Urduja
When my sister asked me to go and watch the movie Urduja with her this morning, I wasn’t too hot on going. But as this was the first Filipino animated movie to come out since Ibong Adarna, and I wanted to know how we were doing now, I decided to go. I do tend to be biased at times, especially when it comes to comics and animation. But before the movie, I told myself I would give Urduja a try. I would not pre-judge the movie (as I was already starting to do when I watched the trailer).
My impression: Not bad. It’s a good try. First of all, I take my hats off to them for actually finishing to make it. It’s more than what many animation groups can say (myself and my group included). There are, of course, areas that could still be improved.
STORY
The movie has nothing to do with the story of Urduja as we’ve known her. In the folklore version of the tale, Urduja was ugly. She fell in love with a foreign scholar but, because of how she looked, she had to ask the aid of a witch to make her beautiful. There are several versions to the folklore (not surprising since it’s oral tradition) but basically that’s the story. If we take in the historical account of Urduja, she was the datumbini of their tribe. She was tough. She was “one of the boys.” Then one day, an explorer by the name of Ibn Batute came upon what we now know as Pangasinan and was fascinated with this tough woman leader who was so interested in the spices and stories he brought, and who vowed she would invade India (I think it was India). Talking about personality, Urduja was supposed to be strong. That’s what makes her Urduja! She wasn’t like that in the movie. They may as well have called her Duri and it wouldn’t have mattered.
ANIMATION
I can say it’s certainly better than Dragonlance the Animation (look it up. It was outsourced in India). You can still see which are 3D and which ones are not but their compositing is acceptable. Certainly better than many Filipino films I’ve seen. And there are scenes that really do look nice (particularly those with junks on the sea with the moon up). But their movements are still quite stiff, which really makes one wonder. They’re supposed to have done outsourcing work for the likes of Disney. I don’t know if they’re really not that good yet or they lowered the frame rate to save on frames.
And they keep cutting the point of impact! Someone throws an object, cut, next scene, the thing is already resting on the character’s head. It leaves people (well, me anyway) dissatisfied. There’s no umph! (not talking about “special something.” Talking about the expression you utter when you hit the ground) The point of impact makes that umph. It makes the viewers feel what is going on better. My sister thinks they didn’t know if they would put stars or bring up dust or what when the object makes an impact so, they probably decided not to show it na lang. I don’t know the true reason. But I think this is an important thing they should improve on in their future animated movies.
CHARACTERS
In the beginning, I kind of liked Limhang. Mahangin, a little naughty, a little witty… then he got a little too cheesy. But I guess he’s still ok. Mayumi and the animals tend to have more of a personality as compared to Urduja and Simakwel. And Urduja is supposed to be the main character. I could be wrong but they seem to have this concept that the main character has to be “safe.” Where are the quirks? They’re too predictable. Ok, so Urduja finds out Limhang is a pirate. What does she do? What every other heroine in the past does. She looks betrayed and runs away weeping. And Simakwel, he sees a competitor. What does he do? He cheats then sides with the enemy. Isn’t that so convenient?
PLOT
Aside from what I talked about in “Story” above, I think the plot is too predictable. It’s very formula. Girl is to wed guy. Girl falls in love with another guy. First guy gets jealous and teams up with the bad guys. Second guy is about to confess his true self but first guy beats him to it. Girl is devastated. Bad guy double crosses first guy. Eto lang e: What something new did the movie Urduja bring? Sometimes, we get so caught up into just being able to beat everyone else into making an animated movie that we forget to think about what sets our movie apart.
RESEMBLANCE TO DISNEY
Don’t stop me from saying this. It really does look like Disney. When the movie started and I saw the waterfall, it looked so much like Pocahontas. Besides, do our waterfalls look like that? Our waterfalls are more narrow. One side is usually covered with a rock face, quite close to the fall. Do we even have waterfalls that big in Pangasinan? And what’s with the blue necklace? And of all colors, they decided to stick to blue, which made the similarity more obvious! Limhang’s facial structure is like Shang’s. Wang reminds me of Ratcliffe. They got the talking animals from Disney, too, didn’t they? Well, I can let the square jaw and the animals pass, but the scene with the bird was soooo Tarzan! I mean, I could understand if they liked a certain aspect of Disney that they wanted to use as model. But to copy an actual scene and just change the characters in it! Come on! We can do better than that.
OTHER THINGS
Use effects sparingly. If you used a type of visual direction once (Urduja looking at her reflection and feeling sorry for herself, which is so “who is this girl I see…” by the way), I think it would be better not to use it again in the same movie (Limhang looking at his reflection and feeling sorry for himself). The text of the title could use a little work. It’s not powerful enough. Bevel and drop shadow are not the only effects you can use on a text.
And more research would be good. Both on the story of Urduja and the geography of Pangasinan.
All in all, though, I think it’s not too bad. Even if it seems like our animation industry still has so far to go, I think we’re going somewhere. Amidst the Disney of the movie, one could still see the Filipino-ness of it in characters like Mayumi and the animals. Slapstick and a bit crass but it’s there. And it’s always good to hear “Perlas ng Silangan” and to see the map of the Philippines in an animation. Wonder how Dayo would fare…
