The Story of the Fox: Puppet magic that feels a bit creepy

Is this worth a watch?

If you have any interest in how movies looked before everything was made of plastic and pixels, yes. This is a must. If you need your stories to make sense or have a normal human pace, stay far, far away. It feels like a fever dream you had after eating too much cheese before bed.

The Story of the Fox is essentially a collection of puppets acting like absolute jerks to one another. There is this texture to the fur on the animals that honestly feels more tactile than half the movies coming out of big studios these days. You can see the thumbprints in the clay or whatever material they used, and that's the best part. 🦊

The vibe is just... off.

Everything moves with this jerky, uneven rhythm that feels slightly haunted. I don't know if that was the intention, but it works. Renard himself is such a piece of work. He doesn't just pull pranks; he basically ruins lives for the sport of it. It’s refreshing, really, not having to deal with a hero who learns a lesson by the end of the second act.

There is a sequence in the woods that goes on forever. It’s just light hitting the leaves in this weird, stagey way. It almost feels like the camera forgot it was supposed to be filming a narrative and just got distracted by the set design. I didn't mind it. It’s better than the constant rushing you see in modern cartoons.

Comparing this to something like Don Quixote feels a bit weird because they're totally different beasts, but they both share that strange, old-world energy. You get the sense that these filmmakers were just making it up as they went along.

• The lion’s crown looks like it’s about to fall off every time he speaks.
• The eyes on the puppets are genuinely unsettling.
• I’m pretty sure one of the backgrounds was just a painting they left out in the rain.

Some of the court scenes feel empty, like the producers couldn't afford to build enough puppet extras to make the place feel busy. It’s charming, honestly. It adds to the feeling that this whole kingdom is just held together by glue and string. If you like this kind of tactile, weird stuff, it's way more interesting than anything in The Lion and the Mouse, which felt a lot more rigid by comparison.

I caught myself checking the clock, not because I was bored, but because I couldn't believe how much time had passed while I was just staring at a wooden fox’s face. It’s a strange little relic. You should probably see it at least once. Just don't expect it to be a nice bedtime story for the kids.