Leafie, A Hen into the Wild
Leafie, A Hen into the Wild, also called Daisy, A Hen into the Wild in English-speaking countries, is a 2011 South Korean animated drama film based on the book of the same name. It depicts the freedom, will and instinctive motherly love of a hen as she raises an adopted duckling. The film made box office history by drawing over 2.2 million viewers, the largest audience for a home-grown animated film in South Korea. It also received widespread critical acclaim upon release.
Plot
Leafie lives on a chicken farm with many other egg-laying hens in battery cages. She dreams of being a mother, despite her inability to incubate her own eggs. Dreaming of having her own young, she escapes from the farm feigning death, but is confronted and threatened by a one-eyed weasel. She is saved by mallard duck Wanderer who traps One-Eye in the farmer's wheelbarrow. Leafie tries to join the group of animals residing outside the farm, but their resident rooster refuses to allow her into his flock, insisting that she would only spend her life laying eggs. Leafie leaves the farm and into the wild, meeting Mr. Otter, who helps her find a home on Wanderer's behalf. Leafie meets Wanderer again, and discovers he has a mate, whom One-Eye kills later that night.At Wanderer's nest, Leafie finds a single egg. Wanderer decides to let Leafie take care of the egg as he leaves to confront One-Eye. He pleads Leafie to take his unborn child to the Everglades, believing she will understand its purpose there. That night, One-Eye returns, and Wanderer engages her in a fight to the death, in which One-Eye prevails. The egg then hatches into a duckling that imprints on Leafie. She adopts the duckling, naming him Greenie, before heading to the Everglades. As Leafie raises Greenie, Mr. Otter teaches him to swim, with help from a bat and owl to teach him to fly. Meanwhile, Mr. Otter accidentally confesses that the local waterfowl are unaccepting of Leafie in their community. She then meets up with Greenie, who has been bullied by the other ducks and blames Leafie for him being an outcast before running away.
Mr. Otter attempts to comfort Leafie by telling her about Wanderer, who was a flock guard that once lost his wing fighting One-Eye and also permanently blinded one of her eyes, before being previously captured by the farmer. Meanwhile, Greenie is lured by four white ducks before the farmer captures him, intending on clipping his wings. To rescue Greenie, Leafie and Mr. Otter release all of the hens from their cages after Mr. Otter scares off the farmer and frees Greenie. However, the rooster stops them, calling Leafie a disgrace to the chickens. The animals notice that his comb is fake, so one of the white ducks decide to replace him as the farm leader, helping Leafie, Greenie, the rooster and Mr. Otter escape. Later, One-Eye plans to devour Greenie. The two plummet over a cliff, but Greenie escapes by successfully flying as One-Eye climbs back up.
A flock of ducks soon arrive in autumn, from whom an adult Greenie learns of an upcoming contest to nominate the new flock guard. The ducks flee from Greenie, seeing the twine around his leg from his encounter with the farmer, but Leafie reassures Greenie's participation removing the twine in time. Greenie returns to the flock and announced his wishes to compete, quickly forming a rivalry with another duck named Red Head. Greenie recalls the words of his mentors, winning the contest and becoming the new guard.
Leafie finds a litter of baby weasels while the rooster begins finding a home with Mr. Otter after escaping. Greenie tries to find Leafie but comes across One-Eye again, saving a female duck from her. As One-Eye prepares to kill Greenie, she reveals that the weasel babies are her own children, making Leafie realize that she only killed for food to nourish them. After agreeing to not harm One-Eye's children in exchange for Greenie's life, Leafie discovers that One-Eye is unable to produce milk for them.
The ducks prepare to leave the Everglades, so Leafie and Greenie bid each other farewell. As One-Eye corners Leafie at the cliff, Leafie lets herself be eaten by a tearful One-Eye, so that One-Eye's children will not starve. The film ends as Greenie flies with his flock.
Characters
Leafie/Yipsak/Sprout/Daisy Voiced by: Moon So-ri, Stacey DePassGreenie/Chorok Head/Green-Top/Willie Voiced by: Han Shin-jeong & Yoo Seung-ho, Bryn McAuley & Toby Proctor
Wanderer/Nagnae/Straggler/Wilson Voiced by: Choi Min-sik, Ryan Hollyman
Rooster Voiced by: Um Sang-hyun, Juan Chioran
Mayor or Mr. Otter Voiced by: Park Chul-min, Christian Potenza
One-eyed Weasel Voiced by: Kim Sang-hyeon, Stacey DePass
Red Head/Ace Voiced by: Sa Seong-ung, L. Dean Ifill
Chirpie Voiced by: Jeon Suk-kyeong, Bryn McAuley
Owl Voiced by: Seo Seung-won, L. Dean Ifill
Bat Voiced by: Hong Beom-gi, Ryan Hollyman
Wanderer's Mate Voiced by: Kim Ji-hye
Bully Voiced by: Ron Basch
Blade Voiced by: Drew Nelson
Flock Leader Voiced by: Ryan Hollyman
The Farmer Voiced by: Walker Boone
Dol, Mee, Rae and Toe Voiced by: Shoshana Sperling, Angela Besharah, Drew Nelson, Catherine Disher
The Dog Voiced by: Ron Basch
The Hens Voiced by: Shoshana Sperling, Catherine Disher
Production
Director Oh Sung-yoon struggled for more than twenty years as an animator under adverse economic circumstances before finally debuting with this feature film. Originally titled YIPSAK - A Chicken Wild, the movie took Myung Films six years and to produce.Shim Jae-myung, the head of Myung Films, which co-produced Leafie in conjunction with the local animation studio Odolttogi, said that it was her experience with major motion pictures that made her want to produce animated films that could compete with those from Hollywood and Japan. "And as a woman and mother, the plot touched my heart," she said. "Many people were doubtful about whether the film would be a success, but I believed in the power of the novel."
When asked what they did to distinguish their film from films by the world's major studios, director Oh said he and the crew focused on making the visual effects as beautiful as possible. "Most of my staff and I majored in painting, and we chose to make the film two-dimensional, so that the entire product looks like a beautiful picture," Oh said. Though the sharply drawn foreground characters have an international look, the gentler backgrounds seem typically Korean in their use of landscape and flora. "In addition to that, we have many quality animators on staff who draw for Pixar and Disney in Korea." Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks often hire small- and medium-sized Korean animation studios to work on their illustrations.
Soundtrack
The South Korean and English versions each contain a different soundtrack. The South Korean soundtrack is composed by Lee Ji-soo while the English soundtrack is composed by Patrick Cannell. The former was released in on CD in 2011, consisting of 22 tracks.Reception
Historically South Korean animated features have struggled to draw viewers. This prolonged slump is evidenced by My Beautiful Girl, Mari, Wonderful Days, Oseam, Aachi & Ssipak, and Yobi, the Five Tailed Fox which all performed dismally at the box office. No domestic animated film had ever achieved 1 million viewers.Undaunted by the knowingly discouraging prognoses from industry insiders, Leafie went on to rake in more than 2.2 million tickets, while recouping its production budget in just four weeks. It has become South Korea's most successful animated film since the country's first feature-length cartoon, A Story of Hong Gildong.
Awards
Leafie won Best Sitges Family Film Diploma at the 2011 Sitges Film Festival in Spain as well as the award for Best Animated Feature Film at the 2011 Asia Pacific Screen Awards held in Australia.For her contribution to the popularization of Korean animation, producer Shim Jae-myung CEO of Myung Films won a Special Mention at the 2011 Korean Association of Film Critics Awards.
Localization
English version
Racking up numerous sales at the American Film Market, the film was picked up by Toronto-based 108 Media Group for distribution in English-speaking countries including Canada, U.S., Australia, Ireland, U.K. and New Zealand and was retitled Daisy: A Hen Into the Wild. It was released direct-to-DVD in the United States by Olive Films and in the United Kingdom by Signature Entertainment in 2014, and had also been broadcast on television on Starz Kids and Family. The English version was partly re-edited from the original version, with six minutes being removed, the character names being changed, and a new score composed by Patrick Cannell replacing the original score.Other territories
Leafie also sold to German-speaking territories via Ascot Elit and Brazil's Conquest Filmes. It has so far secured deals for 46 countries around Asia, Europe and the Middle East after going on sale at Busan's Asian Film Market, Cannes's MIPCOM and Rome's Business Street.It became the first Korean animated film to play at Chinese theaters, opening at 3,000 screens, which is over one-third of the country's total. Clearly elated at the film's warm reception by the Chinese media, director Oh said he hoped this breaks new ground as investors traditionally judge projects based on their appeal to viewers in English-speaking countries. "It's time to change the standard," he said. "In the future, I'll focus more on the cultural values of the animation rather than giving too much emphasis to the business aspect."