This is such a great, gorgeous film. You should go and watch it if you love beautiful animation, wonderful story, bishounen ducks and topical narratives. This film is based on a Korean novel called "The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly" by Hwang Sun-mi and is partially like a talking animals film you might remember from your childhood and also like a more topical look at the darker aspects of animals' interactions with each other and people, including the food chain, the cycles of nature and farming practices. But this is also a very painful narrative - just as there are many beautiful, heart-warming and humorousmoments in this film, so too are there also very bittersweet moments.

The animation is gorgeous. This film would take my vote for best-animated film if "Garden of Words" wasn't already there. It's on par with (or better than) Miyazaki films in this department. The nature settings are beautiful, the animals are beautiful (did I mention that there are BISHOUNEN DUCKS) and the cartoonish art style just works brilliantly.

The voice actors all did a great job on this, and Moon So-ri did (Leafie), Choi min-shik (Wanderer), Park Cheoi-min (Mr. Otter), Yoo Seung-ho (Greenie) especially did wonderful jobs here. The characters are so vibrant and fun and feel so alive but also like animals and not just humans as animals for a metaphor. I love that the primary protag is female and she is wonderfully written. That being said, this film is a sausage fest, although there's a delightful surprise by the end of the film that might assuage some ruffled feathers. It doesn't fix everything, but it's a start anyway and says some things about gendering behavior and the way our society looks at warriors.

This is a story about freedom, passion, daydreaming, romance, loss, sacrifice, duty, family, mothers, fathers, friendship, dreams, pride, peer pressure, conformity, creativity, optimism, compassion, empathy, heroism and, overall, it's about nature. While there is sorrow here, I still say that this is a heart-warming coming of age/adventure story. There are great messages about loving people no matter how different they are, just because those differences don't conform to societal pressures, helping your neighbors and being a good friend and being involved in your community. There's also heavy messages about adoption, education and the problems with the ways farmers raise their animals. I have researched a lot about current practices involving chickens in particular and was astonished that they actually showed at least some of it on-screen.

You will enjoy this. It can be difficult to find, but it is entirely worth it.