TADHANA’S FATE: the rebirth of the first Filipino full-length animation Background of the Study The early state of Philippine Animation Philippine animation is connected with our culture of cartooning and sequential art - comics. Illustrators like Jose Zabala Santos, Francisco Reyes, and Larry Alcala mastered this art form by creating editorial cartoons and sequential art that tackles and criticizes the society of their time. Some local animations were made during their time. They created animations for advertising products. One of the first locally produced animations was done by Jose Zabala Santos. Together with Francisco Reyes and his nephew, Nonoy Marcelo, Jose Zabala Santos produced the animated commercial Juan Tamad; an animated commercial for a local product named Purico. They continued to work on animated commercials for companies. In 1955, Jose Zabala Santos created animations for the Philippine Manufacturing Company. A year later, Larry Alcala worked for Universal Promotions, animating commercials for clients such as Darigold and Caltex (Cartagena, 2022). These illustrators dabbled in animation as a medium and garnered commissions for it which labeled the start of the animation industry in the Philippines. According to Cartagena in his essay: The Philippine Animation and its History of Captivity, the Philippine animation industry is rooted in its capabilities to advertise products and this paved the way for our industry’s outsourcing model. Until now, this business model has been used by animation companies here in the Philippines where they provide services for foreign companies to create animated works for film, television, and advertising. Severino “Nonoy Marcelo, Tadhana and the Marcos Regime. Nonoy Marcelo is famous for his editorial cartoons that criticize and tackle societal issues during the martial law era. His works often appeared daily in newspapers as comic strips with social commentaries. His satirical works use humor and wit to criticize the issues and irrationality of Filipinos. According to an article by Carla T. Gamalinda in philstarlife.com, “The characters in Ikabod Bubwit, Tisoy, and Plain Folks held up a mirror to Filipino society as we dealt with the darkest events in our history: martial law, episodes of terrorism, the tragedy of MV Doña Paz and Ozone Disco, to mention a few (Star, n.d.).” His created characters such as Tisoy and Ikabod Bubwit mirroring the anomalies and wrongdoings of the government during the martial law era.