By KAITLYN HENSON
Staff Writer
On July 18, 2017, a teaser for a mysterious animation project was uploaded on Youtube, garnering millions of views and lots of praise for its beautiful visuals and folkloric music. It’s enveloped with so much mystery and intrigue, and it sparked the imaginations of so many people who came across it.
The teaser was created by Ukrainian animation studio, Animagrad Studio, and was directed by Oleksandra Ruban, the story adapted from a work of Ukrainian literature titled “The Forest Song”. It’s about a Mavka – the soul of the forest – who has to face between the love she has for a human and her duty as a guardian of the forest. The story in itself is fascinating and – although it’s a story that’s been similarly told before – the teaser makes up for it with gorgeous animation. The character design for Mavka herself is probably the most intriguing – with her vibrant eyes and wavy hair the color of the leaves on trees. The world this character lives in feels alive and fresh, and everything has a touch of magic inspired by Disney.
So – where’s the project now? For years there hasn’t been any news about this upcoming feature, and it seemed very weird. But then, on February 24 of 2021, an official teaser came out 4 years later – only with a completely different model for Mavka and the animation being mediocre at best. From what previously looked like a beautiful atmosphere that was soft and enchanting – became a direct-to-video weird animated movie that looks rushed and cheesy. The new design for Mavka changes her face shape and her hair, which strangely floats around her head in an unnatural way. People in the comment sections were wondering why her design changed so much from the original when the original design was so loved and drew in people to this movie. Compared to the first teaser, these both look like very different movies.
And just a month ago, the official trailer for Mavka was released and revealed the characters and the whole premise. And everything about it is bad – the new characters are bad, the voice acting is bad, the animation is bad, and everything looks very mismatched and confusing. Visually, some characters look immensely different from the others, like the animators couldn’t decide on a style to commit to. And alongside them, the creatures of the forest are the best-looking and animated characters in the whole trailer! They look like they were animated by professionals, while the human characters were done by amateurs.
The voice acting is also everywhere, and the story they’re trying to tell starts to lose its magic and intrigue very fast. It no longer seemed interesting, and just became another bland movie made for kids – which is very disappointing.
The movie is supposed to come out on December 29, 2022, but at this point, I’m not sure if I want to see it. I remember first watching the teaser when I was younger, and becoming immensely fascinated with its story and what it wanted to do. Now with what it’s become, I’m not so certain what I think of it anymore. I feel conflicted and a little sad by the changes made to it because I and many others really thought this was going to be special. It might still be, and the trailer might be misleading us, but it feels a bit uncertain.