# Tadhana (film)

Tadhana (English: Destiny) is a 1978 Philippine adult animated musical fantasy comedy film written and directed by cartoonist Nonoy Marcelo, his first foray into animation as a feature-length film in the Philippines. The film incorporates historical fiction and satire that depicted the well-known people and mythological creatures during the Spanish colonization and its Filipino culture, presents a humorous and poignant view of the Philippines' history through highly original and surreal vignettes fusing art, mythology and music.
Based on a book of the same name by Ferdinand Marcos, the tenth president of the Philippines, Tadhana was commissioned by the Marcos' government to contributed as a part of the martial law propaganda. The film served Imee Marcos as a producer alongside his uncle and collaborator José Zabala-Santos as one of the animators.
While Tadhana was premiered at one time on Philippine television to commemorate the sixth anniversary of Martial Law, the film's credibility remains obscured, leaving turns with Geirry Garccia's Adarna: The Mythical Bird in 1997. Due to lack of commercial releases, the film was exhibited in private screenings and school events for educational purposes.

## Plot

Set before the colonization, zooming and intercutting images of illustrations and maps depict the war between Spain and Portugal for global colonial rights of the Philippines. In preparation to colonize, galleons, led by Ferdinand Magellan, set sail across the Pacific Ocean to one of the Philippine islands, Mactan, where it declares war with armadas against the Filipino natives (Star Wars's main theme) led by Lapu-Lapu (Villame), lops off Magellan's head.
Claimed victory by the natives, Spanish explorer Miguel Lopez de Legazpi (Aviado) surrenders and came in agreement to make a peace treaty with a Bohol chieftain Datu Sikatuna under their blood oath. In the Sandugo (One Blood) Art Exhibit, Legazpi and Sikatuna celebrate the disco alongside several people and mythological creatures (consisting manananggal and tikbalang, etc.) in the blood pact ritual (Throughout the Night by Soul Jugglers). Tensions grew between natives and conquistadors becoming more chaotic in the final minutes.
As the time overpass to centuries, the film ends with the glowing circular logo of Bagong Lipunan.

## Cast

* Nonoy Marcelo as Kulafu
* Pandy Aviado as Miguel Lopez de Legazpi
* Bert Marcelo as Father Tausi
* Estrella Kuenzler as a veiled sorceress (babaylan)
* Yoyoy Villame as Lapu-Lapu
* Mike Parsons as a fraile

## Production
### Development

After his first interest of animation filmmaking in the Philippines while working on as a cartoonist, he was hired by the government and worked in animation at the National Media Production Center beginning in 1977. Then, he collaborated with Imee Marcos, who worked together in 1977 documentary film Da Real Makoy, and his uncle José Zabala-Santos by creating the first-ever full-length animated film in the Philippines, which originally conceived as a television pilot that sought to teach the nation's history from the perspective of the Marcos administration.
While writing and directed the film, he added his own interpretation of this history as a series of vignettes, including whimsical, satirical, sometimes subversive and particularly anti-clerical touches to the narrative. Imee insists that while it was not only a literally faithful adaptation of her father's books, it was faithful to their themes.

### Filming

The animation studio sets up in Quezon City to highlight the strategic focus placed on the project. The film took production in three months, employed with a team of sixty artists, including printmaker Pandy Aviado, served as the film’s animator and assistant director, and Santiago Bose, by Imee. Some production crews and artists also voiced for the film including Aviado and Marcelo himself. Unlike many animated features filmed in 24 frames per second, the film's animation is entirely limited with panoramic drawings.

## Release

Tadhana made a broadcasting premiere as a television film on GMA 7, RPN 9, and IBC 13 to commemorate the sixth anniversary of Martial Law.

## Legacy

Following the immense success of Tadhana and the "turning point" of Philippine animation as a labor hub in the 1980s, it was initiative of broadcasting catered to a broad audience and embedded the film within the popular cultural milieu of the time. Due to lack of commercial release in local theaters, the film was never credited to be the first animated film in the Philippines until Adarna: The Mythical Bird in 1997.
None of copies of known print or negative 35mm film left in archive from GMA after one-time broadcast until two decades later, only a video copy recorded off that broadcast by Mr. Teddy Co, who lent the copy to Mowelfund Film Institute.
Tadhana was screened at the National Gallery Singapore’s ‘Painting with Light,’ an annual festival of international films on art. Before the screening, the film was rated NC16 for "some nudity" by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).