Le grand méchant renard et autres contes... (2017) Reviews

• Harmless, really funny, and quite endearing

  datautisticgamer-748532018-10-21

  I noticed that the Gene Siskel Film Center was playing a subtitled version of this movie, which I had on my watchlist. Because I just couldn't turn down the opportunity, I managed to bring my father along for the trip. We were able to get to the GSFC just in time, and had ourselves quite the blast; here's why. The story is an anthology trio, with the second one concerning the titular Big Bad Fox. The first concerns the delivery of a baby named Pauline by a trio of the farm's animals after a stork feigns wing injury, while the third concerns the same trio searching for (and later saving) Father Christmas. While the stories aren't really connected besides a play that functions as intermission between the segments, they actually each stand out individually with funny writing, fascinating twists, and rather strange ideas that turn out warming. I was actually smiling for most of the movie because when its humor wasn't jabbing at my funny bones, its pacing and action were delightful. When it comes to the characters, we have the old gruff Dog who is incompetent at protecting the hens, the trio of a duck, rabbit, and pig who deliver Pauline and save Father Christmas despite their conflicting behaviors resulting in shenanigans, and the titular Fox who idolizes and is mentored by Wolf. We have protective mothers in the Hens, and oblivion in their chicks, resulting in the main strange idea of this movie: children can have biological AND step-mothers simultaneously, live happily with both, and see both of them frequently. It gives segment 2 an unexpected ending considering its synopsis and setup. Simply put, while the characters are slightly more on the simpler side in terms of design, the way they are cast and written make them stand out very well. The animation seems somewhat limited in terms of its movements, but the slapstick and comedic timing are really enhanced by its stretchier style on the animals. For a film produced on a budget of less than $10 million, it could have looked significantly worse, but its ability to convey the humor, action, and overall tone of this film helps it be a prime example of French animation. This is a movie that I can recommend to any family; it has nothing objectionable and its violence is mere slapstick (it actually comes off funnier than many big name studios' attempts to pull it off in their films). In the GSFC I could hear adults and children alike laughing at its humor, which I find is a signal of a film worthy as a comedy for families. I also recommend it for anyone who likes animation, French movies, or obscurity. I want to use this review to thank GKIDS for subtitling yet another amazing movie, and distributing it here for families. It's not just our companies who can produce great children's movies, and GKIDS has rightfully carried this out once again.

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• Quite funny and very well animated

  esteryn2018-06-23

  An excellent set of 3 tales which the entire audience, adults as well as children, seemed to enjoy very much, both times I went to see it. Beautifully animated and drawn, very expressive, enjoyable, good narrative twists and comic situations, a nice change from 3D often look-alike animation & humor, very good voice acting and sweet and funny stories.

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• From the makers of Ernest and Célestine

  richard-17872017-07-12

  The two men who directed Ernest and Célestine five years ago are also responsible for this animated movie. E & C is to me a truly remarkable movie for all sorts of reasons, both visually and verbally. This movie is not in that league, but it's still worth seeing. It contains three stories about animal characters, each one better than the one before. Some of it is very funny - I saw it with a lot of children during a matinée, and they laughed. It is rarely as touching or profound as its predecessor. You never really care for any of the characters, unlike in E & C. It's well drawn, but it not a work of visual art the way its predecessor was. See it with young children.

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• Funny, Charming and Brilliant!

  masonrobledo2018-12-01

  Benjamin Renner is back with a new animated film, if you guys don't know the guy, he was the man behind the 2014 academy award nominated animated film "Ernest and Celestine", which was charming, funny, touching and beautifully animated, if you haven't seen it then do check it out, it's really good, but now a second animated film by Renner based on his comic strip "Big Bad Fox" is here and I am a bit late to the movie, since it did came out in August in my country, so I got the DVD not long ago and I watched it at home and...... i thought it was brilliant!, so let's talk about it. It's about a play with three stories by anthropomorphic animals, one is about a Duck, Pig and a Rabbit trying to deliver a Baby since the Stork has broken his wing, the second one is about a Fox and a wolf trying to steal some chickens and eat them all, along with some chicks as well, so then the fox steals three eggs, the chicks would be dinner but then they think the Fox is their mother, would then form a bond and start to like each other, but the Wolf is losing his patience and just wants to eat the chicks, so the Fox has to try and hide the chicks from him, the third and last story is about Duck, Rabbit and Pork again but this time try to save Christmas but delivering all the presents to the nice children, so... you think something like this wouldn't work with it's simplistic premise and predicable plot with childish jokes, right?.... no actually, you see the simplicity is the charm and the comedy is witty, whimsical and clever, if you combine those two together, then you get something enjoyable, all three stories come together and they are all told very well, granted it maybe predicable but that's the least of your problems, don't expect a big budget film that will blow everyone away and be a big hit, it's just it's own thing, not trying to make a franchise but just wants to have fun and be a good movie and it certainly does that very well. The animation has improved from Ernest and Celestine as much as I love the animation in that movie, all the characters have great designs, they are all identifiable, the backgrounds are gorgeous, the energy and movements of the characters are great, it's also good to see hand drawn animation in film once again, I know it's Disney or anything but at least we are seeing more of these then often, same with Stop-Motion, we need more art styles like this in animation, we need more films like this then 3-D animation, look I love 3-D animation and all but I do miss the good old days of stop-Motion and hand drawn, but none the less, the animation shows that Renner and his team are capable of making something look amazing!. The character are charming and lots of fun, my favourites would have to be Fox, Wolf, Pork, Rabbit and Duck, Fox maybe clumsy but he's sweet and hilarious, Wolf is very menacing, Duck and Rabbit are so enjoyable, Pork gets some good laughs, as for the rest like the Dog, the Chickens, the three Chicks and even Santa Clause, well they have there fair share of good screentime and of course great humour and enjoyable, but they aren't in the film much so there's not much, also the voice acting is terrific, Giles New, Bill Bailey, Matthew Goode, Justin Edwards are many more are all great and sounds like they are having fun with their roles, the characters may not be much, but thanks to the great cast and fun and charming characters, they will give you s good laugh. So yeah..., it may not be a well known animated film (expect for France) but it is a really enjoyable film, with it's charming simplistic story, clever humour, amazing animation, fun characters and wonderful voice acting along with a great score, Big Bad Fox and Other Tails is a perfect family film, I highly recommend this movie, if you want to watch something with the children, the family or have a family movie night, this will be for them, however I can't decide if this movie or Ernest and Celestine is better then the other, but I like them both equally, so if you can, find the English dub of the movie, I know it originally came from France, but there is a UK Dub, so try and find it on DVD if you can, it's really worth a watch!. I'm going to give Big Bad Fox and Other Tails a easy 10/10.

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