Animated Film About Ferdinand Magellan Accused of Glamorizing a Tyrannical Colonizer

A new animated film featuring the purported “exploits” of Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish expedition in the 1500s, has struck quite a nerve among many Filipinos online.

Furor sparked after the poster for “Elcano and Magellan: The First Voyage Around the World” was officially released on local social media.

The film, which also includes the Spaniard Juan Sebastián Elcano alongside Magellan in the starring role, is set for a January 2020 release in the Philippines. It is produced by Dibulitoon, a Spanish production company which, according to its website, “began operating in 1991.”

Magellan is a figure known in Philippine history as the explorer who claimed the land for the king of Spain in 1521 but failed to influence Mactan, an area ruled by Chief Lapu-Lapu. Lapu-Lapu, who strongly resisted Spanish hegemony, fought Magellan and his army with his native warriors during the infamous “Battle of Mactan.”

Magellan, who died during that battle, would then be depicted in local history books as the villain of the failed conquest while Lapu-Lapu emerged as one of the early heroes in pre-Spanish rule Philippines.

Now, fast forward to 2019 and what do we have? A film celebrating Magellan’s arrival in the country which Spain would later place under tyrannical rule for 300 years.

The movie’s viral poster, which was localized to appeal to Filipino tastes, features Elcano and Magellan prominently as the main characters alongside what appears to be a Filipino love interest, depicted to be staring lovingly at Elcano.

Lapu-Lapu is also featured, with the poster calling him the “Philippines’ very own hero.” The Battle of Mactan is even mentioned in a blurb, teasing a clash between the local chief and the invader. Curiously, the poster uploaded on filmmaker Dibulitoon’s official website never made any reference to Lapu-Lapu nor the Battle of Mactan at all.

While the film’s producers may have thought that acknowledging Lapu-Lapu as Philippines’ own hero and placing a local as a love interest would help it get a positive reception in the Philippines, they were clearly mistaken. As soon as the local poster was released on social media, it was heavily criticized, with many pointing out the depiction of invaders as “the good guys.”

There’s an animated movie about Magellan and just… YIKESSSS.

Stop depicting colonizers as good guys. pic.twitter.com/Q68s4uxOY9

— (@satvrncat) November 6, 2019

Portraying lapu-lapu as a villain when he was just protecting our land??? and magellan and that bootleg flynn ryder is the good guys??

this film is gross https://t.co/IqcInyvfbU

— god (@PANGlNOON) November 6, 2019

I really hope they include the part where Magellan and his forces jumped from their boats in full armor like total idiots and were slaughtered because they didn’t know how to fight in water. Great hero moment https://t.co/0pfmNXImRm

— Per My Last Emil (@EmilHofilena) November 6, 2019

Twitter user @satvrncat went on to highlight the awful character designs and descriptions that she said made her hate the film even more:

I found the character descriptions and ugh i hate it even more now. pic.twitter.com/cWjgYQ2426

— (@satvrncat) November 6, 2019

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Reading other tweets I know why they depict these characters like this (and there’s no reason Rajah Humabon (“Rey de Cebu”) would be morbidly obese since he was a warrior) but proper design should be: pic.twitter.com/A9H5QTu5gH

— Aswang Central (@kamariitan) November 7, 2019

Soon, calls for boycotting the film emerged, condemning how the native Filipinos were portrayed as caricatures.

Okay, let’s try this again.

Please do not, under any circumstances, support the Elcano and Magellan movie. It portrays colonizers in a good light, like they’re the heroes when Magellan brought suffering to the native Filipinos. And it also portrays the natives (especially + pic.twitter.com/OyhO1Z8JJW

— CEO of Capcom (@jamaisryuu) November 6, 2019

hello, non-filo oomfs!! i highly advise you to not support the animated magellan movie that is likely to come out!! not only is it glorifying a white man who tried to colonise our country but they made the man he fought, who protected his people and land, the antagonist

— sab┊h (@NITONAZUNAS) November 6, 2019

Following the collective backlash, Crystal Sky Media, the film’s local distributor has set its Twitter account to private while its Facebook page appears to have removed the poster on its feed, reports Rappler.

Watch the film’s official trailer below: