Netflix recently released this Filipino created mature animated feature featuring the voices of Angelica Panganiban, Robin Padilla and Sam Milby! The film is directed by Avid Liongoren and produced by Rocketsheep Studio! Here’s my Hayop Ka! The Nimfa Dimaano Story Review, now streaming on Netflix!

So before we proceed, there may be spoilers in this review so SPOILER ALERT! Also check out the trailer HERE

Hayop Ka! The Nimfa Dimaano story revolves around the life Nimfa Dimaano (Angelica Panganiban), a saleslady who finds herself unhappy with her current status quo. She’s working on a contractual basis, stuck with a honest but unambitious dog named Roger (Robin Padilla) and dreams of getting more! Her life is changed when she meets Inigo (Sam Milby) whom she gets into a whirlwind romance with.

Visuals

“Hayop Ka” took a long time to make. That’s actually one of the marketing points that they were doing when they started hyping up the film before its release on Netflix. And you can see just how much passion and love they put into project. They recreated a lot of familiar places for people living in NCR while at the same time putting their own little twist in it. Not to mention the number of references and witty changes they made to places and things.

The color schemes they used also invoked a lot of film tropes which I definitely liked like having the slums get this orange-y color while Inigo’s place looks clean.

Story

The story was just OK for me. It’s a story that we’ve seen a lot in local lore. And while the whole thing ends in twisted irony, there’s still a nice modern twist awaiting our protagonist. It doesn’t end well in terms of her love life nor did she get her happy ending but she did move on with her life.

For this Hayop Ka! The Nimfa Dimaano Story Review, I found the ending, happy in some weird way. Nimfa accepting her fate, the bed she made, and choosing to go on with her life was something that we may not agree with, but is the logical thing to do. Simply put, the way they set up this animated film fit perfectly with the ending.

Themes

There’s a lot of themes that are explored or at the very least touched with “Hayop Ka”. A grittier, “real world” take on Love and companionship is one with Nimfa, Roger and Inigo. Then there’s also themes of career and work with us looking into the lives of our brothers and sisters working in the retail industry. Through this, we see how they live and all that.

There’s also themes of betrayal and social climbing which Nimfa may or may not argue with, she actually wanted to do or wanted to happen the moment she started flirting with Inigo. And that too was a nice catharsis for our protagonist with poor life choices thrown in for good measure to make things more interesting.

Hayop Ka! The Nimfa Dimaano Story Review Verdict

• Great visuals
• Stellar cast (except for one) the animation they did here was topnotch as there were some moments that you’d think you were actually looking at Angelica and company become anthropomorphic characters.
• I love the geeky references from anime to video games to other movies
• That ending may not agree with some but it works for me
• Traditional, trope-filled story (that may not be your cup of tea but there’s definitely an audience for this)

RATING:5/5

What do you think of this Hayop Ka! The Nimfa Dimaano Story Review? Follow me on Twitter at @thefanboyseo for more movie reviews and updates!