Michel Ocelot's "Kirikou and the Wild Beasts"

Kirikou and the Wild Beasts is the 2005 followup to Ocelot's 1998 Kirikou and the Sorceress. This  anthology of stories takes place within the Kirikou and the Sorceress timeline. Each episodes narrates Kirikou's ways of circumventing the Sorceress' oppressive tactics, or how the infant hero creatively manages human conflicts with wildlife.

Waterfall

Sorceress' House

Kirikou rides Giraffe

Michel Ocelot's "Kirikou and the Sorceress"

Kirikou and the Sorceress is a 1998 feature film from director Michel Ocelot. Based loosely on folklore that Ocelot was acquainted with during his childhood sojourn in Guinea,¹ this animated tale opens with the birth of the undersized but extremely precocious Kirikou.

The curious newborn hears from his mother that a powerful sorceress has stopped the community's water supply and annihilated all the men in the village. Upon learning that the his last surviving uncle has set off on a seemingly doomed quest to challenge the witch, the resourceful Kirikou rushes down the road of flame trees to assist his mother's youngest brother...

Karaba the Sorceress

Kirikou's uncle battles
the sorceress's minions

Haroon Rashid's Burka Avenger

In this animated series conceptualized by pop star Haroon Rashid, the superhero battles corrupt politicians and misogynistic extremists in a fictional Pakistani city.

Jia teaches at a girl's school by day and fights injustice as a burqa-wearing action heroine by night.

More about Burka Avenger:

• Burka Avenger: Pakistan's cartoon superhero battling for girls' education (TheGuardian.com)
• Burka Avenger, Pakistan's Newest Female Superhero, Set To Debut In GeoTV Cartoon Series In August (HuffingtonPost.com)

Yasuhiro Imagawa's "Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still"

Giant Robo assists
the warriors of Mount Liang

This retro-futuristic anime, inspired by Mitsuteru Yokoyama's manga of the same title, is set largely in a 2039 China that is simultaneously medieval, modern, and futuristic, where dirigibles, skyscrapers and trains co-exist with Taoist sorcerers and warriors on horseback.

A Japanese child Daisaku Kusama, recruited into the International Police Organization for his unique ability to command a powerful robot, goes to China to support the Beijing/Peking branch of the IPO. There he meets a colorful team of colleagues, many of them based on well-known characters from the Chinese classical novels Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin (aka Outlaws of the Marsh).

Michel Ocelot's "Azur & Asmar: The Princes' Quest"

In this animated feature directed by Michel Ocelot, a sojourning Saracen widow is employed as a nanny by a European nobleman. The widow Jenane treats her young charge Azur with the same love that she gives her biological son, Asmar. Both boys grow up listening to Jenane sing about the Djinn Fairy who awaits a rescuer to break her curse.

The two boys are close as brothers until Azur's father, annoyed by the rough horseplay between the children, and uncomfortable with the bilingual upbringing that Azur is receiving from Jenane,  expels the nanny and her son.

Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues

Animator/cartoonist Nina Paley's interpretation of the Ramayana utilizes diverse styles and novel approaches in the retelling of a traditional epic as an animated feature film.

Click left thumbnail to learn more about the film on the Sita Sings the Blue site.

Rémi Bezançon and Jean-Christophe Lie's Zarafa

Described by Variety as a 'fanciful retelling' of the journey of the first giraffe taken to France, Zarafa (Arabic for Giraffe) is set in 19th century Sudan, Egypt and France:
Maki, a young Sudanese boy, escapes from a French slave trader and befriends a giraffe calf.  When the giraffe is captured by an Arab man Hassan, Maki tags along with Hassan to protect his animal friend. The trio head to Europe when the giraffe Zarafa is sent to France by the Egyptians as a gift to the French king...

Zarafa links:
Official site
Zafara at 2012 Fantasia Film Festival
Zarafa: Berlin Film Review (The Hollywood Reporter)