Over at @PopMatters, Michael Barrett compares and contrasts two of our animated releases, HAYOP-KA! and THE CAT CITY COLLECTION, connecting both as animation that is distinctively not for the kiddies, but also subtly reflects cultural attitudes of their times and locales. One of the things we love most about releasing films from other parts of the world (especially places we haven't released much like the Philippines) is something deeper than just enjoying different color palettes or flavors of aesthetic beauty. It's all about the window into our shared fears and joys, the things we laud and the things we avert our eyes to. Sometimes it takes cats and dogs and mice and rats to give us new insights! "…tanks rolling in the city streets were a living memory for Hungarians of the Soviet invasion of 1956, so this vision of “little people” (mice) dominated by violent, indeed genocidal felines can’t help inviting a political reading. As is often the case with Iron Curtain films, nominal nods toward anti-Nazi struggles in WWII (as Teufel seems to symbolize) do double duty as cover for more contemporary oppressions. As a further alibi, they’re dressed like corporate gangsters." "Nothing in HAYOP-KA! ever comes out and lectures anyone about the unhealthy nature of the narratives being spoofed. It’s something we grasp from details around the edges, like the fact that the instant rich boyfriend…is a smooth, womanizing property developer who inherited all from daddy, who prefers to speak English over Tagalog, who’s pulling political strings with bribery, and whose plans are being picketed by protesters who get arrested by police." Read the whole review here: popmatters.com/animated-anim… #deafcrocodile #catcity #hayopka #2danimation #filippinoanimation #hungariananimation #bluray #physicalmedia #cultmovies