The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales (Le Grand Méchant Renard et autres contes)
Ajyal Competition
Benjamin Renner, Patrick Imbert / Feature Narrative / France / 2016 / 83 min / Colour / DCP
In French / Arabic, English subtitles
Interests: Animation
MENA Premiere
Synopsis
Welcome to the Honeysuckle Theatre playhouse, where a troupe of animal actors (some with serious attitude) present three plays for the pleasure of the audience. In one, a daft rabbit, a spaced-out duck and a sensible gardening pig who overthinks everything find themselves delivering a newborn baby named Pauline when a lazy stork decides to call in sick for the day. In the second, a fox pretends to be a chicken in order to help out a hungry, world-wise wolf – much to the displeasure of the real chicken and the joy of three new-hatched chicks. Finally, Yuletide is coming, the decorations are going on the trees – and our spaced-out duck decides it’s for him to replace Father Christmas himself.
In this charming film by celebrated animators Benjamin Renner and Patrick Imbert (known to Doha audiences for 2012’s ‘Ernest & Celestine’), a combination of quick jokes, brilliantly timed silliness, the most unlikely of situations and the best in animated pratfalls makes ‘The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales’ a rollicking laugh a minute. As Honeysuckle’s stable of actors become familiar to us and we come to anticipate their madcap antics, we truly hope the curtain will not come down on the last act.
About the Directors
Benjamin Renner is a French cartoonist, animator and filmmaker. He and his fellow producers received a 2014 Academy Award nomination in the category of Best Animated Feature for the film ‘Ernest & Celestine’. He previously directed the short film'The Mouse's Tail' in 2008.
Patrick Imbert graduated from the School of Images Gobelins, and has worked as an animator on several feature films. He was the animation director on the feature ‘Ernest & Celestine’ (2012), when he met Benjamin Renner. After this fruitful collaboration, they decided to continue working together.
Credits
- Director
- Benjamin Renner, Patrick Imbert
- Screenwriter
- Benjamin Renner, Patrick Imbert
- Producer
- Didier Brunner, Damien Brunner, Vincent Tavier
- Associate Producer
- Philippe Logie
- Music
- Robert Marcel Lepage
- Production Company
- Folivari, Panique!, StudioCanal
- Distributor
- Selim Ramia & Co
- Cast
- Guillaume Darnault, Jules Bienvenu, Augustin Jahn Sani, Violette Samama, Céline Ronté