You guys, ‘Hayop Ka!’ is beautifully animated and pretty okay
*Minor spoilers ahead*
ICYMI, ‘Hayop Ka! The Nimfa Dimaano Story’ is now out on Netflix. This is a pretty big deal since the film is the very first Filipino Netflix Original Animated Film. The studio behind it, Rocketsheep Studio, is also well-known within the animation industry, having produced 2016’s Saving Sally.
You might remember the film for that one year when the Metro Manila Film Festival decided to mostly field decent movies for a change.
But going back to ‘Hayop Ka’, is it any good? Is it worth spending an hour and 15 mins of your day to check it out? Long story short: Yes. It’s visually stunning, the animation is well done, Angelica Panganiban as the lead is just perfection, and the plot is just… okay.
I dunno if you’ve seen a lot of local mainstream TV and movies lately, but our industry isn’t exactly revered when it comes to anything related to ‘special effects’. There’s a dude on YouTube who literally garnered a following by roasting the likes of Victor Magtanggol.
It’s clearly not for the lack of talent. We’ve had several underappreciated entries over the years. Hayop Ka! serves as an overdue flex of the industry’s underrated skills.
Furry Manila (or at least that’s how I call it) is gorgeously well-detailed. Nimfa’s rollercoaster journey is conveyed through scenes with various inspirations, such as childhood animes, old-school video games, and even works of art.
Hayop Ka! serves as proof that if our animators are given the right budget, time, and platform, they deserve a spot among the genre’s best.
As for the plot, I honestly feel like it wasn’t the main focus of the film, which is why I said it was just okay. It’s your usual mistress, love triangle storyline that’s been a staple of Filipino cinema since the dawn of time.
It was also hard to feel for Nimfa, whose aspirations for a better life, while understandable, is mired with questionable decisions. As a character pointed out in the climax, she’s not a good person. And while she does get her just desserts in the end, by then my sympathy was nowhere to be found.
The story serves more as a vehicle – or an excuse – for Rocketsheep Studio to flex their wide range of skills to the audience. Normally, I’d be irked, but then I realized, the plot is not what I came to watch ‘Hayop Ka!‘ for.
You don’t watch Pacific Rim for its Oscar-winning plot. You just want to see giant robots beating the crap out of giant monsters. I watched Hayop Ka! to see Filipino animation in its full glory, to celebrate local animators getting their due, and that is what I got.
Maybe that’s just me. Angelica Panganiban is hilarious though. Empoy Marquez too. So there’s that.
Overall, go watch Hayop Ka!. Whether it’s in support of our local animators, your hidden fetish for furries, or just out of pure curiosity, go see it. It’s worth it, we promise.
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Source: we the pvblic
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