When the world is at a standstill, "Hayop Ka! The Nimfa Dimaano Story" is a revolt of cartoon literalism with worthwhile senselessness. At this point, it has the most fluid animation in a Filipino film, a victory for Rocketsheep Studio and Spring Films. "Hayop Ka!" houses sketched animal-persons moving more nimbly than the paper and board they were drawn on. Some three years since its teasers were played in theaters, the movie has been picked up by Netflix for streaming which should be a good strategy of serving the local flick to wider audiences.
About the eponymous cat perfume saleslady, "Hayop Ka!" is Nimfa Dimaano's fable and a voice-acting platform for Angelica Panganiban et al. The story of Nimfa, written by Avid Longioren, is as goes: she is ambitious but faultless in her rather subpar state of living (in pun district Krush Na Tigas) that reeks of poverty — a putrid present towards a gaseous future which she scents with the "masa" Sabella perfume she sells at the satirical Mall of Aso. This lady cat is a fool for romance, having a dog boyfriend named Roger (Robin Padilla), who works as a janitor at the same mall and services her day and night. Along comes tycoon, pooch Iñigo Villanueva (Sam Milby) to purchase a cologne from the department store where Nimfa works. Eventually, Iñigo and Nimfa form a love-laced affair.
The love triangle thus ensues. With it unfolds the tropes of a romance flick: the meet-cute, the dating, the falling in love and back hard to reality, then the final big gesture which "Hayop Ka!" opts to disselect. Instead, the animated movie's clever screenplay by Manny Angeles and Paulle Olivenza satiates the fizzling carnival with sharp quips like "You already have my big time."; "Pusang-ina mo!"; "...kasimbango ng bulaklak mo;" "Pakinggan mo muna ako, ate."; "Heto ang pinggan mo!" All these funny-tastic lines are complimented by the exactness of each shot's tiempo, arranged by writer-director Liongoren. So the comedic rhythm is on track with the animated slapsticks of the over-the-top animal cast (among it are Arci Muñoz, Eugene Domingo, Madeline Humphries, Empoy Marquez, Yeng Constantino, Piolo Pascual, and Joyce E. Bernal; the latter two being co-producers).
What may be a 2020 re-telling of George Orwell's "Animal Farm," "Hayop Ka!" has Nimfa, Roger, Iñigo and the rest of the fable residents as anthropomorphs, displaying human emotiveness yet characterized still by their wild counterparts. Padilla's growls are giggle-inducing even when Roger is foaming in his anger towards Nimfa's implied infidelity. Panganiban, on the other paw, is as boisterous as a feline's howl at night; only in "Hayop Ka!" she maintains her meowing at a high pitch around the clock. But Milby is intent as he is supposed to be — the husky-faced suave that could be unfeigned so long as he is petted.
Particular notice should be put on the rousing animation supervised by art director Jether Amar and lead animators Kevin Makasiar, Stephanie Atento, and Anne May Sy. The team has drawn umissable particles that ups the comical value of "Hayop Ka!," making a montage of love and comedy transfigured into optic fluency. Among these attention-grabbing segments are a spoof billboard of Lizarda; canteen signages "Talk Less, Sell More" and "Empawees Only;" and the now-iconic Pares Anghell's Kitchen. Unsatisfied with the distribution of penciled hilarity, the artists insert a skeleton and a treasure chest in the partition between the Mall of Aso's ground floor and employee cafeteria. For such fluidity, "Hayop Ka!" may have taken hundreds of frames sketched into a scene to finalize a thousand-frame sequence so Nimfa and the gang could be motioned with the ongoing action. The helicopter episode is finely rendered — outside the window brims atmospheric buildings and landscape, the colors of oil pastel from art class in living form. Not to mention the hindmost still of Quiapo Church where Nimfa is introduced at a fortune teller's, revealing the former's poverty-incurred hopefulness: the realist substance within the cartoon dimension.
"Hayop Ka!" has laughters that are only the surface of a lurking moral: the inevitable self-love that Nimfa achieves by exorcising her libido from her two lover dogs. The film even goes historical, deconstructing the meaning of "Nimfa" as being derived from the Greek lady spirit Nymph, hence the litany of sultry jokes throughout the animation. But self-love does not entail being lonesome, as the protagonist cat sires her kitten which may either be Roger's or Iñigo's or other's, given Nimfa's lovemaking nature. During the cat-bitch fight between she and Marie (Humphrey), Iñigo's "friend," the swinging of their limbs and claws are backdropped by the swooshing air, pictured athletically for urgent scale. That sequence is destined to be witnessed on the big screen, hopefully Netflix will distribute "Hayop Ka!" next to cinemas. For now, let savor the imagery of the Eiffel Tower peering over Pares Anghell's Kitchen. Sometimes, a daydream suffices its absence in actual site — the very fate that encircles ambitions in the Philippine microcosm, which "Hayop Ka!" is.
Director: Avid Longioren
Image ©️ Rocketsheep Studio, Spring Films, Netflix; YouTube.com
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