You animal (Hayop Ka! The nimfa Dimaano Story)

You animal (Hayop Ka! The nimfa Dimaano Story)
Original title:You animal (Hayop Ka! The nimfa Dimaano Story)
Director:Avid Liongoren
Release:Netflix
Running time:74 minutes
Release date:Not communicated
Rating:
It's a beautiful sunny morning, and already the streets of the city are very busy. Nimfa Dimaano is sitting in a fortune teller's tent and is about to discover what the future holds for her. What do the cards reveal? Well, it seems that the humble little shopkeeper is about to fall in love with two men simultaneously. How about that! Nimfa is excited. A lot of lovemaking ahead! But she should be careful what she wishes for. She'll have plenty of good times, yes, but there will also be moments of drama, dilemmas, headaches and heartbreak. Unable to choose between Roger the big muscular guy and Inigo the elegant playboy, Nimfa won't be able to keep her life from falling apart. Will our sexy little kitty be able to get back on her feet ?

Mulder's Review

It is always curious to discover in a festival dedicated to genre films, an animated film and even more so if it is made independently by studios in the Philippines. We discover Nimfa Dimaano, a pretty cat, selling perfume in a department store. Her lover, Roger, a macho dog, is a janitor. They live simply. However, when Nimfa meets Iñigo Villanueva, a bourgeois dog, their chemistry is instantaneous and puts her couple in danger. Will Nimfa and Iñigo's shared love of street food bring them together despite the social class that separates them?

Hayop Ka! The nimfa Dimaano Story does not reach the level of animation of the big Hollywood studios, but it is rather successful in its vocation to be a satire of telenovelas, these popular TV serials in the Philippines. Even if the main characters here are animals, the treatment is quite different from the one proposed by the Walt Disney Animations studios. 

The result is a film clearly intended for an adult audience that will not please everyone and whose animation shows us to what extent American animation studios have redefined the world. Apart from Japan, which is still capable of bringing great animated films to life, and a few French films, such as the recent excellent Pil, the animated cinema has a clearly defined landscape. 

The scenario of Manny Angeles, Paulle Olivenza is certainly a social caricature that hits right but would have deserved a better visual treatment. The result is a film that can be seen and forgotten immediately and that shows that to succeed in scripted and visual prowess as The Walt Disney Company does is not given to all the world animation studios. It's a real pity here because the initial idea was quite good.

You animal (Hayop Ka! The nimfa Dimaano Story)
Directed by Avid Liongoren
Produced by Manny Angeles, Joyce Bernal, E Del Mundo, Avid Liongoren, Piolo Pascual
Written by Manny Angeles, Paulle Olivenza 
Starring Empoy Marquez, Sam Milby, Arci Muñoz, Robin Padilla, Angelica Panganiban
Music by Len Calvo
Cinematography
Edited by Jether Amar, Avid Liongoren 
Production companies : Rocketsheep Studio, Spring Films
Distributed by Netflix
Release date : October 29, 2020 (United States)
Running time : 74 minutes

Seen on July 28, 2021 (Fantasia screener press)

Mulder's Mark: