“Dahil sa iyo natutuhan ko na dapat marunong tayong magmahal at tumanggap ng pagmamahal sa lahat. Kahit sino ka pa, kahit ano ka pa, kasi ang pagmamahal ang nagdudugtong sa ating lahat.” —Vice Ganda in her character of Princess Drilon.
Every December, Metro Manila Film Festival is celebrated in the Philippines. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the MMFF was a big thing that there were even competitions among floats and people were very active and supportive of their biases. MMFF is the showing of different films during Christmas week and because Vice Ganda is a renowned actress, the movies she starred in were sure box office hits!
Fantastica is a Filipino Fantasy-Drama-Comedy film released on December 25, 2018. Its running time is 113 minutes or 1 hour and 53 minutes. Since it’s a Vice Ganda movie, it sure was a blockbuster, garnering P596 million in box office sales.
The film was about a failing carnival that used to be full of people, laughter, and joy. Now unsalable and quiet, Belat (Vice Ganda) tries to bring back “claughter (from clap + laughter)” and then finds a Prince from the other side of the world—the side where happiness and happy endings exist.
Since the movie was released on Christmas day, families were the target audience of this film, hence, the drama between each member. Oftentimes, when it’s a Filipino movie, it’s predictable—and Fantastica was no different. It seemed to be the usual poor-to-rich, sad-to-happy film about families whose members didn’t go well together at first but reconciled in the end.
To be honest, Filipino movies are really something predictable and many netizens say that too but there aren't many improvements till now. Of course, since Christmas is a family day, well, at least in the Philippines, family drama must always be associated.
Also, since it’s a Vice Ganda-starred movie, the costumes were unkaboggable like her! From head-to-toe, wigs to shoes, her costumes were extravagant. The screenplay was fine too, the resolution quality in this film from 2018 was kind of the same as that used in the current year, 2022.
The effects and editing used in the first to the middle part of the movie were obvious, but the effects were smooth in the end. Because the film is fantastical, it is natural to use various techniques and editing to make the places seem magical, though based on the bloopers at the end of the film, I believe a green screen was used.
I didn’t like how there were too many segues that the film looked like a draft, too muchly played. Something I compared with the jokes in comedy films before and now was that films before, in my opinion, included jokes that are sensitive that when it is to be shown today, Fantastica might get #Cancelledt by the netizens.
“Baku…Baku—bako-bako [pertaining to face],” “Ang laki ng Maynila, ng Pilipinas, ng mundo—at ang laki na rin ng mga tigyawat mo,” and comparing one’s face to a Durian may totally have the Gen Zs and Millennials coming for the film.
Well, the names are truly comedic too—or should I say something not well-thought-of? Prince Pryce (Richard Gutierrez), Gang Nam (Ryan Bang) & Dong Nam (Dingdong Dantes), Belat Padilla [from the name of actress Bella Padilla] (Vice Ganda), Daks (Ronnie Alonte), Fec-Fec (Jaclyn Jose), Junjun (Edward Barber), and Pepe (Donny Pangilinan).
Furthermore, Vice Ganda, Vic Sotto, Coco Martin, and love teams like KathNiel will surely be there at Metro Manila Film Festival. Sometimes, those stars come together in a film to garner more views and sales, but in this movie of Vice Ganda, she starred with Jaclyn Jose as “Fec” the mother, Dingdong Dantes as “Dong Nam” the best friend, Richard Gutierrez as “Prince Pryce” the Prince of World U, and Bela Padilla as the Fairy Godmother, the antagonist.
Speaking of characters and casts, I noticed how love teams are important in Filipino show business to have more supporters. This movie brought me back to the 2018 popular love teams #DonKiss, #MayWard, and #LoiNie days. Even when #KathNiel was not in the film, they ~seem~ to have their ~spirit~ in the movie as there was a parody scene in their hit film “The Hows Of Us” scene in Fantastica.
Of course, there were also special participations and cameos of Marian Rivera-Dantes, Sarah Lahbati and son Zion Gutierrez, Jackie Gonzaga, and Atty. Jose Sison, and El Gamma Penumbra.
This is something I keep on noticing in Filipino films since before: there are many slang words or salitang balbal and subtle, double-meaning phrases/words in every film they label as “for families.” Examples are King Mama & King Ama, Pepe & Daks, and Fec. I know I’m not the only one who sees these double meanings at least! The team behind the film managed to make vulgar words/phrases subtle enough for children to hear.
Overall, the movie was okay, since the plot isn’t new anymore, and somehow, it’s still predictable, but it’s still a good movie to watch with friends and family to kill time.
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