Mavka: The Forest Song

Mavka: The Forest Song (Мавка. Лісова пісня) is a Ukrainian 3D-animated fantasy film. It was created in 2023 by “Animagrad” film studio (which is a part of ”The Film.UA Group”). Based on Lesya Ukrainka’s play, “The Forest Song,” it portrays characters from Slavic and Ukrainian folk mythology. Oleksandra Ruban and Oleh Malamuzh directed the film.

The animated film is set in two worlds: one enchanted and one human. The main theme of the film is a love story between an enchanted forest dweller (Mavka) and a human (Lukas), and their battle with the villain Kylina, who desires to own a magical forest wellspring.

Mavka: The Forest Song was released in Ukraine in March 2, 2023. This animated film has set several national records during its release in the cinemas. In particular, it became the highest-grossing Ukrainian film project for the whole history of the independent Ukrainian cinematography and entered the list of the twenty best films in the history of Ukrainian cinema.

Dubbed into the English language and also into 32 local languages, Mavka: the Forest Song was shown on theater screens in approximately 140 countries worldwide. During the national release period, the original Ukrainian language version also ran in other countries.

Plot
The story begins with a flashback which tells us about the magical Wellspring of Life inside the large ancient Forest. This Wellspring nourishes the whole Forest with its power. Once, a human overcame Dark Mountain and entered the Enchanted Forest. This human was an owner of the sawmill, who begged Lesh to give him a drop of water from the Wellspring to save his daughter from death. Lesh gave it to the sawmill’s owner, but then, a lot of humans came to the Enchanted Forest, wanting to take over the Wellspring. This led to a fierce battle between humans and Lesh. Lesh won, but at a great cost to him and his people. He forbid humans from entering the Dark Mountain, while sylvan inhabitants were banned to have any contacts with humans.

Years later, winter is ending in the Forest. Mavka, who is a kind and naive forest nymph, wakes up from her winter sleep and awakens every living creature in the Forest. Plants, animals and magical sylvan creatures wake up and rejoice at the spring.

Meanwhile in human territory, Kylina, who introduces herself as the daughter and heiress of the sawmill owner, comes to the village located near the Enchanted Forest. She proposes a job to the village’s settlers: to go into the Dark Mountain for a huge sum of money. Since the villagers believe that there are a lot of evil spirits in the Forest, none of the villagers agree. At the same time, Lukas, being one of the village musicians, is desperate for money to buy medicine for his sick uncle, Leo. Having read the advertisement, he goes to the Kylina’s house to get his job. Kylina orders Lukas to find a tree with a special leaf in the Forest on the Dark Mountain. He goes in search of this tree with Erick and Dereck, Kylina’s servants.

In the Enchanted Forest, Lesh invites everyone to the cave with the willow tree inside it to elect a new Forest Keeper, as Lesh has become less powerful over time.

Being a little tired due to the leaf’s search in the Enchanted Forest, Lukas decides to play the panpipe. Mavka, who was planning to frighten him and turn him out from the Forest, hears this song and she has become enchanted with it. Then, Lukas tells Mavka and loud Hush that he is looking for the magical leaf because he needs money to buy some medicine for his uncle. In return, Mavka persuades him that he does not need the leaf to save his uncle, but a drop from the Wellspring. She promises him the drop. In gratitude to it, Lukas promises Mavka to play the panpipe once more. The warm relations begins between them.

In purpose not to be seen by Lesh, Lukas is camouflaged as a distant the loud Hush’s relative. In such an outfit, he is forced to be present in the procedure of the choice of a new Keeper. The initial nature ghosts choose Mavka to be a new Forest’s Keeper. In her new status she helps Lukas to escape from the Forest after his exposure.

Kylina gets to know that Lukas returned from the Forest and she sends Frol, her acolyte, to track Lukas. Frol finds a special leaf in the Lukas’ house. There was a magical drop in this leaf which was given to Lukas by Mavka to save his uncle Leo. Kylina conceives to follow Lukas when he will go to the Forest next time.

However, after the prolonged thoughts, Mavka ventures to visit humans’ world to give the panpipe back to Lukas. He lost it during the escape from the Forest. Mavka together with Lukas go to the village fair where they spend time with fun. After that Lukas finally plays his melody to Mavka, the villagers get to know that Mavka is an evil spirit from the Forest, but not a human. Kylina commands to catch Mavka, but Mavka was saved by Lesh. Then, she plants Lukas to the deep basement and by the intimidation she gets the information about the Wellspring’s location.

For achieving her personal goals, Kylina bials the villagers against the magical forest creatures and enkindles the hostility between them. The villagers go to the Forest to destroy it. At this time it has become known that Kylina is not a daughter of the sawmill’s owner, but his wife who created this sad story about their ill daughter. Moreover, she is going not only to maintain her youthfulness and beauty, but also to become the richest and the most influential human around the world. In addition to that, Kylina tells Mavka that she paid a lot to Lukas for his search of the Wellspring and Mavka’s deception. She emphasizes that he has already got his money and went to the city. After the words heard, Mavka wonders a lot. Nonetheless, the severe battle starts between the villagers and the forest creatures. During the battle Mavka, being the Forest’s Keper, asks the One Who Sits in the Rock to give her supernatural power. This power is a spark of righteous fury which allows her to pitch angry villagers from the Forest. In return, Mavka’s life has become the pay for this spark and her mind goes to the Nihility. At the same time, loud Hush, a froggicat Kwus’ and a dog Shust’ save Lucas who must be frowned in the basement of the Kylina’s house in accordance with the her order. Lucas wins Frol who was left to guard Lucas. But, the village is already under the deadly fire storm in the centre of which is Mavka. Thanks to the Lucas’ music and common song, the villagers awaken Mavka, stop the storm and are saved. “The only magic humans have is love” - finishes Lucas. There has become a peace between the human world and the world of mythical forest creatures.

In the post-credits scene, old and wrinkled Kylina appears near the Wellspring. Being happy, she dives into the magical water, but in several minutes she turns into a baby.

Ukrainian cast
The animated film was dubbed to the Ukrainian language by the "#skoroukino" studio. The dubbing team: Laiti Biriukova, Dmytro Myalkovskiy; translation - Anna Pashchenko and Alina Haevska. The dubbing producer is Kateryna Braikovska.


 * Natalka Denysenko as Mavka
 * Kateryna Kukhar and Taisia Khvostova (movements and plastique), while Khrystyna Soloviy performs two of Mavka's songs.
 * Artem Pyvovarov as Lukas
 * Olena Kravets as Kylina
 * Serhiy Prytula as Frol
 * Oleh Mykhailiuta as Leo, Lukas' uncle
 * Natalya Sumska as the Healer
 * DakhaBrakha as Lucas’ friends, village musicians Nina, Iryna, Olena and Marko
 * Mykhailo Khoma as Hush
 * Julia Sanina as Ondina, a mermaid
 * Nazar Zadniprovskyi as Lesh
 * Oleh Skrypka as the One Who Sits in the Rock
 * Nina Matviienko as the Narrator
 * Andriy Mostrenko as Erick and Dereck
 * Kateryna Osadcha as various women

English cast
The dubbing process into the original English language for the international release happened in the “3beep” studio (New York). The dubbing producer and the art director is Tom Wayland. The main characters were dubbed by: H.D. Quinn, Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld, Christian Sanford, and Sarah Smithton provided additional voice performances. The script doctor is Jeffrey Hilton.
 * Laurie Hymes as Mavka
 * Eddy Lee as Lukas
 * Sarah Natochenny as Kylina
 * Tom Wayland as Frol
 * Scottie Ray as Leo
 * Marc Thompson as Hush and Lesh
 * Nikki Thomas as Ondina
 * Mike Pollock as the One Who Sits in the Rock
 * Marca Leigh as the Narrator and the Healer

Idea
The first idea to create the animated film on the basis of "The Forest Song" appeared in 2014. The producer Iryna Kostiuk mentions that Serhiy Sozanovskiy, the co-founder of the "Film.UA Group" company, was one of the people who proposed it.

Development
The official brief was written in 2014. Until 2015 there was only the selection process of screenwriters’ applications.

In September 2015 the press service of the “Film.UA Group” company claimed about the beginning of the production of the animated film on the basis of the classic writing “The Forest Song” by Lesia Ukrainka. At the beginning of work the creators were willing to adapt “The Forest Song” to the family animation, make the happy end in it and to raise current topics, such as ecological issues. In 2016, the project came to the stage of the deep development: the work on the script writing started. The producers worked on the storyline and tried to cooperate with different authors. Later, the screenwriter Yaroslav Voitsesheck joined the project team. . In September 2016 this project won the ninth competition by the Ukrainian State Film Agency and received state financing in 24.5 billion UAH.

The first teaser of the project was shown in 2017. In March 2017, the producers of “Film.UA Group” and "Animagrad" took the first international pitching of Mavka: The Forest Song in one of the biggest animation forums in Europe, “Cartoon Movie”. It took place in Bordeux, France, and Ukraine was represented there for the first time. During the traditional survey within the forum, a lot of participants called the Mavka: The Forest Song pitch the best in the scope of 50 projects. The producers collected feedback from the major companies of the animated films market, such as “The Walt Disney Company”, The International Animated Film Association (ASIFA), “Canal+”, “TF1 International”, “Super RTL” and others. In parallel with this event, the script was being written, as well as the appearance and the depiction of Mavka was under the work.

In 2018 the process of creating 2D-animatics started and it lasted until the end of 2019.

"When the script is done, the animatics starts. It is a 2D version of the whole animated film in accordance with the script. Our animatics was appeared to be very long and then the process of its shortening began. In fact, we wrote a new script for one more year. After rewriting of the script and redoing of animatics, you go into the expected timing and only after this the budget evaluations start. When you see that the budget is bigger than it was expected, you begin to simplify scenes. Or, you start looking for financing…" - Iryna Kostiuk in the Business Media Reports interview, April 2021.

Production
The research of Mavka’s depiction lasted for a year. After that, there were long authors’ discussions about her actions: magic, clothes, creativity, behaviour style. In the opinion of Christian Koskinin, the art director of the animated film, the development of Mavka’s depiction lasted 3 years, starting from the idea. “To tell that we had a straightforward and step-by-step process within which we can count the terms will be wrong - the evaluation is very abstract”.

In 2020 the project team intended to write the film sound. However, the authors could not do this in the standard process because of the COVID-19 pandemics, - but the process was not stopped. English has become the main language of the project and the original lip sync was also created to the English language. The trial recording of the scoring happened in New York, USA (at the peak of COVID-19 lockdowns). The “3beep” company helped organize the scoring technical aspect: in collaboration with the “Postmodern” studio they created the recording system with remote access. In accordance with Egor Olesov’s words, the sound recording had lasted for several weeks. Despite the trial version of the scoring, a part of voices became final ones and they were not changed. First of all, that is the sound of secondary characters. The choice of actors who dubbed the main characters for both English and Ukrainian versions happened later. Then, the process of the animated film’s production in 3D started.

"When both animatics and basic art are coordinated, different production departments are joined the working process. There are 3D-assets creation, layouts production, look-development, animation, visual effects, simulation, rendering and compositing. And only after that there are music and post-production." - Ehor Olesov in the Media Business Reports interview, April 2021.

Thus, the project was on the stage of working on layouts, animation and collection of the final scenes in 2021. Also, the production of all the 3D-assets were being finalized. In February 2021 there was a release of the second teaser-trailer to the future animated film, where Mavka was presented in a new and updated form. According to Anna Yeliseeva’s words, Mavka’s new design has become “wild, more sylvan” one. Potential viewers mostly criticized such a change. The official trailer in the Ukrainian version scoring appeared in the social media in December, 20, 2021. According to the trailer, the animated film’s premiere would have happened in December, 29, 2022. In general, the scope of people who worked on “Mavka” movie is 400 people.

During the full-scale invasion
By the moment of the Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the project was in its final stage of development. Because of the war, a part of animators were on the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, some of them joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As well, the marketing action plan for the nearest month lost its relevance in a full scale. However, approximately a week was enough for the production studio for the development process reorganization and the work continued. Despite the hard military conditions, the film creators announced that the project would be finished in accordance with the pre-war plan, in the fourth quarter of 2022.

During the Cannes’ cinema market, the movie was involved in a whole series of different events, among which was Animation Day organized by the “Annecy” festival of animated films. Moreover, there was one more event which took place in Cannes called “Annecy Goes To Cannes 2022”. Mavka: The Forest Song was chosen for the pitching within the event.

The second official and main trailer was presented in February, 1, 2023 by the “Film.UA Group” studio. Mavka’s winter image was shown there together with the soundtrack “Mova Vitru” (”Song of the Wind”) by Khrystyna Soloviy and Artem Pyvovarov played there. According to the trailer, the premiere was planned in March, 2, 2023.

Distribution
The film screening rights for showing the movie in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa were acquired by MENA company, which is a sub-distributor of Walt Disney Studios. Koch Films acquired the rights within the territory of Germany and German-speaking countries. Monolith Films became the distributor in Poland, while Cinemart - in Czech Republic and Slovakia. ACME Film was a distributor in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Cinemundo - in Portugal, Vertical - in Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria, and Blitz company acquired rights for showing the movie within the territory of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.

Budget
In September 2016 this project won the ninth competition by the Ukrainian State Film Agency and received the state financing in 24.5 billion UAH. In December the agreement for 25% of the first budget for the production of Mavka: The Forest Song was signed. By that moment, the first budget was estimated in 98 078 911 UAH. In summer 2020 the Council of the State Support of the Cinema Art approved the budget increase of the project in 1.9 times. The Animagrad studio and the State Agency of Ukraine on Cinema signed the new agreement. In accordance with this agreement, the sum of the state financing was 25 million UAH, or 13.35% of the specified budget relatively.

By July 2021, the total budget of the animated film “Mavka. The Forest Song” was estimated in 187 241 525 UAH. The film production was partially financed by the Ukrainian State Film Agency. Considering all the changes, the total part of the state’s participation in the film production was 49 519 728 UAH, or 26.45%.

Soundtrack
The film featured animated versions of the members of Ukrainian band, DakhaBrakha, with its soundtrack featuring music composed by the band.

The production team recreated authentic dance and ceremonial elements with the help of experts from the Ivan Honchar Museum National Center for Folk Culture. The music sequence includes an authentic vesnyanka ("spring folk song") performed by DakhaBrakha, with the musicians not only creating the music, but also their likenesses appearing in animated form as Lukas's friends, the village musicians.

Artem Pyvovarov and Khrystyna Soloviy presented the video clip of the movie’s main soundtrack - “Mova Vitru” (”Song of the Wind”)to the Valentine’s Day in February 2023. They also made the English version of the song “Song of the Wind”. In March Chrystyna Soloviy also presented the video clip to the second soundtrack “Lisova pisnia” or “Pisnia Lisu” (”Forest Song”). All the songs which were included in the animated film you can see below. The part of these songs were presented as a whole soundtrack to the film in one playlist.

The collection of the orchestra music for the movie was presented by “Animagrad” studio in May, 2023. The soundtrack was created by the Ukrainian-Italian team. The team consisted of: the symphonic orchestra “Kyiv Virtuosos”, Oksana Mukha and Maksym Berezhniuk, and also Italians Dario Vero, Fabio Patriniani, Federico Solacco, Barbad Bayat and Fabricio De Karolis. The album has got 49 instrumental compositions.

The music recording held in the “Forum Studios” studio in Rome. The music collection has got different genres, such as classical, folk, pop-music and original Ukrainian music.

The author of the music is Dario Vero.

Projects beyond the animation
Even before the official release of the animated film, there has appeared some related projects in different formats and on different platforms. Thus, “Mavka” became the multiplatform cross media brand which covered several fields of life. The movie creators called it “The Mavka Universe”. The first projects were the collection of dresses called “MAVKA by NAVRO” by Ukrainian fashion designer Olha Navrocka, the jewellery pendant “Mavka’s Amulet” by the jewellery house “OBERIG”, branded book collection by the publication house “Kyiv Book House”, handmade tapestries by the workshop house “Solomia” and AR application by Signal Red developers.

Release
After seven years of production, Mavka: The Forest Song premiered in Ukraine on March 2, 2023 and set box office records in the country with its opening, beating out Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) with 189,048 admissions. In the first week of showings, the film's box office totaled 24.9 million UAH, which became a box office record among domestic Ukrainian releases. For six weekends at the cinema, 1,011,735 tickets were sold for the film, and the domestic box office totaled 127,531,211 UAH. For ten weekends at the cinema, 1,144,522 tickets were sold for the film, and the domestic box office totaled 143,930,311 UAH.

Internationally, the film was released in a number of markets with more than 80 countries having acquired distribution rights. More than 50 countries and territories had set release dates. The film was released in France on March 29, 2023, followed by the Netherlands on April 19, Italy on April 20, Portugal on May 4, Germany, Switzerland and Austria on June 8, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on June 14, and Vietnam on June 16.

In the United States, the film was released on DVD and digital download on August 15 by Shout! Factory. In the United Kingdom, the film was released for a limited time on July 28. Release dates for Canada, Latin America, South Korea, Mongolia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and other countries are expected to be announced at a later time.