Hayop Ka!

When I stumbled upon the 2020 Tagalog animated movie "Hayop Ka!", I had no idea what I was getting myself into here. But I read the synopsis for it, and have to say that I was somewhat intrigued, as "Hayop Ka!" sounded like something definitely aimed at a more mature audience.

And I will say that writers Manny Angeles, Avid Liongoren and Paulle Olivenza definitely managed to put together a story and plot that was every bit as entertaining as it was enjoyable. So yeah, "Hayop Ka!" was a wholesome animated feature for a mature audience. And when I say mature audience I don't mean that it is XXX-rated, but merely that there were references and hits towards lewd nature.

The art style in "Hayop Ka!" was strange, but enjoyably so. Initially I was a bit taken aback by the art style, but it quickly grew on me and I came to enjoy the art style that they used here because it was definitely complimenting the story and the message of the movie.

With "Hayop Ka!" being an animated movie, a proper voice cast ensemble is a must. And luckily they did have that here. While I am not familiar with Tagalog cinema, then I wasn't familiar with a single voice here. But I will say that the voice acting was good and definitely gave the characters life on the screen.

I found "Hayop Ka!" to be an enjoyable surprise of a movie, and definitely is an animated movie that I would recommend for a mature audience that enjoys light-hearted and funny stories. The fact that "Hayop Ka!" was told as an animation wasn't really a hindrance in any way.

My rating of director Avid Liongoren's "Hayop Ka!" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Although the visuals looked so good, the story doesn't reach the Steven Spielberg storyline, but it could have some improvements

This is the funniest and coolest slice of life comedy that I've ever seen. This is the reality of life. I really loved every details of it. It's a sad and happy story. I laughed a lot with this film and the part where empoy sang almost brought me to tears. Thank you for the filipinos who did this. I hope you continue doing more of this amazing comedy film. That was very entertaining and honest. Great characters. Thank you very much. 🙂

During the first half of "Hayop Ka," tons of cliches from filipino teleseryes and movies were shown, including some funny jokes and references. But after an argument scene that features Robin Padilla's terrific voice acting, the film actually got better. Despite being quite annoying during the first half, the character of Nymfa won me over due to her journey and the ending wherein I realized that a lot of Filipinas end up with the same situation.

It's a good start! In fact, I can call the whole thing a masterpiece from a creative standpoint. Surprisingly, it was entertaining despite the usual Pinoy the-other-woman trope surrounding the plot (but come on... Filipinos are more than just a Telenovela audience). I have to commend the team behind this project, though, for being bold and for choosing an unconventional direction-we don't get to see a 2D-animated anthropomorphic characters featured in an adult infidelity-driven storyline everyday, do we? Overall, kudos to Rocketsheep Studio for a very fine job! The Philippine animation industry has really come a long way. Keep on!