Saving Sally: A Feast in the Eye

Personally, I am not a huge fan of Sci-Fi films. I usually don't appreciate the story-line for being too unrealistic to the extent of going too far from realism which makes me a pro at any kind of realistic sense. But this time, I decided to step away from my film genre of choice and appreciate one of the entries of Metro Manila Film Festival 2016 - Saving Sally.

Saving Sally is a combination of live action and animation directed by Avid Liongoren under the Rocketsheep Studios production company. He is a Filipino director/animator which led him to create this marvelous craft. Kudos to Mr. Avid for contributing such feast in the eye film in the Philippine film industry (If you want to see more of his works, go check him at avidliongoren.com)

It began as early as 2005 but production for the film came to a halt due to financial constraint. French film producer Alain de la Mata, decided to aid Liongoren after the former was impressed with the work of the latter. Shooting works for the film were redone from scratch. Production resumed in 2010. Green screen were used for the film which was later superimposed with 2D animated elements. Artists from Rocket Sheep were responsible for the creation of the futuristic Manila background, as well as the 2D animated monsters. (Source: Wikipedia)

The film is about an aspiring comic book artist Marty (Enzo Marcos) who is secretly and madly in love with his best friend Sally (Rhian Ramos), the gadget inventor.

It all started when Marty caught his attention the time Sally saved him from a bully back in sophomore year in college. As time goes by, they grew closer together and spent almost every day geeking out about what interest them the most. Of course, the guy then fell inlove with his bestfriend who already has a boyfriend and used him as a bridge like any typical and cliche love story would be.

The conflict arise when Sally’s adoptive parents found out about Nick, her boyfriend and banned her from seeing him. Later on, as being the helpful and supportive bestfriend, Marty stood as a messenger, sending messages from one of them to the other. It took a while in doing this dreadful routine. But alongside of this, Marty got a call from a Comic Studio and offered him an opportunity to be a comic artist as they saw Marty’s impressive works. As any typical college student with love problems, it is hard for him to overcome both of these circumstances. The character strived to surpass these challenges which gave highlight to Marty’s character. While Nick, being represented as a dickhead was caught cheating on Sally making out with another girl.

Later on, the whole story shifted favorably to Marty, found out that Sally had a crush on him back then. In the end, the title of the movie did justice as Sally was saved from a jungle city full of monsters and a dick head who is definitely a total jerk. The two ended up being together.

The mood and emotions of the protagonists and antagonist of the story is interpreted by metaphor messages put together into brilliant animations. It is an impressive way of telling and interpreting the mood of the story which took a decade to make from filming in the green screen studio to rendering an outstanding cinematography and visual effects which made a huge gain amount of word-of-mouth in the internet. Even though Saving Sally is a typical love story which is the downside of the film in my opinion, the overall execution is striking which I like the most. But I wish that it had a more compelling and a more adventurous plot that will feed not just everyone’s eye but also the hearts of those who loves adventures like me. I’m quite disappointed with the ending. The story is already predictable but it ended just like that. Maybe there should have been more in my opinion but overall, I enjoyed watching even I have no one to watch it with lol. 8 out of 10 stars for Saving Sally!

In a Filipino film industry where animation is a challenge from production to marketing, Saving Sally is a top off and a great example that we Filipino's can make animated films that also caters the art in Filipinos. The hard work and dedication of the team in making this film can be seen and felt all throughout the movie. Along with the other Metro Manila Film Festival entries, we should always patronize Indie Filipino films simply because it reflects the Philippine Culture.

After all the expectations and opinions towards this film, Saving Sally proved that

Sci-fi/Romantic films is not that bad at all. It is an admirable film made by Filipinos.

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