August 23, 2023 • 23 mins
After settling the score that she did not imagine Mazinger Z's "pectorally-endowed" opponents from the last episode, Carmina and Patch discover Fil-Am animators making waves in the US before delving into the history of the Philippine animation industry. They also discuss celebrated original Pinoy animations across the spectrum of drama, comedy, and romance. Drop in and learn why Pinoys deserve recognition in this growing and much-loved creative space!
Congratulations to Iti Mapukpukaw (The Missing) for winning three major awards at the 19th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival: Best Supporting Actress for Dolly de Leon, NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) Award, and Best Film.
Learn more: The case of the Philippines animation industry, The Philippine Film Animation Industry and Its History of Captivity, LIST: 5 Pinoy animated films and series to watch this Buwan ng Wika, Animation industry poised for transition from outsourcing to original content, Why the Time Is Ripe for Animation in Philippine Feature-Length Films, The Perforation in Philippine Animation Industry: Original Content Full Length Animated Films, 17th Animahenasyon Philippine Animation Festival – Call for Entry 2023, and Re-animating Philippine Cinema: For Filipinos by Filipinos.
To support FilTrip, go to the Patreon page here and PayPal page here.
Visit https://filtrip.buzzsprout.com. Drop a note at thefiltrip@gmail.com.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carmina (00:06):
Welcome to FilTrip, a podcast where we explore
everything fun, weird, and inbetween about the Philippines.
And now a quick shout out.
Check out Manila Candle. ManilaCandle features Filipino
inspired scents like Tagaytay,Palawan, Ube Halaya and Buco
(00:28):
and Mango. They also have funones like Ay Nako and Bahala Ka
Sa Buhay Mo.
Patch (00:35):
Enjoy their car fresheners, wax melts and
merchandise too. Visitmanilacandle.com and take a
trip to the Philippines throughtheir scents.
Carmina (00:46):
Back to our show.
Today's trip is a culture tripwhen we explore Filipino
customs and way of life. Andtoday we're going to continue a
very interesting discussionthat we had last episode when
we were talking about ourfavorite cartoons when we were
growing up. So we kind ofteased it last time, Patch,
(01:07):
right?
Patch (01:08):
We were laughing about my recollection of a certain
robot.
Carmina (01:12):
Yes.
Patch (01:13):
It was vivid in my uh , memory that this robot had
unique weapons and it's herboobs were missiles.
Carmina (01:22):
I know you went down a rabbit hole 'cause it bothered
you so much.
Patch (01:27):
. I was
disturbed. It really was , uh,
a robot. As a matter of fact,she was part of the Mazinger Z
franchise.
Carmina (01:36):
What's she called again? .
Patch (01:39):
Aphrodite A
Carmina (01:41):
Whoa .
Patch (01:42):
I guess she was created from the remains of the Greek
goddess Aphrodite. Anyway, see,I remember the important
things.
Carmina (01:52):
How do you improve upon that weapon?,
Patch (01:55):
You don't, honestly,
Carmina (01:57):
I mean my imagination is running wild right now, but
okay, let's leave Mazinger Zbehind.
Patch (02:03):
. In our
research, we came across
animation in the Philippines,right?
Carmina (02:08):
Before I hand it to you for the history, I was also
reading so much about theFil-Am animators who have been
making waves here. This episodeis about the animation industry
in the Philippines. But since Ifound these, I just wanted to
mention them.
Patch (02:24):
Mm-hmm..
Carmina (02:25):
Pixar released a short film titled Float and it
featured the first Fil-Am leadcharacters.
Patch (02:34):
The creator was Filipino, right?
Carmina (02:36):
His name is Bobby Rubio. He worked on other Pixar
films like Up, Inside Out, andThe Incredible Stew, and I
loved all those films. So heapparently works with two other
Fil-Ams, Nelson Bohol and PaulAbadilla and get this, Patch -
Nelson included a nipa hut onanother very famous film
(02:58):
Finding Nemo.
Patch (03:00):
Hmm.
Carmina (03:00):
Did you even notice that? I didn't even notice
that.
Patch (03:04):
No. I don't know if you came across the same, like,
trivia about it. Do youremember this part in Finding
Nemo when there was this diverand on the goggles it said P
Sherman?
Carmina (03:16):
Yeah.
Patch (03:16):
It's because a lot of Filipino animators were working
on that film and it was a shoutout to them because of our
Filipino accent, we sayfishermen as "pishermen."
Carmina (03:29):
Oh my gosh. I did not know that.
Patch (03:34):
Isn't that cute?
Carmina (03:36):
That is so cool.
Patch (03:38):
Yeah.
Carmina (03:39):
And also speaking about Finding Nemo , we know
that it had a sequel, right?
Finding Dory.
Patch (03:44):
Right.
Carmina (03:45):
Paul Abadilla also worked on Finding Dory and
Monster University too, whichis something that I like as
well. And then there's anotheranimation called Blush on Apple
TV. Have you heard about thatone?
Patch (03:59):
That one I did not hear about.
Carmina (04:00):
It's about a gardener-astronaut who crashed
lands in an empty planet andthere he meets another person
who crash-landed. It has a verysad backstory that we'll link
in our show notes involving thewife of the creator, Joe Mateo
, a former Disney animator. SoI won't spoil it here. Just go
(04:22):
to the show notes and read upon it.
Patch (04:25):
Carmina , did you come across Bobby Pontillas?
Carmina (04:28):
No.
Patch (04:29):
Bobby Pontillas is a Filipino-American animator
whose film was nominated for anOscar. It was a short film
called One Small Step.
Carmina (04:42):
Patch, he actually did win in 2019.
Patch (04:46):
There you go. So you know, hopefully more Filipinos
win 'cause certainly there's somuch talent as we'll discuss in
this episode.
Carmina (04:56):
Just let me go into a little bit about the current
state of affairs of Philippineanimation. So these are some
statistics from the 2022 GDPand Employment Report about the
Philippine animation industry.
In 2022, it contributedapproximately 0.6% to the
(05:16):
country's GDP. And it wasapparently an expansion from
before and primarily driven bysuch a huge growing global
demand for animated content.
Patch (05:27):
It is over $300 billion in the US and in Japan, it's
approximately one point 31trillion Japanese yen.
Carmina (05:38):
And of course, as we know, the Philippines is a very
prominent player in thestrategic outsourcing space.
The industry generatedapproximately 40,000 jobs in
2022 alone. It really isgrowing in significance in the
Philippines employmentlandscape.
Patch (05:57):
If we have the support, can you imagine how much it can
contribute more in thePhilippine economy?
Carmina (06:05):
Both the Film Development Council of the
Philippines and the AnimationCouncil of the Philippines
support a strategic vision forthe local animation industry.
And both organizations are veryactive through funding,
networking opportunities andreally developing the local
talent.
Patch (06:26):
I really want to talk about the history because in
this research, I was trying tounderstand how did we get to
where we are right now. Do youremember Larry Alcala ?
Carmina (06:36):
Yes. I used to look forward to his cartoons in the
paper.
Patch (06:41):
Right? So for me, he was the OG, right?
Carmina (06:45):
Yeah. Is he the one who embedded his profile? It
became kind of a national gameto spot it, right?
Patch (06:53):
He was the pioneer. But in 1941, animation arrived in
the Philippines a few monthsbefore World War II as a
special effects support for thefilm Ibong Adarna.
Carmina (07:06):
Ah, I know that movie too. .
Patch (07:08):
Yes, uh , familiar to us Filipinos. And in 1953, that's
when the comics illustrator andcartoonist Larry Alcala created
a short black and white videodepicting a girl jumping rope
and a boy playing with a yo-yo.
And eventually animation wasused to sell some products. And
(07:31):
in fact, in 1955, Jose ZabalaSantos and Francisco Reyes
created a six-minute commercialfor cooking oil featuring Juan
Tamad .
Carmina (07:43):
Oh,.
Patch (07:45):
Yeah, another iconic character for us.
Carmina (07:47):
For those who need the translation, Tamad means lazy.
So I guess you can call it LazyJuan, or if you Americanize it,
it's Lazy John .
Patch (07:58):
Right. And then in 1974, Severino Nonoy Marcelo created
a seven-minute animated shortfilm, Annie Batungbakal as the
pilot episode for the Tadhanafilm. Now Tadhana is very
important in the history ofPhilippine animation because it
(08:19):
is the first feature-lengthanimated film and was released
in 1978 during the pre-MartialLaw era of Ferdinand Marcos .
It was used primarily from thatadministration's perspective.
Carmina (08:35):
Oh , so you mean propaganda.
Patch (08:38):
Exactly. I think it encouraged a lot of Filipino
animators to show political andsocial issues through their
work. In short films, twoprominent artists were the
Alcazaren brothers who usedClaymation and a lot of their
work talked about social issuesat that time. And one such work
(09:01):
is the Pagpula or Becoming Red,which was released in 1984. So
the eighties came, and localanimators would explore making
cartoon narratives geared forthe public. Such works include
Ang Panday.
Carmina (09:19):
So Patch , the first Filipino made cartoon for TV
was Panday, Panday. In Englishis Carpenter Right? Or builder,
something like that.
Patch (09:28):
Right.
Carmina (09:29):
And it was created by Jerry Garcia in 1986 based on
the comic book character of thesame name produced by Carlo J.
Caparas. And it began airing inNovember of 1986.
Patch (09:43):
A couple of other prominent animation series,
Captain Barbell and Darna.
Darna is the Wonder Woman ofour culture, I guess,
right?
Carmina (09:55):
Yes. I mean, I love Darna, don't get me wrong, but
there definitely are callbacksto Wonder Woman ,
Patch (10:02):
.
Carmina (10:03):
We were so lucky because when we were growing up
in the eighties, that reallywas considered the Golden Age
of the Filipino animationindustry. So we were kind of
exposed to all of theseemerging talents.
Patch (10:17):
What's interesting though is even with this
so-called Golden Age,unfortunately animators
struggled to create freshcontent due to the high cost of
production and a drop in thedemand for Filipino animated
films. And this is when I guesswe started subcontracting work
(10:40):
for foreign studios. This wasin the eighties.
Carmina (10:43):
I read that in 1991, the Foreign Investment Act was
signed into law. And that kindof opened up all kinds of
foreign investments in thePhilippines. Before that, local
businesses were veryprotectionist and they were
really very vigilant againstintroducing foreign influences
into any kind of industry. Andthis is really what paved the
(11:07):
way to subcontract andoutsource projects. And it made
a huge impact on the Filipinoanimation industry. And since
then, the trend in animation isthat foreign companies set up
local studios which allowedlocal artists to train for
international animationprojects. Among the first is
(11:28):
Burbank Animation Inc. And thenAsian Animation, Phil Cartoons
and Toie. And there were alsoImagine Asia Inc . and Digital
Eye Candy. So these companieswere at the forefront of
increasing demand on localanimators.
Patch (11:45):
Some of the animation done in the Philippines were
Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo.
Carmina (11:52):
What?
Patch (11:54):
Yes. And then for Toie, there was Dragon Ball Z and
Slam Dunk.
Carmina (11:59):
So in the beginning, animation was apparently
something that was taughtpeer-to-peer or through
on-the-job training, orFilipinos going to the US or
Europe to study animationelsewhere. And then in the late
eighties, there slowly startedofferings for practitioners and
(12:20):
newcomers, but they weren'treally formal education
vehicles. And then in the latenineties, different training
centers that really tackled IT,branched out and started
offering education to animatorsrelated to software. So by the
2000s, there were manyundergraduate degree courses in
(12:42):
fine arts and multimedia artsthat also incorporated
animation in their curriculum.
By the time the 2010s rolledaround , even universities,
colleges and high schoolsincluded animation in their
courses.
Patch (12:58):
Most of our animators are cartoonists. They graduate
with a fine arts degree. SoToon City , which is a
prominent studio in thePhilippines, they've done a lot
of work for Walt Disney. Theyare going to partner with a
university in Cebu.
Carmina (13:17):
Mm.
Patch (13:18):
They're going to try to elevate the fine arts program
for those who specifically wantto go into animation. Their
goal is for these graduates tobe industry-ready.
Carmina (13:30):
As we said in the beginning, there is so much
demand for animation worldwide.
Patch (13:36):
While we are very happy, Filipino animators having work
available to them in thePhilippines, one of the
articles I came across, theymentioned it's like a shoe
factory. They only put togetherthe product, but the shoe
itself is not something thatthey own.
Carmina (13:55):
Mm-hmm .
Patch (13:56):
What the industry is trying to do is to concentrate
more on original content.
Globally, there's so muchdemand for unique stories and
we have so much to offer as faras our Philippine folklore,
origin tales, for example,Trese in Netflix here in the
(14:19):
US.
Carmina (14:20):
Yeah, we talked about that in our very first episode.
Patch (14:24):
I was kind of disappointed to learn that it
was produced by some Malaysianor Singaporean company.
Carmina (14:29):
Why?
Patch (14:30):
Yeah, I mean , of course I am not saying that
necessarily a bad thing, right?
Because the fact that theseinternational corporations are
interested in Filipino contentis still a good thing, right?
Carmina (14:42):
Mm-hmm.
Patch (14:43):
There's quite a few noteworthy animated films based
on our folklore, et cetera .
Some of them include Dayo saMundo ng Elementia featuring
monsters from fables andmonsters from our culture. And
there's also M anang Biring.
Carmina (15:03):
So Manang Biring is a comedy drama again about a
terminally ill old lady who hasaccepted that she was gonna die
until she receives a letterfrom a daughter who's been
living abroad and returning forthe holidays. The way the movie
was made is very, very unique,and we'll put a link in our
(15:24):
show notes. It's basicallybased on the actors portrayed
that makes them look likecartoons.
Patch (15:32):
Oh.
Carmina (15:33):
It was made using a technique called the
roto-scoping technique, whichis animating on top of live
action footage.
Patch (15:42):
Okay .
Carmina (15:43):
And critics said it made the whole experience
really more poignant than itwould've been if it was just
straight animation or straightlive action.
Patch (15:53):
Okay. Speaking of that type of animation, that film
was by Carl Joseph Papa . Icame across another work that's
more recent, it's called ItiMapukpukaw, which is a
full-length animated featurefilm.
Carmina (16:09):
Mm-hmm.
.
Patch (16:10):
And it uses the same technique. The topics that this
animator chooses to work withare often very controversial,
especially for our culture,which is very conservative in
the Philippines.
Carmina (16:26):
Mm-hmm.
.
Patch (16:27):
But this particular film, it's so unique. I saw
clips of it. So the maincharacter does not have a
mouth.
Carmina (16:34):
Ah.
Patch (16:35):
And the way he communicates, I believe is by
writing. But there's so manyback stories to why he doesn't
have a mouth. And the issuesincorporated in the storyline,
I'm not going to spoil it foranyone, but talks about abuse.
I don't know how to say itwithout spoiling .
Carmina (16:55):
Okay. Don't spoil.
'cause I'm sure people are nowgonna be curious. But what year
was it created?
Patch (17:01):
I believe it was released this year. 2023. So do
you remember this award-winningFilipino Dolly DeLeon?
Carmina (17:09):
Mm-hmm.
.
Patch (17:09):
She is the mom in this feature film. I really wish
that it would be available herebecause I'm curious and I'm
very excited to watch thisfilm.
Carmina (17:19):
Yeah, I really hope so. I'm gonna watch out for
that too.
Patch (17:22):
Speaking of trailblazers, there's also
another work Dayo ng Elementia,which is notable for it being
the first Philippine animatedfilm.
Carmina (17:34):
So just to interject, the English translation of what
you just said is the WandererIn The land of Elementia. So
Dayo takes the honor of beingone of the first, certainly not
the only first, but one of thefirst feature animated films.
And the storyline included alot of mythological characters.
(17:55):
The deeper meaning had to dowith having courage to face his
problems. So the main characterBuboy, was introduced as
someone who was being bulliedby his classmates. And instead
of fighting back, he just lethimself be bullied. Again, not
to spoil anything, there willbe a certain point in his life
that will force him to fightback. And a lot of Filipinos
(18:18):
loved it because a lot of ourpop culture was represented
like the giant wooden spoon andforks displayed on the wall.
or the LastSupper painting. I'm gonna stop
there because uh , if Icontinue to gush , I'll
definitely spoil it.
Patch (18:35):
There's also another work Metanoia , which takes the
award for being the firstanimated film presented in 3D.
Carmina (18:43):
Mm.
Patch (18:45):
I guess this is another pioneering work. So it
represents Filipino culture byhighlighting traditional games
played by kids in thePhilippines. And I remember a
previous episode that we did ,uh, that featured the
traditional games that we don'tsee anymore . Well certainly
(19:05):
not , certainly not here wherewe are, but even in the
Philippines, right?
Carmina (19:09):
Right.
Patch (19:09):
It also highlights the issue of children spending more
time in the computers insteadof playing outside and playing
these traditional games. Ourmain character is a boy named
Nico and he hides in his roomand does what he's good at,
which is playing a popularcomputer game, Metanoia. And
(19:33):
that's where our adventurestarts.
Carmina (19:37):
I think I couldn't help but notice that a lot of
these things that we'rementioning were, you know, kind
of older, right, and I'm reallylooking forward to newer
offerings from Pinoy animatorstackling very Pinoy themes.
Patch (19:53):
So I came across another interesting work. It's a
romantic comedy. It's calledHayop Ka, The Nimfa Dimaano
Stiry, which is one of the few,again, that is for the mature
audience.
Carmina (20:07):
In, other words, rated R.
Patch (20:10):
. Yes. The main
character is a cat salesperson.
Carmina (20:16):
. I saw a
YouTube clip of this.
Patch (20:20):
So she gets into this romance with a wealthy dog
named in Inigo .
Carmina (20:26):
Yes we should
say that this pussycat
Patch (20:31):
Carmina (20:33):
Was portrayed very provocatively. It's so funny
and cute.
Patch (20:40):
And fittingly,
the guys are dogs. ,
but...
Carmina (20:45):
So there's basically a love triangle, right?
Patch (20:48):
Yes. It's very entertaining.
Carmina (20:51):
So Patch, there's this animation festival called
Animahenasyon, which is thePhilippines' Animation
Festival. It's celebrating its17th year, and they're calling
for entries right now from allFilipino filmmakers until
September 15th, 2023. It's anannual festival organized by
(21:12):
the Animation Council of thePhilippines, and it aims to
encourage production oforiginal content, recognize
Filipino talents in the fieldof animation, and encourage
creative excellence andcompetitiveness. We're gonna
link in our show notes thedescription of this festival
and the eligibilityrequirements, in case anybody
(21:34):
wants to enter this.
Patch (21:35):
You sound very interested in it, Carmina, are
you , are you thinking of maybe perhaps turning perhaps
our lives intoanimation because in fact, it's
very cartoonish .
Carmina (21:53):
Well, the only figures I'm capable of drawing are
stick ones. Oh. So not for me,but maybe someone might be
inspired. .
Patch (22:05):
For me, on a personal level, I'm very excited to come
across all these works ofanimation. And it gives me much
hope that not only in theanimation industry, but even in
just the creative industry ingeneral, there is clamor for
original content, notnecessarily just the
(22:26):
celebrity-oriented featuresthat we were used to growing
up. So there's much to lookforward to in the Philippine
animation industry.
Carmina (22:35):
And I'll be cheering them on from the sidelines
because I certainly cannotcontribute.
Patch (22:41):
. Me neither.
Carmina (22:42):
And with that, that's our episode. We hope you join
us on our next trip. O siya,siya.
Patch (22:48):
Ingat. Thanks for listening to FilTrip with
Carmina and Patch. SupportFilTrip through Patreon or
PayPal. And follow us onInstagram and Twitter.
Subscribe at Apple Podcasts,Spotify, or wherever all
podcasts are downloaded.
Carmina (23:07):
Thanks to Filtrip's sponsor Solepack, a functional
shoe accessory bag. Visitthesolepack.com for more
details.
Patch (23:16):
Email us at thefiltrip @gmail.com .
Welcome to FilTrip, a podcast where we explore
everything fun, weird, and inbetween about the Philippines.
And now a quick shout out.
Check out Manila Candle. ManilaCandle features Filipino
inspired scents like Tagaytay,Palawan, Ube Halaya and Buco
(00:28):
and Mango. They also have funones like Ay Nako and Bahala Ka
Sa Buhay Mo.
Patch (00:35):
Enjoy their car fresheners, wax melts and
merchandise too. Visitmanilacandle.com and take a
trip to the Philippines throughtheir scents.
Carmina (00:46):
Back to our show.
Today's trip is a culture tripwhen we explore Filipino
customs and way of life. Andtoday we're going to continue a
very interesting discussionthat we had last episode when
we were talking about ourfavorite cartoons when we were
growing up. So we kind ofteased it last time, Patch,
(01:07):
right?
Patch (01:08):
We were laughing about my recollection of a certain
robot.
Carmina (01:12):
Yes.
Patch (01:13):
It was vivid in my uh , memory that this robot had
unique weapons and it's herboobs were missiles.
Carmina (01:22):
I know you went down a rabbit hole 'cause it bothered
you so much.
Patch (01:27):
a robot. As a matter of fact,she was part of the Mazinger Z
franchise.
Carmina (01:36):
What's she called again?
Patch (01:39):
Aphrodite A
Carmina (01:41):
Whoa .
Patch (01:42):
I guess she was created from the remains of the Greek
goddess Aphrodite. Anyway, see,I remember the important
things.
Carmina (01:52):
How do you improve upon that weapon?
Patch (01:55):
You don't, honestly,
Carmina (01:57):
I mean my imagination is running wild right now, but
okay, let's leave Mazinger Zbehind.
Patch (02:03):
animation in the Philippines,right?
Carmina (02:08):
Before I hand it to you for the history, I was also
reading so much about theFil-Am animators who have been
making waves here. This episodeis about the animation industry
in the Philippines. But since Ifound these, I just wanted to
mention them.
Patch (02:24):
Mm-hmm.
Carmina (02:25):
Pixar released a short film titled Float and it
featured the first Fil-Am leadcharacters.
Patch (02:34):
The creator was Filipino, right?
Carmina (02:36):
His name is Bobby Rubio. He worked on other Pixar
films like Up, Inside Out, andThe Incredible Stew, and I
loved all those films. So heapparently works with two other
Fil-Ams, Nelson Bohol and PaulAbadilla and get this, Patch -
Nelson included a nipa hut onanother very famous film
(02:58):
Finding Nemo.
Patch (03:00):
Hmm.
Carmina (03:00):
Did you even notice that? I didn't even notice
that.
Patch (03:04):
No. I don't know if you came across the same, like,
trivia about it. Do youremember this part in Finding
Nemo when there was this diverand on the goggles it said P
Sherman?
Carmina (03:16):
Yeah.
Patch (03:16):
It's because a lot of Filipino animators were working
on that film and it was a shoutout to them because of our
Filipino accent, we sayfishermen as "pishermen."
Carmina (03:29):
Oh my gosh. I did not know that.
Patch (03:34):
Isn't that cute?
Carmina (03:36):
That is so cool.
Patch (03:38):
Yeah.
Carmina (03:39):
And also speaking about Finding Nemo , we know
that it had a sequel, right?
Finding Dory.
Patch (03:44):
Right.
Carmina (03:45):
Paul Abadilla also worked on Finding Dory and
Monster University too, whichis something that I like as
well. And then there's anotheranimation called Blush on Apple
TV. Have you heard about thatone?
Patch (03:59):
That one I did not hear about.
Carmina (04:00):
It's about a gardener-astronaut who crashed
lands in an empty planet andthere he meets another person
who crash-landed. It has a verysad backstory that we'll link
in our show notes involving thewife of the creator, Joe Mateo
, a former Disney animator. SoI won't spoil it here. Just go
(04:22):
to the show notes and read upon it.
Patch (04:25):
Carmina , did you come across Bobby Pontillas?
Carmina (04:28):
No.
Patch (04:29):
Bobby Pontillas is a Filipino-American animator
whose film was nominated for anOscar. It was a short film
called One Small Step.
Carmina (04:42):
Patch, he actually did win in 2019.
Patch (04:46):
There you go. So you know, hopefully more Filipinos
win 'cause certainly there's somuch talent as we'll discuss in
this episode.
Carmina (04:56):
Just let me go into a little bit about the current
state of affairs of Philippineanimation. So these are some
statistics from the 2022 GDPand Employment Report about the
Philippine animation industry.
In 2022, it contributedapproximately 0.6% to the
(05:16):
country's GDP. And it wasapparently an expansion from
before and primarily driven bysuch a huge growing global
demand for animated content.
Patch (05:27):
It is over $300 billion in the US and in Japan, it's
approximately one point 31trillion Japanese yen.
Carmina (05:38):
And of course, as we know, the Philippines is a very
prominent player in thestrategic outsourcing space.
The industry generatedapproximately 40,000 jobs in
2022 alone. It really isgrowing in significance in the
Philippines employmentlandscape.
Patch (05:57):
If we have the support, can you imagine how much it can
contribute more in thePhilippine economy?
Carmina (06:05):
Both the Film Development Council of the
Philippines and the AnimationCouncil of the Philippines
support a strategic vision forthe local animation industry.
And both organizations are veryactive through funding,
networking opportunities andreally developing the local
talent.
Patch (06:26):
I really want to talk about the history because in
this research, I was trying tounderstand how did we get to
where we are right now. Do youremember Larry Alcala ?
Carmina (06:36):
Yes. I used to look forward to his cartoons in the
paper.
Patch (06:41):
Right? So for me, he was the OG, right?
Carmina (06:45):
Yeah. Is he the one who embedded his profile? It
became kind of a national gameto spot it, right?
Patch (06:53):
He was the pioneer. But in 1941, animation arrived in
the Philippines a few monthsbefore World War II as a
special effects support for thefilm Ibong Adarna.
Carmina (07:06):
Ah, I know that movie too.
Patch (07:08):
Yes, uh , familiar to us Filipinos. And in 1953, that's
when the comics illustrator andcartoonist Larry Alcala created
a short black and white videodepicting a girl jumping rope
and a boy playing with a yo-yo.
And eventually animation wasused to sell some products. And
(07:31):
in fact, in 1955, Jose ZabalaSantos and Francisco Reyes
created a six-minute commercialfor cooking oil featuring Juan
Tamad .
Carmina (07:43):
Oh,
Patch (07:45):
Yeah, another iconic character for us.
Carmina (07:47):
For those who need the translation, Tamad means lazy.
So I guess you can call it LazyJuan, or if you Americanize it,
it's Lazy John
Patch (07:58):
Right. And then in 1974, Severino Nonoy Marcelo created
a seven-minute animated shortfilm, Annie Batungbakal as the
pilot episode for the Tadhanafilm. Now Tadhana is very
important in the history ofPhilippine animation because it
(08:19):
is the first feature-lengthanimated film and was released
in 1978 during the pre-MartialLaw era of Ferdinand Marcos .
It was used primarily from thatadministration's perspective.
Carmina (08:35):
Oh , so you mean propaganda
Patch (08:38):
Exactly. I think it encouraged a lot of Filipino
animators to show political andsocial issues through their
work. In short films, twoprominent artists were the
Alcazaren brothers who usedClaymation and a lot of their
work talked about social issuesat that time. And one such work
(09:01):
is the Pagpula or Becoming Red,which was released in 1984. So
the eighties came, and localanimators would explore making
cartoon narratives geared forthe public. Such works include
Ang Panday.
Carmina (09:19):
So Patch , the first Filipino made cartoon for TV
was Panday, Panday. In Englishis Carpenter Right? Or builder,
something like that.
Patch (09:28):
Right.
Carmina (09:29):
And it was created by Jerry Garcia in 1986 based on
the comic book character of thesame name produced by Carlo J.
Caparas. And it began airing inNovember of 1986.
Patch (09:43):
A couple of other prominent animation series,
Captain Barbell and Darna.
Darna is the Wonder Woman ofour
right?
Carmina (09:55):
Yes. I mean, I love Darna, don't get me wrong, but
there definitely are callbacksto Wonder Woman ,
Patch (10:02):
Carmina (10:03):
We were so lucky because when we were growing up
in the eighties, that reallywas considered the Golden Age
of the Filipino animationindustry. So we were kind of
exposed to all of theseemerging talents.
Patch (10:17):
What's interesting though is even with this
so-called Golden Age,unfortunately animators
struggled to create freshcontent due to the high cost of
production and a drop in thedemand for Filipino animated
films. And this is when I guesswe started subcontracting work
(10:40):
for foreign studios. This wasin the eighties.
Carmina (10:43):
I read that in 1991, the Foreign Investment Act was
signed into law. And that kindof opened up all kinds of
foreign investments in thePhilippines. Before that, local
businesses were veryprotectionist and they were
really very vigilant againstintroducing foreign influences
into any kind of industry. Andthis is really what paved the
(11:07):
way to subcontract andoutsource projects. And it made
a huge impact on the Filipinoanimation industry. And since
then, the trend in animation isthat foreign companies set up
local studios which allowedlocal artists to train for
international animationprojects. Among the first is
(11:28):
Burbank Animation Inc. And thenAsian Animation, Phil Cartoons
and Toie. And there were alsoImagine Asia Inc . and Digital
Eye Candy. So these companieswere at the forefront of
increasing demand on localanimators.
Patch (11:45):
Some of the animation done in the Philippines were
Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo.
Carmina (11:52):
What?
Patch (11:54):
Yes. And then for Toie, there was Dragon Ball Z and
Slam Dunk.
Carmina (11:59):
So in the beginning, animation was apparently
something that was taughtpeer-to-peer or through
on-the-job training, orFilipinos going to the US or
Europe to study animationelsewhere. And then in the late
eighties, there slowly startedofferings for practitioners and
(12:20):
newcomers, but they weren'treally formal education
vehicles. And then in the latenineties, different training
centers that really tackled IT,branched out and started
offering education to animatorsrelated to software. So by the
2000s, there were manyundergraduate degree courses in
(12:42):
fine arts and multimedia artsthat also incorporated
animation in their curriculum.
By the time the 2010s rolledaround , even universities,
colleges and high schoolsincluded animation in their
courses.
Patch (12:58):
Most of our animators are cartoonists. They graduate
with a fine arts degree. SoToon City , which is a
prominent studio in thePhilippines, they've done a lot
of work for Walt Disney. Theyare going to partner with a
university in Cebu.
Carmina (13:17):
Mm.
Patch (13:18):
They're going to try to elevate the fine arts program
for those who specifically wantto go into animation. Their
goal is for these graduates tobe industry-ready.
Carmina (13:30):
As we said in the beginning, there is so much
demand for animation worldwide.
Patch (13:36):
While we are very happy, Filipino animators having work
available to them in thePhilippines, one of the
articles I came across, theymentioned it's like a shoe
factory. They only put togetherthe product, but the shoe
itself is not something thatthey own.
Carmina (13:55):
Mm-hmm
Patch (13:56):
What the industry is trying to do is to concentrate
more on original content.
Globally, there's so muchdemand for unique stories and
we have so much to offer as faras our Philippine folklore,
origin tales, for example,Trese in Netflix here in the
(14:19):
US.
Carmina (14:20):
Yeah, we talked about that in our very first episode.
Patch (14:24):
I was kind of disappointed to learn that it
was produced by some Malaysianor Singaporean company.
Carmina (14:29):
Why?
Patch (14:30):
Yeah, I mean , of course I am not saying that
necessarily a bad thing, right?
Because the fact that theseinternational corporations are
interested in Filipino contentis still a good thing, right?
Carmina (14:42):
Mm-hmm.
Patch (14:43):
There's quite a few noteworthy animated films based
on our folklore, et cetera .
Some of them include Dayo saMundo ng Elementia featuring
monsters from fables andmonsters from our culture. And
there's also M anang Biring.
Carmina (15:03):
So Manang Biring is a comedy drama again about a
terminally ill old lady who hasaccepted that she was gonna die
until she receives a letterfrom a daughter who's been
living abroad and returning forthe holidays. The way the movie
was made is very, very unique,and we'll put a link in our
(15:24):
show notes. It's basicallybased on the actors portrayed
that makes them look likecartoons.
Patch (15:32):
Oh.
Carmina (15:33):
It was made using a technique called the
roto-scoping technique, whichis animating on top of live
action footage.
Patch (15:42):
Okay .
Carmina (15:43):
And critics said it made the whole experience
really more poignant than itwould've been if it was just
straight animation or straightlive action.
Patch (15:53):
Okay. Speaking of that type of animation, that film
was by Carl Joseph Papa . Icame across another work that's
more recent, it's called ItiMapukpukaw, which is a
full-length animated featurefilm.
Carmina (16:09):
Mm-hmm.
Patch (16:10):
And it uses the same technique. The topics that this
animator chooses to work withare often very controversial,
especially for our culture,which is very conservative in
the Philippines.
Carmina (16:26):
Mm-hmm.
Patch (16:27):
But this particular film, it's so unique. I saw
clips of it. So the maincharacter does not have a
mouth.
Carmina (16:34):
Ah.
Patch (16:35):
And the way he communicates, I believe is by
writing. But there's so manyback stories to why he doesn't
have a mouth. And the issuesincorporated in the storyline,
I'm not going to spoil it foranyone, but talks about abuse.
I don't know how to say itwithout spoiling
Carmina (16:55):
Okay. Don't spoil.
'cause I'm sure people are nowgonna be curious. But what year
was it created?
Patch (17:01):
I believe it was released this year. 2023. So do
you remember this award-winningFilipino Dolly DeLeon?
Carmina (17:09):
Mm-hmm.
Patch (17:09):
She is the mom in this feature film. I really wish
that it would be available herebecause I'm curious and I'm
very excited to watch thisfilm.
Carmina (17:19):
Yeah, I really hope so. I'm gonna watch out for
that too.
Patch (17:22):
Speaking of trailblazers, there's also
another work Dayo ng Elementia,which is notable for it being
the first Philippine animatedfilm.
Carmina (17:34):
So just to interject, the English translation of what
you just said is the WandererIn The land of Elementia. So
Dayo takes the honor of beingone of the first, certainly not
the only first, but one of thefirst feature animated films.
And the storyline included alot of mythological characters.
(17:55):
The deeper meaning had to dowith having courage to face his
problems. So the main characterBuboy, was introduced as
someone who was being bulliedby his classmates. And instead
of fighting back, he just lethimself be bullied. Again, not
to spoil anything, there willbe a certain point in his life
that will force him to fightback. And a lot of Filipinos
(18:18):
loved it because a lot of ourpop culture was represented
like the giant wooden spoon andforks displayed on the wall.
there because uh , if Icontinue to gush , I'll
definitely spoil it.
Patch (18:35):
There's also another work Metanoia , which takes the
award for being the firstanimated film presented in 3D.
Carmina (18:43):
Mm.
Patch (18:45):
I guess this is another pioneering work. So it
represents Filipino culture byhighlighting traditional games
played by kids in thePhilippines. And I remember a
previous episode that we did ,uh, that featured the
traditional games that we don'tsee anymore . Well certainly
(19:05):
not , certainly not here wherewe are, but even in the
Philippines, right?
Carmina (19:09):
Right.
Patch (19:09):
It also highlights the issue of children spending more
time in the computers insteadof playing outside and playing
these traditional games. Ourmain character is a boy named
Nico and he hides in his roomand does what he's good at,
which is playing a popularcomputer game, Metanoia. And
(19:33):
that's where our adventurestarts.
Carmina (19:37):
I think I couldn't help but notice that a lot of
these things that we'rementioning were, you know, kind
of older, right, and I'm reallylooking forward to newer
offerings from Pinoy animatorstackling very Pinoy themes.
Patch (19:53):
So I came across another interesting work. It's a
romantic comedy. It's calledHayop Ka, The Nimfa Dimaano
Stiry, which is one of the few,again, that is for the mature
audience.
Carmina (20:07):
In, other words, rated R.
Patch (20:10):
Carmina (20:16):
Patch (20:20):
So she gets into this romance with a wealthy dog
named in Inigo
Carmina (20:26):
Yes
Patch (20:31):
Carmina (20:33):
Was portrayed very provocatively. It's so funny
and cute.
Patch (20:40):
but...
Carmina (20:45):
So there's basically a love triangle, right?
Patch (20:48):
Yes. It's very entertaining.
Carmina (20:51):
So Patch, there's this animation festival called
Animahenasyon, which is thePhilippines' Animation
Festival. It's celebrating its17th year, and they're calling
for entries right now from allFilipino filmmakers until
September 15th, 2023. It's anannual festival organized by
(21:12):
the Animation Council of thePhilippines, and it aims to
encourage production oforiginal content, recognize
Filipino talents in the fieldof animation, and encourage
creative excellence andcompetitiveness. We're gonna
link in our show notes thedescription of this festival
and the eligibilityrequirements, in case anybody
(21:34):
wants to enter this.
Patch (21:35):
You sound very interested in it, Carmina, are
you , are you thinking of maybe
our lives into
very cartoonish
Carmina (21:53):
Well, the only figures I'm capable of drawing are
stick ones. Oh. So not for me,but maybe someone might be
inspired.
Patch (22:05):
For me, on a personal level, I'm very excited to come
across all these works ofanimation. And it gives me much
hope that not only in theanimation industry, but even in
just the creative industry ingeneral, there is clamor for
original content, notnecessarily just the
(22:26):
celebrity-oriented featuresthat we were used to growing
up. So there's much to lookforward to in the Philippine
animation industry.
Carmina (22:35):
And I'll be cheering them on from the sidelines
because I certainly cannotcontribute.
Patch (22:41):
Carmina (22:42):
And with that, that's our episode. We hope you join
us on our next trip. O siya,siya.
Patch (22:48):
Ingat. Thanks for listening to FilTrip with
Carmina and Patch. SupportFilTrip through Patreon or
PayPal. And follow us onInstagram and Twitter.
Subscribe at Apple Podcasts,Spotify, or wherever all
podcasts are downloaded.
Carmina (23:07):
Thanks to Filtrip's sponsor Solepack, a functional
shoe accessory bag. Visitthesolepack.com for more
details.
Patch (23:16):
Email us at thefiltrip @gmail.com .
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