User Reviews

Production on RENARD THE FOX was begun by Ladislas and Irene Starevich in 1930 and the film was completed in 1940. It is the first puppet animated feature film. It is not the first animated feature film (that honor belongs to Lotte Reiniger's ABENTEUER VON PRINZ ACHMED of 1926.)SNOW WHITE remains the first animated feature film with sound. Now that that's done-- Why can't this wonderful feature be released in the USA? Well, Starevich completed it in 1940 in Paris. The Nazis, who had conquered France in 1940, provided funds for its completion. US law forbids any film made by the Nazis from being released in the country. RENARD is actually a very subversive piece of film-making based on a medieval fable. The moral of the story is this: Each man has his price, even the king, and if you can't beat the fox, appoint him as your minister so he's at least on your side! The animation is absolutely stunning and there is nothing in this story that could not be shown today. You may be able to locate copies of the movie in France and it is well worth the effort; RENARD is a milestone in animation. I was blown away by a photograph of Starevich with his "Lion King" puppet--the thing was nearly as tall as the animator! The sequence with the flirty Lion Queen being serenaded by a cat minstrel is marvelous, but then so is nearly everything else in the film. Try and see RENARD if you are interested in animation. It is a delight.

This movie got me into old stop motion films, and it showed me how many amazing films exist and people don't even talk about them.

I loved watching the fox creating havoc in the village, it really showed how creative and horrible the foxes could be. The animation was just so amazing to watch, I saw somewhere that the puppets are life sized which is just crazy to see that. My favourite part of the movie was when the village finally had enough and came to the foxes house, trying to make them pay for their mischief. Which they never go to, instead the foxes won in the end.

I'd recommend this to anyone wanting to watch something entertaining, this definitely worth a watch!

Let me start by saying that "Le roman de Renard" pulls off a double trick : firstly by being very old (which means, logically, that it once was new and, indeed, revolutionary) and secondly by being very, very good. I started watching the movie without great expectations but gradually my mouth fell open both with admiration and astonishment. It was rather like discovering, say, that around the year 1900 someone somewhere had built a car capable of driving, flying, diving, sailing, shooting and achieving speeds of up to 100 miles an hour. Oh yes, and the car was provided with solar panels, a colour television, a working GPS system and an efficient little kitchen...

So we're not just talking about a very early example of feature-length stop-motion animation : this is a strong, beautiful and entertaining work of art capable of burying quite a lot of modern rivals. At least two scenes stand out in the memory : the scene where the lioness queen indulges in amorous reverie while listening to a minstrel song - a fine tune, by the way - and the scene where the fox, that delicate and deeply Christian soul, discovers the hare indulging in sacrilege and doing a drunken dance. ("Gagnam style" avant la lettre !)

Now "Le roman" is based on a French tale or rather tale collection, dating back all the way to the Middle Ages, which seems to have gone through various changes and editions. Blushing deeply, I've got to confess I've never read it... As a Dutch-speaking Belgian I'm much more familiar with its Dutch-language counterpart "Van den vos Reynaerde", which seems to have been based on the French example(s) plus some other European sources. (This is a matter I gladly leave to the specialists.) The Dutch version - probably written in Flanders - still stands as one of the jewels of Medieval literature. It is notable for many things, chief among them the sharpness and slyness of its satire and the creation of one of the great anti-heroes of all time, to wit a trickster fox of unusual cunning, cynicism and cruelty.

Now the Dutch and the French source material must be very similar, because I immediately recognized the tale being told, about a fox outsmarting pretty much every other animal around, including the dim-witted and greedy lion supposed to be a noble king. I also recognized the satirical message, with the author(s) blowing poison darts at humanity at large, at Medieval society AND at Medieval courtly literature. What you get here is basically an anti-King Arthur with a court made up of dolts, hypocrites and parasites, none of whom are a match for the cruel and highly intelligent criminal who runs circles around them.

Both the source material and the movie remain surprisingly topical, for instance by pointing out that habitual criminals are never more dangerous than when they "have found God". It's a lesson quite a lot of social workers and reformers seem to have forgotten... The story also has some interesting things to say about judges, lawyers and spin doctors.

I recommend the movie wholeheartedly, but I recommend it to an older audience of adolescents and adults. The satire is not only layered and complex, it has a genuinely nasty, grisly edge which makes it unsuitable for young children. Do not be deceived into thinking it's just good rollicking fun...

I gather there's an interesting tale involving the movie's origins : it seems as though the bulk of the movie was made in France, with financial troubles rearing their head and preventing proper completion. Some years later, the movie was finished thanks to German funding. It was then introduced to France by the Germans during World War II, which must have gone down a treat. If true : now here lies the inspiration for a whole book...

This film is extraordinary.

Not only the animation is incredibly well done (In every single frame of this movie the viewer could appreciate a high level of details in the characters and the sceneries) but also the story was delightful and very fun to watch, with very likable and interesting characters.

Loosely based in "The Reynard Cycle", this film is some sort of "anti-fable", or better said, a spoof of the classical fables, with the main character being the complete opposite of a role model (The eponymous fox is dishonest, amoral, sly, and self serving rogue, but at the same time, is also a charming, memorable character.

I would recommend this film to anyone, but specially to all those who love and enjoy any kind of animated films.