Luis Suárez stated that the idea for the film came from his time with his nephew during summer (March–May). He asked his nephew what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to play online RPG games, so they went to a café and Luis spent the whole day with his nephew inside it. He then wanted to make a story for him for his nephew to see what he is missing in life.[3]RPG took 5 years to make. Thaumatrope Animation began work in 2006. In 2008, a teaser trailer for the movie (then titled "theRPGmovie") was shown at Level Up's Ragnarok Online event at the World Trade Center. In August 2009, Ambientmedia officially partnered with ABS-CBN. In June 2010, it was announced to be an official entry for the 36th Metro Manila Film Festival. In August 2010, RPG Metanoia's official website was launched. The Cinema Evaluation Board gave the movie a Grade A.[4]MTRCB gave the film a rated G (General Patronage).
Reception
Critical reception
Julius Edward B. Penascosa of The Philippine Star gave RPG Metanoia a positive review, praising the film for its originality, characters and plot, also noting its depiction of Philippine culture and for not relying on star power as seen with mainstream MMFF entries; the film's voice acting however was criticized, likening the actors' performances to a typical Tagalog dub of an anime series.[5]
Philbert Ortiz Dy of ClickTheCity.com declared the film worthy of comparison to CGI animated features released by Pixar Animation, the studio behind animated films such as Toy Story 3, Up, WALL-E, and Cars, stating: "Regular readers are probably aware of how highly I regard Pixar and their work, and so it should taken as high praise when I say that I would proudly hold RPG Metanoia up against even the best of Pixar. The film is simply extraordinary."[6]
Score
RPG Metanoia the Album is the official soundtrack album of the film published by Star Music. The original film score was composed by Ria Osorio and Gerard Salonga, with the Filharmonika Orchestra performing their composition. The album features APO Hiking Society, Jett Pangan and other well-known Filipino musicians. The theme song of the film "Kaya Mo" was sung by Protein Shake featuring Ney of the band 6Cyclemind and Kean of Callalily; the song is the album's single. An accompanying music video was made for the single.[7]
Following the MMFF's premiere, RPG Metanoia earn a total of ₱33 million for four-week release but it was a box-office disappointment over its production cost of ₱100 million.[10][11] The film was released on DVD on April 26, 2013, by Star Home Video.
