2017 French animation, dir. Patrick Imbert, Benjamin Renner; IMDb /
allmovie.
vt The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales
The countryside is not as peaceful a place as one might expect, as
comedic bunglers try to do the right thing and are appropriately
punished for it.
This is the thing that Renner and Imbert worked on next after
their Academy-nominated Ernest and Célestine; but don't expect the
quiet profundity of that film. This is farce and slapstick, done
gloriously in the grand cartoon tradition.
There's a (literal) framing story of sorts, a very amateur theatrical
production which introduces us gently to the characters, and three
individual chapters which build slightly on each other. In the first,
Pork, Bunny and Duck find themselves delivering a baby for a stork
with a broken wing (because the tree just reached up and hit him, no
really it did); in the second, Fox is caught between his theoretical
ally Wolf and the baby chicks he's stolen (who of course regard him as
their mother), with a lovely sideline in the Hens' Self-Defence
Collective; in the third, Pork, Bunny and Duck find that they have to
Save Christmas. That last part is perhaps a little weaker than the
others, but it holds together nonetheless. I found myself particularly
enjoying Dog, in theory the farm's guardian in the second and third
chapters, who just wants a quiet life.
Animation is surely computer-assisted, but has a hand-drawn look to
it, and the characters' expressions are superb, capturing nuances of
feeling in a way that most animators aren't allowed the time to do
right. (A passing glimpse of a Totoro in a box of Christmas
decorations reveals one obvious influence.) The backgrounds are also
excellent, being mostly simple but always informative and expressive.
Children would probably enjoy this too, but adults shouldn't be bored.
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