This is the story of Reynard the Fox (voiced by Romain Bouquet), the most cunning animal in the land, who was always able to get the better of the other denizens of the forest. For example, today he was walking through the woods looking for someone to fool, and paused to sniff a flower when he noticed a crow sitting on a branch above him with a large piece of bread in its beak. Reynard fancied eating that himself, so buttered up the crow by telling him he had a wonderful voice, whereupon the flattered bird opened its mouth to sing and dropped the bread, right into the clutches of the fox. But word was getting about - he was a menace and something had to be done...
One of the first sound animated features, beating the American Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to the cinema screens, this French work was the only effort by Polish animator Wladyslaw Starewicz that was not a short, and his ambition was plain to see. Adapting the story by Goethe, he crafted a story of intricately designed puppets and lovingly rendered sets, all of a standard that could easily pass for the productions of today, although the black and white rather gives it away as being of less modern stock. This was not a difficult art film, however, it was intended to be populist and accessible for all, which makes the subject matter all the stranger, because frankly Reynard is not a nice guy in the slightest.
Therefore we're meant to sympathise with the plight of a character who lies, cheats, steals and even kills as part of his nature, and to top it all comes out smelling of roses by the finale. Imagine if the main character in Snow White had been the Wicked Queen and that she had won out over the more virtuous personalities at the end, and you'll have some idea of the effect of this film's odd tone, which may be true to the original text, but is so far removed from most family oriented cartoons that came afterwards that the result is striking. The other animals who Reynard encounters are seen as so stupid to be taken in by him that it's as if they deserve the fate that befalls them, which is more often than not complete humiliation and even injury, even death.
Look at the wolf, who is tricked by Reynard into fishing one winter by dipping his tail through a hole in the ice - of course the water freezes around him, and he is stuck, thereby allowing the fox to set the humans on him, as the people are just as easily led by him as the animals are, though less developed as personalities. There are so many complaints about our anti-hero's behaviour that the King, a lion, is called upon to pass judgement, but Reynard has an ally in the badger who pleads the case for the defence and persuades the King that the victims were the ones in the wrong, for a while anyway. However, the wily creature pushes his luck too far when he actually resorts to "murder".
The King has passed a law that no animal should eat another (although he makes himself an exception so that he can have a little meat at weekends), so when Reynard kills and devours a chicken, the populace are up in arms about his actions. Weirdly, the chicken is no random bird pecking away at corn when we meet her, but a doting wife and mother which makes the crime seem all the more dreadful, and by the point it occurs you could be forgiven for wanting to see the unlovely protagonist meet a justifiably terrible fate himself. What actually happens is that Reynard is indeed hounded by his fellow countrymen, which winds up in a welter of violence of the style that would be employed in animations for decades to come, with furry creatures getting clonked over the head and falling from great heights, although they do get hurt to some extent. So if you can't take the fact that Reynard is essentially rewarded for his cruelty - it's in his nature after all - you can still be impressed by the care with which the tale was brought to screen.
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