Movie Thoughts: Mavka: The Forest Song (2023)

• Released: March 2, 2023
  
• Directed by: Oleh Malamuzh, Oleksandra Ruban, Yevheniy Yermak
• Running time: 1h 39min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

Mavka, a girl who happens to be the Soul of the Enchanted Forest, falls in love with a human, something that's strictly forbidden. Especially so when she is chosen as the Forest's next Guardian, she finds herself torn between her duties and her heart. But then greedy humans start to uproot the forest. Mavka will have to defeat this new threat as Guardian.

My Thoughts

I originally wanted to see this in cinemas when it came out, but ultimately did not. But thankfully it's now on a streaming service where I can watch it. I've heard mixed things about this movie, and honestly... I did like it. Quite a bit, in fact. Is it perfect? No. Is it a bit generic and simple? Sure. But there's also definitely stuff to appreciate here.

For one, I liked our main characters. Again, Mavka and her boyfriend Lukas. They're fun characters and they're charming. Nothing groundbreaking, but I liked them. And I liked the characters in the Forest as well. They're all pretty fun and colorful and the old Guardian was a particularly interesting character. The only one I didn't really like was Hush, who could be a bit annoying.

It also looks great. It's a very pretty-looking movie, especially the Forest looks enchanting and beautiful.

There are a few aspects I wasn't as fond of, however. First of all, the villain is just very bland. Not interesting-levels of bland. I'm not saying Mavka and Lukas were super unique characters, either, but they were at least likable and kept me engaged enough. Kylina is just boring as a villain. I honestly enjoyed her quirky minion Frol more than her herself.

And the climax. It's a bit...messy. First of all, I don't like that Mavka in the end has to be saved by the others. You'd think that, as a main character, she'd be the heroic one and save the day, but nope. It's the people she cares about who end up uniting to save her once she's caught up in the Spark of Rage, not her herself. Also, once she's finally cursed of the Spark she pretty much is supposed to die, but with no really good reason given Mavka goes "nuh-uh" and come back to life anyways. "Her heart is full" or something is what they say, but it's not a really good reason and the plot nowhere beforehand establishes that this allows one to cheat death (since the Spark was supposed to kill Mavka). So the climax is a bit eh to me.

But overall, yeah, I'd say I still had a good time watching this film. It can be pretty generic and the climax and villain aren't too great, but overall I had a good time here.