Filmmaker, animator and cartoonist Benjamin Renner (Ernest & Celestine) adapts his own comic strips for this trio of laugh-out-loud animal adventures.
From talented filmmaker, animator, and cartoonist Benjamin Renner (Ernest & Celestine, TIFF '12), comes the delightfully hilarious The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales. Adapted from Renner's own comics, the film is set up as a play with three acts chronicling different animal tales, each infused with the quick wit and sophisticated humour of Renner and co-writer Jean Regnaud.
In "A Baby to Deliver," Rabbit, Duck, and their wise but easily annoyed friend Pig are tasked by Stork with returning a human baby to its parents. In "The Big Bad Fox," a fox lacking the smarts to catch a hen is persuaded by a wolf to steal her eggs, hoping to eat them when they hatch… but he's in for a big surprise.
In the final act "The Perfect Christmas," Rabbit and Duck are playing in the snow in the lead-up to the holiday season when they believe they accidentally kill Santa Claus. To fix their mistake, they decide to take his place, delivering presents to everyone with very funny consequences.
Renner, working with animator and co-director Patrick Imbert's beautifully hand-drawn 2-D animation style (on "A Baby to Deliver" and "The Perfect Christmas") sends these distinctly cartoonish caricatures on laugh-out-loud adventures that are action-packed from start to finish. The stable of animal stars are the heroes of each tale, and their heartwarming antics will have audiences cheering well after the curtain goes down.
ELIZABETH MUSKALA