Review:
Dayo
An ordinary boy is forced by bullies to burn a tree in the middle of the forest. The tree in retaliation kidnaps the boy's grandparents. Aided by a Manananggal, our hero journey's to the land of Elementalia where he meets Filipino elemetals.
Animation
There is only one word to describe the film itself--inconsistent. Animation movement ranges from fluid to robotic; sometimes it's giddy fast or snail mail slow. The same goes to the backgrounds (it was either breathtaking or drawn as if it were rushed) and animation form (there were times when the use of 3D became unnecessary) as well. In fact I don't even see the need to call this animation form as "tradigital" animation.
Another element that is lacking in Dayo is progression. It seems that much of the buildup involving the film were focused on promoting and marketing it.
There is one aspect that saved the film which is the visionary and inspired take on the ubiquitous Filipino myths and legends. Sadly, most of the visuals looked poorly rendered; oftentimes it looked much like pre-visual animation. It was indeed a delightful promise broken to the audience.
Another observation, there were scenes that would've had awesome action but were skipped perhaps to cost cut on expenses. I understand this, but there are many ways to bypass showing tedious action scenes; an example of these can be seen in B-movies.
Script and story
The story could have worked if it weren't for the numerous plot holes and lack of concrete direction. Like foreign animation, there were so many themes and conflicts that could've been added to fix this; even if the demographic is intended to be children. As for the script, the dialogue sounds forced. For some reason, there a few mainstream films that have mastered the art of having a relaxed and natural dialogue.
Cinematography and Editing
I don't understand why this animation film has cinematography that is limited to panning and zooming and almost no transition effects. It's as if there was no storyboarding to plan all the shots. And why do you have to toggle camera angles for every line spoken?
Song and Music
This element of the film could've been remarkable except for the fact that the music, which was recorded by an orchestra, was faint. The filmmakers forgot to tap this to highlight a scene or a portion of the action. As for the dialogue, it sounded unprocessed and raw. The songs, on the other hand, were either misplaced or lacked proper buildup.
Consensus
Despite this shortcomings, Dayo shows the era of self-produced original Filipino content is upon us. The output is good enough as it is, even if half of the production's promises were fulfilled. Also the elements pf the production design and story depicted an Asian culture influenced by Western beliefs.
With that said Filipino animation is on it's way to competitiveness, the hard part is choosing the path. I'm also looking forward to the promised sequel of this endeavor.
PS
What is very commendable with Dayo is marketing and promotions. How do you convince, among others, Timezone to do product placements in an MMFF film?
Originally posted at http://josephdreamer.multiply.com/reviews/item/8
Joseph Roc-Tabios
Writer | Arts Manager
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Comments:
I do not altogether agree with Joseph Tabios's review of Dayo. While the story can be fleshed up some more, I thought it was a rather good movie and a landmark for Philippine Cinema. What I mean by fleshing it up is injecting some metaphor into it. For example, why not let that villain Ugat be controlled by a little lady with big front teeth and a curious mole who wants to change the laws of Elementalia to keep Bubuy's Lola and Lola enslaved? At any rate, the movie did speak about relationships of children to their workaholic absentee fathers.
I don't know which theater you saw the movie in. I went to see it first with my wife at Trinoma, and then at Shangri-La with my nieces. I thought the sound was wonderful! The music lifts and carries the audience along with it! It was a feast to my ears, and apparently also to everyone who saw it. The two times I saw the movie it was greeted with applause at the end.
Maybe it's because of the sheer audacity of its producers to create a Filipino animated film vis-a-vis TVJ and Ai-Ai de las Eugene D. But also because the movie is so unapologetically Filipino. No comparing it to Disney/Pixar/Nickelodeon. It feels like they made the movie with no attempt to imitate Disney formula. It was Filipino! From the humor, to the mythic characters, to the respect and love for elders, to the theme song, to the actors, to the orchestra (FilHarmoniKa), to the singers (Lea Salonga and Roots of Nature).
I feel it's a movie we can be proud of! If there were any failures, it would be at the box office. I wonder why parents didn't bring their children to see this movie.
Rico Duran del Rosario <rico.thespian@gmail.com>
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