Just like a few other entries in this blog, Leafie, A Hen into the Wild is a movie about family and parenthood. The main character, Leafie was a chicken born and raised in a chicken farm where she was made to constantly lay eggs in horrid conditions. Her dream is to one day be a mother, but life in a battery cage is making achieving her goal impossible. Getting fed up with being treated badly, Leafie manages to escape. Eventually, she ends up moving to the wilds after being rejected by farmyard animals Leafie first thought she could live with.
She meets and befriends a mallard duck male called Wanderer. Leafie witnesses a weasel, One-eye, kill Wanderer's mate and volunteers to care for his only egg, now that his wife is gone. Wanderer agrees and gives Leafie instructions on how to raise the egg. Soon after, Wanderer himself dies trying to avenge his wife by fighting the weasel. Leafie than has to take care of the newly hatched duckling, who she named Greenie, alone.
Being a single parent is not easy, but Leafie also has to struggle with being discriminated by other birds, being chased by a vengeful weasel, and having her son question if it's necessary for them to even be a family in the first place. Leafie and Greenie are able to make their life together work, but time goes by and it's finally time for Greenie to leave the nest. He even got the same important position his father once held in a wild duck flock. However, Greenie is hesitant to leave his mother alone, worrying about her safety. Leafie is able to persuade him to leave, and after a heartfelt farewell, he does.
Leafie had promised her son she would be waiting for his return at their home, but when her old nemesis One-eye appears again, Leafie decides to sacrifice herself. She knows she is ill and doesn't have much time left. Living it the wet everglade wasn't healthy for her, and the winter was harsh to a former cage chicken like her. She recently learned that the One-eye was also a mother trying desperately to care for her own children. Not wanting to die in vain, she offers herself to her old enemy. And showing that she also had come to care for her enemy, One-eye cries while she kills Leafie.
I love this movie, and no, the bishounen ducks don't really bother me! XD
Jungle Emperor Leo is a 1997 made movie adaption of Osamu Tezuka's manga by the same name. The movie covers the last arc of the manga. Jungle Emperor Leo gets compared to Disney's The Lion King a lot and is mainly remembered as "the movie/series Disney ripped off". This movie deserves much more than that, so I am going to skip that drama completely and instead I will be talking about the great color choices some scenes have in the movie. The movie starts with very bright and happy colors. Even if there's rain, the clouds are not dark. The animals celebrate Leo's children, Lune and Lukio. There seem to be no worries, only peace and joy. Very soon after, night falls. Humans have entered the forest. Leo has heard a gunshot but nothing has happened yet. But the forest is dark, something bad is coming. It's the calm before the storm. The very next day, the humans go after the animals and even end up setting the savanna...
Chirin no Suzu (Chirin's Bell) is a short animated movie adaption of a picture book from 1978. It's a bittersweet story about a sheep named Chirin and how he gets consumed by his own negative thoughts. I can't remember when I first saw this movie, but I can say I have loved it for a loooong time! Maybe it's because I'm such a pessimist myself? The story starts relatively happy. Chirin is a young lamb living with his mother and other sheep on a pasture. His mother worries for him since Chirin has a tendency to wander off. That's why he was given a bell so that he could be found easier because of the sound. Chirin's mother explains to him, that the sheep cannot go beyond the fence because a wolf named Woe is living on the nearby mountain. Chirin is naive and doesn't really take his mother's warning to the heart, but promises to obey anyway. Months go by and one autumn night the wolf attacks the sheep that are sleeping in the barn...
At this point, anyone reading this blog might wonder how many violent animated movies about animals I know... Well, let's just say the movies I have linked here are but a small fraction! This movie, a 1982 adaption of White Fang -book, is very dear to me and not only because of the story. I first saw this movie when I was a brat and old movies like this one were VERY VEEEERYYYY hard to find online. Of course, they never had subtitles either! This movie never had a western release and wasn't really that big of a deal in Japan either. I found the movie while watching anime from youtube when I was around 10. The title was in Japanese so for years I had no idea what the movie was called! At the time, all anime movies and episodes were cut in parts on youtube... I think this movie was cut on what.. 12 parts?? You can't understand how sad I was when the movie parts were at some point deleted from youtube and I had no way to search for it elsewhere. But then it was ...
Okay, this sounds amazing, actually. Do you know where I could find it? :)
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