review: urduja
Urduja is based on the story of the famous herione from Pangasinan. Urduja is said to be the daughter of the ruler in the land of Tawilisi, taking over her father's throne when he died. Urduja was trained as a warrior since she was a child and with her beauty, she attracted a lot of suitors.
In the movie, Urduja is forced to be married to the leader of the warriors, Simakwel by her father. Simakwel is your typical I-am-so-strong-and-handsome type of guy and Urduja isn't in love with Simakwel. Urduja wants to marry someone she loves. Meanwhile, Limhang is a Chinese pirate who escapes from China and lands in the Philippines. He meets Urduja while Urduja was bathing in the river. It wasn't love at first sight for these two as they were bickering at their meeting but after Limhang saves Urduja's life, they eventually fell in love much to Simakwel's dismay.
You can't help but compare the characters here with Disney characters. Urduja is a mix of Mulan and Pocahontas. Simakwel is like Gaston. Limhang is like ______. You could also see the similarities with the art of Urduja with Disney movies(especially where the characters look like the voice actors behind them), but well, there were touches of Philippine style to it. The background was beautiful and it's evident that the people behind Urduja are very talented artists. I think they presented what the Philippines looked like before we were colonized.
The cast, I believe, was perfect with the exception of Regine Velasquez. Regine's voice was flat and showed little expression. Her singing voice was exceptional, I have no complaints with that. But her speaking voice was somewhat boring and I felt didn't show Urduja's strong attitude. They could've adapted the style of having two voices for a role, one for the speaking parts and one for the singing parts. Also, they should've done the same with Cesar Montano, who sang two songs in the movie. His speaking role as Limhang was perfect but he couldn't carry a note. -___- Jeffrey Quizon voiced Daisuke, Limhang's samurai friend. This really surprised me as Epi is known for his goofy personality and Daisuke is a serious person. Eddie Garcia also proved that he is a very good actor even by just lending his voice as Urduja's father, Lakanpati.
Honestly, the movie will be boring if it weren't for the inclusion of the animal characters, Kukut (voiced by Michael V) and Tarsir (voiced by Allan K). They gave the comic relief to the movie and although sometimes the comedy wasn't really necessary in the scene (like a serious scene then you get a comedy tidbit from the two), they made the movie enjoyable.
I loved the songs. They were really good and the songs were right for the scenes and the characters. I didn't expect less of the music as it was Joey de Leon and Ogie Alcasid who were behind it. So yeah, they're two respectable songwriters in the Philippines so they did a pretty good job in putting music to the movie.
Probably the biggest dismay I have with Urduja was the fact that they used English lines in the movie. If we're really going to base it in history, I doubt that the native Filipinos back then know English. Other than that, it's a Filipino movie about the native Filipino heroine, let's make the movie pure Filipino. The script made me cringe every time I hear an English line in it. Lines like "See you" and "Type mo ba siya?" Okay, Taglish much. -___- These were lines that have Filipino translations so it's not an excuse that they can't say it in Filipino.
When I watched the movie, I didn't expect much of it. However, I think it was okay. Not great, but okay. I felt that it lacks in some areas especially with the development of the movie's plot but overall, Urduja did an okay job. Comparing it to its predecessor, Adarna, the Mythical Bird, it has better animation. (Despite what the trailers say, Urduja is not the first Filipino animated film. I also think Adarna was. It's just that Adarna never received any praise when it was released and the movie was forgettable.) Although I have to admit, Urduja will not generate that much attention as it is not as popular as other Filipino epics. They could've done Florante at Laura or Biag ni Lam-ang as these were more popular stories compared to Urduja. Did we had a chance to encounter Urduja in our studies? I had a chance of knowing Urduja and her story back in a Filipino literature course in college but there was never any thorough discussion of her. Adarna, Florante at Laura and Biag ni Lam-ang were stories that were discussed to us back in St. Scholastica.
Urduja has a lot of hits and misses but generally, I'd say you should watch it to support the Filipino animation industry. We have a lot of great animators and in a country where Japanese anime is really a big craze (we have our own anime channel dubbed in Filipino, that's big), we need to boost the morale of our animators. It's a short film. I didn't feel that i lost an hour and a half of my life watching it.