Leafie, A Hen into the Wild

Leafie, A Hen into the Wild
Korean theatrical release poster
Hangul	마당을 나온 암탉
RR	Madangeul naon amtak
MR	Madangŭl naon amt'ak
Directed by	Oh Sung-yoon
Written by	Na Hyun Kim Eun-jung
Based on	The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by Hwang Sun-mi
Produced by	Shim Jae-myung Lee Eun Son Gwang-ik Kim Seon-gu
Starring	Moon So-ri Yoo Seung-ho Choi Min-sik
Cinematography	Lee Jong-hyuk
Edited by	Kim Hyeong-ju Kim Jae-bum Kim Sang-bum
Music by	Lee Ji-soo
Production company	Myung Films
Distributed by	Lotte Entertainment
Release date	July 28, 2011 (2011-07-28)
Running time	93 minutes 87 minutes (English version)
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean
Box office	US$11,094,345

Leafie, A Hen into the Wild (Korean: 마당을 나온 암탉; RR: Madangeul naon amtak), also called Daisy, A Hen into the Wild in English-speaking countries, is a 2011 South Korean animated adventure 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 other egg-laying hens in battery cages. She dreams of being a mother, despite her inability to incubate her own eggs. Dreaming of having children, she escapes the farm, feigning death and tricking the farmer into dumping her outside but is 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 a troupe of animals residing outside the farm, but their 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 wilderness, 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 setting off for 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 had been bullied by a group of mandarin ducks and blames Leafie for him being an outcast before running away.

Subsequently, Mr. Otter comforts Leafie by telling her about Wanderer's backstory: he was a flock guard that broke his wing fighting One-Eye and also permanently blinded one of her eyes, before being captured by the farmer and escaping. Meanwhile, Greenie is lured to the farm by four white ducks before being caught by the farmer, who intends on clipping his wings. To rescue Greenie, Leafie and Mr. Otter release all the hens from their cages as a distraction, then Mr. Otter scares off the farmer and frees Greenie. However, the rooster stops them, calling Leafie a disgrace to the chickens. Leafie knocks away his comb, making the animals discover it is fake; one of the white ducks decides to replace him as the troupe leader, helping Leafie, Greenie and Mr. Otter escape. After Mr. Otter departs, One-Eye pins Greenie onto a tree; the two plummet over a cliff as the tree snaps away. Leafie laments Greenie's apparent sacrifice, but Greenie escapes by successfully flying as One-Eye climbs back up.

A flock of mallards soon arrive in autumn, from whom Greenie learns of an upcoming contest to nominate the new flock guard upon realizing Wanderer's words. The ducks flee from Greenie, seeing the string around his leg from his previous encounter with the farmer, but Leafie reassures Greenie's entry, removing the string in time. Greenie returns to the flock and announces his participation, quickly forming a rivalry with another duck named Red Head. Greenie recalls the words of his mentors, winning the contest and becoming flock guard.

Leafie finds a litter of weasel kits while the rooster finds a home with Mr. Otter after escaping. Greenie tries to find Leafie but comes across One-Eye again, saving a female duck from her. Their scuffle lands them ahead of the litter as One-Eye prepares to kill Greenie. Leafie finds that the kits are One-Eye's children, making her suspect that One-Eye only killed to provide food for them. After agreeing to not harm the kits in exchange for Greenie's life, Leafie discovers that One-Eye, malnourished from the winter, is unable to lactate for her children.

The mallards prepare to leave the Everglades, so Leafie and Greenie bid each other farewell. As Leafie contemplates how she would have learned flying herself, One-Eye corners her at the cliff. Leafie offers herself to be killed and eaten by One-Eye so that her children will not starve, while Greenie flies with his flock.

Characters

Leafie/Yipsak/Sprout/Daisy Voiced by: Moon So-ri (Korean), Stacey DePass (English)

The leading character, Leafie, exhibits strength. Free-spirited and courageous, she doesn't settle for the fate she is given but accepts challenges and welcomes adventure. It is shown that Leafie tends to speak loudly, a trait that Greenie inherits. She was originally stuck in an egg farm, but she escapes by playing dead. While in a pit filled with dead chickens, One-Eye appears and attacks Leafie to eat her, when Wanderer shows up, and saves her. Leafie immediately falls in love with him, but this quickly changes when she finds out he already has a mate. Before Wanderer died, he told her to take his unborn child to the everglades. When she asks why, he says, "you will find out in time." She then raises Greenie despite numerous difficulties.

Greenie/Chorok Head/Green-Top/Willie Voiced by: Han Shin-jeong & Yoo Seung-ho (Korean), Bryn McAuley & Toby Proctor (English)

Greenie is a male wild mallard duck, and is the son of Wanderer, but is adopted by Leafie after Wanderer and his mate (Greenie's biological mother) dies. As a teenager, Greenie had a difficult time making friends with the other ducks, because his mother is a chicken. Because of this, he considered leaving Leafie, but after the scuffle at the chicken farm, Greenie accepts Leafie as his mother. Thanks to Mr. Otter, a bat, and an owl, Greenie grows up to be a strong duck and a good flier, and, thanks to this, he wins a contest held by the ducks to become a "guard duck". Greenie noticeably inherits Leafie's trait of being loud.

Wanderer/Nagnae/Straggler/Wilson Voiced by: Choi Min-sik (Korean), Ryan Hollyman (English)

Wanderer is a mallard and a former guard duck. Guard ducks help defend their flocks from predators. He helped protect Leafie from the 3 Weasels at the beginning of the film, which leads to Leafie falling in love with him, but this quickly changes when she finds out he already has a mate. He lived with his wife in a briar patch until the One-eye killed them both. They left behind one egg, which Leafie hatched, and later named the duckling Greenie. Before Wanderer died, he told Leafie to go to the everglades with his unborn child. When she asks him why, he says, "you will find out in time." Mr. Otter tells Leafie that, when Wanderer was a guard duck, he got into a fight with the weasel, One-Eye. In the end, he couldn't use his right wing to fly anymore, but, in return, he ended up causing the weasel to lose sight in one of her eyes.

Rooster Voiced by: Um Sang-hyun (Korean), Juan Chioran (English)

Rooster is the leader of the chicken flock and a pompous and egotistical rooster that lives freely in the yard, who serves him as master of the animals. Even though Leafie admires him greatly, Rooster views her admiration as disrespect and refuses to allow Leafie to join his flock and tells her to go back to laying eggs. Near the middle of the film, it is discovered that his comb is a fake, which then leads the animals of the barn to make him work for them. He then leaves, after seeing Greenie racing Red Head, and goes to find a home with Mr. Otter.

Mayor or Mr. Otter Voiced by: Park Chul-min (Korean), Christian Potenza (English)

Mr. Otter is the local real estate agent who runs the wildlife community. He helps Leafie survive in the wild by helping her find a place to live and introducing her son to mentors, such as a bat and an owl who teach Greenie how to fly. Before Greenie leaves with the flock, he tells Mr. Otter to watch over his mother.

One-eyed Weasel Voiced by: Kim Sang-hyeon (Korean), Stacey DePass (English)

One-Eye is a female scarred weaseless portrayed as the antagonist in the story, as she persists in hunting Leafie and the ducks, reaching the top of food chain. She is a monstrous predator feared by those who live in the brier patch and everglades, and only eats live prey and those that catches her interest. During her first fight with Wanderer, she lost an eye during the struggle, but managed very well without it afterwards. However, at the end of the story, it is revealed that she is not actually evil, just trying to provide food for her pups as she became a mother too. She is the only mustelid character in film, has vocal animal sound effect noises like big cats (mountain lion, leopard, jaguar etc), wolves, foxes and crocodiles (snap only).

Red Head/Ace Voiced by: Sa Seong-ung (Korean), L. Dean Ifill (English)

Red Head is a rival wild duck that competes with Greenie to be a guard duck. However, after the competition, he good-naturedly becomes friends with Greenie after managing to humble him in the race.

Chirpie Voiced by: Jeon Suk-kyeong (Korean), Bryn McAuley (English)

A high-pitched talking sparrow who is friends with Leafie and Greenie. He always visits Leafie at the farm sometimes, when he saw Greenie being attacked by the farmer he and his fellow sparrow friends distracted the farmer. He also possesses a dislike towards Rooster who always chases his flock off.

Owl Voiced by: Seo Seung-won (Korean), L. Dean Ifill (English)

Owl helped Greenie how to fly.

Bat Voiced by: Hong Beom-gi (Korean), Ryan Hollyman (English)

Bat helped Greenie to do some flying tricks, but required the duck to hang upside down to begin his training, to which Greenie found impossible.

Wanderer's Mate Voiced by: Kim Ji-hye (Korean)

A female white duck who lived with Wanderer and was Greenie`s mother until the One-eyed Weasel killed her, that night.

Bully Voiced by: Ron Basch (English)

A tough strong duck who competed in the race against Greenie.

Blade Voiced by: Drew Nelson (English)

A duck who participated in the guard duck race and tried to blind Greenie with sand but crashed into a tree during the race.

Flock Leader Voiced by: Ryan Hollyman (English)

A wise mallard who acts as the leader of the flock.

The Farmer Voiced by: Walker Boone (English)

An elderly man who owns the chicken farm, He often does his job picking up the dead chickens from their cages, putting them in his wheelbarrow and dumping them in a pit of dead chickens. He often captures wild ducks and keeps them in his farm just like he did to Wanderer after crippling his wing in the aftermath of his battle against One-Eye and her siblings. Later in the film he caught Greenie after he entered the farm and tied a string on him and attaching it to his wheelbarrow, grabbed a scissors and attempted to clip his wings, Luckily, Leafie came to the rescue and attacked the farmer, but only to throw her in the chicken house. Chirpie and his fellow flock enter the combat tactics and distracted the farmer while Mr. Otter's manages to free the caged chickens causing a stampede where in the confusion Leafie and Greenie manage to escape from him. He does not appear again in the film after this. He is the only human character in the movie.

Dol, Mee, Rae and Toe Voiced by: Shoshana Sperling (English; Dol), Angela Besharah (English; Rae), Drew Nelson (English; Mee), Catherine Disher (English; Toe)

Four small white ducks who are clumsy and weird. Dol, Toe, Mee and Rae are all twins. They all like singing songs about themselves due to their names as a pun on do-re-mi and like following the leader. After discovering Rooster's comb was a fake, Mee took it and played around with it.

The Dog Voiced by: Ron Basch (English)

A guard dog that barks and growls at strangers and acts ferocious and aggressive, but becomes docile once he's petted and scratched.

The Hens Voiced by: Shoshana Sperling (English; Barn hen), Catherine Disher (English; Mother hen)

Two hens who live freely in the yard. One of the hens has children of their own while the other one is still incubating their eggs. They have a strong dislike of Leafie and don't allow their children being near her. The two hens were later shocked when they discover Rooster's comb was a fake.

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 (three years for pre-production including scriptwriting, and one and a half year for storyboard) and ₩3 billion (US$2.8 million) to produce.

Shim Jae-myung (also known as Jaime Shim), 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 (with the Upo wetlands in the south of the country inspiring the everglades in which much of the action takes place). "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 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 (2001), Wonderful Days (2003), Oseam (2003), Aachi & Ssipak (2005), and Yobi, the Five Tailed Fox (2006) which all performed dismally at the box office. No domestic animated film had ever achieved 1 million viewers.

Leafie went on to rake in more than 2.2 million tickets, while recouping its production budget in just four weeks.^{[unreliable source?]} It has become South Korea's most successful animated film since the country's first feature-length cartoon, A Story of Hong Gildong (1967).

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 (a.k.a. Jaime Shim) CEO of Myung Films won a Special Mention at the 2011 Korean Association of Film Critics Awards.

Localization

Stage adaptation

A stage play based on the book and film ran from June 22 to September 2, 2012 at the COEX Art Hall in Seoul.

Notes

References

External links

• Leafie, A Hen into the Wild at IMDb
• Leafie, A Hen into the Wild at HanCinema