Le roman de Renard (1930)

Directors:

Irene Starewicz
Wladyslaw Starewicz

Writers:

Johann Wolfgang Goethe (story)
Jean Nohain (dialogue)

Release Date:

10 April 1941 (France)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Fantasy

Plot:

In the kingdom of animals, Master Fox is used to trick and fool everyone. So the King, the Lion, receives more and more complaints about him...

Plot Keywords:

Fox | Lion | King | Puppet | Kingdom

Cast

Claude Dauphin	...	Monkey (voice)
Romain Bouquet	...	Fox (voice)
Laine	...	Lion (voice)
Sylvain Itkine	...	Wolf (voice)
Léon Larive	...	Bear (voice)
Robert Seller	...	Cock (voice)
Eddy Debray	...	Badger (voice) (as Debray)
Nicolas Amato	...	Cat (voice)
Pons	...	Donkey (voice)
Sylvia Bataille	...	Rabbit (voice)
Suzy Dornac	...	Fox Cub (voice)
Jaime Plama	...	Cat (singing) (voice)

Also Known As:

The Story of the Fox (USA)
The Tale of the Fox

Runtime:

65 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Wladyslaw Starewicz Production

Trivia:

This was Director, Animator, Writer, Cinematographer, Production Designer and Art Director Wladyslaw Starewicz' only animation feature.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Dazzling Animation from a forgotten genius

Seven years before "Snow White" Wladyslaw Starewicz produced a truly amazing piece of stop motion animation, not only one of the first to use sound and dialogue as more than decoration, but the first truly adult animation with a blackly comic story-line that's astonishingly fresh today.

The culmination of twenty years of pioneering animation, "Tale" was virtually forgotten from it's release till the early 1990's when it resurfaced at various film festivals. Seeing "Tale" now it's easy to understand why 1930's audiences might have had a hard time with this. The brutality of humour and characters would've been off-putting to most and even now the film an ability to shock.

It's easy to go into this expecting a more primitive "Song of the South" and at first this seems like where we're headed. But there's a cynicism and sophistication Walt could never have imagined.

Reynaud (craftily voiced by Romain Bouquet)is no Disney hero nor should he be taken as a soft hearted villain. Completely amoral, loyal to none (outside his family) he ruthlessly exploits the gullibility of his peers (and even the king himself), in a series of inventive and savagely comic encounters to a point where the enraged animal kingdom declares war on him.

Ten years in the making, "Tale" offers numerous highlights (the drunken rabbit in the monastery, the attack on Reynaud's castle; not to mention a particularly surreal and endearing song between a love smitten cat and a royal girl dove during the strange armistice in which no animal is allowed to eat another.)

An unforgettable and remarkable movie that defies it's age. Try to look out for this one on video (it's available) or in animation festivals... Better still write into your local TV station and request it so more people can see it.