."

The first step is to draw the backgrounds, the director of photography sketches the backgrounds then Butters goes over it, separating out the backgrounds to create a feeling of depth.

"When it comes to the characters, we film everything live action, all the costumes, the hair, the facial hair, the wigs, the sunglasses, all of that is created and designed in real life first."

Because Butters plays most of the characters a lot of work goes in to ensuring that everything is consistent, including the lighting and the angles.

Then they hand draw the key moments from the performance. AI-powered performance capture was then used to map the performance and movement onto the original drawing.

"Essentially it's taking the traditional animation where usually you'll have a key animator who will draw the main moments, and then you'll have assistant animators who do all the frames in between, and in this case we just draw the key moments and then use performance capture to fill in the blanks in between."

"And that's been a really key thing because it's taken about six months to do season 2 and that's all self-funded. If we were doing this traditionally, it would take maybe eight years for me to do, you know, self-funded. And so what's been really crucial about this is that we've been able to create it in its smallest form so that we can send it out into the world, people can experience it, it can benefit people's reo journey, they can learn something, they can have a laugh. And now we're in a position where we're starting to have those conversations to start going for funding for a season 3."

Now they have a proof of concept that is real, that showcases their original writing, original performing, original drawings all coming together, they were in a much stronger position to go for funding, he said.

"When I would say it's an action comedy about secret agents and it's all in Māori, the reaction was always kind of like, 'oh, I don't get, why is it in Māori? Like, what's it about?'. It was hard to just show that it's just an action comedy, but it's in Māori and the language is really simple. Like, it just was really hard for people to picture. And so that's why in the past I'd had so many experiences where you go for funding and there's just nothing because it's just too hard to imagine it before it's there."

Both the first and second seasons of Te Tari Tūtai are available to watch on YouTube at Pēnei Productions.