A Fox's Tale
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 This tale is not what you expect.
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A Fox's Tale (known as Kis Vuk in Hungary) is a 2008 Hungarian computer-animated film. The movie is based on Istvan Fekete's book The Little Fox, is the sequel to the 1981 film of the same name and is the second film of the series. It was meant to be the first Hungarian CGI-animated movie.
Plot
The animated film is about Little Jack (Freddie Highmore), a young fox who spends his time enjoying a wonderful life in the forest with his loving family. During the film, Little Jack's world changes drastically when his father, Jack, is captured and forced to join the circus. The film's villain, a shrewd circus owner named Anna Conda (Miranda Richardson), desperately wants bigger and better performances. This leads her to kidnap many forest animals, including Little Jack's father. With the help of her magician husband, The Ringmaster (Bill Nighy), Anna is able to hypnotize the animals into performing in her shows.
On his rescue mission, Little Jack gets help from many unlikely heroes, including a incapacitated nature-loving boy named Alex (Matthew McNulty) and a young acrobat named Arabella. Little Jack's mission to rescue his father leads him to make new friends, including a circus fox named Darcey (Sienna Miller). Together, they set out to free the animals so they can return home to the beautiful forest.
Why It Can't Fight For Freedom
- Ugly CGI animation with a lot of animation errors, the most blatant one occurring in one scene where Little Jack's jaw is broken and disproportionate. The fall color palette, in particular, is very washed out and makes the film look like it was shot in the 1990s. Granted, it was Hungary's first CGI film, but they could've at least had better animation. This film was first made in 2008 by the way, and previous computer animated films such as WALL·E, Kung Fu Panda and Bolt look ten times as better looking then A Fox's Tale.
- Heck, even The Little Fox looks so much better then A Fox's Tale, and that film came out in 1981, twenty-seven years before A Fox's Tale came out!
- It doesn't help by the fact that this movie was only in development from 2005.
- It's extremely unfaithful and a huge middle finger to the original source material.
- Poor character models that look rip straight out of Barnyard.
- Poorly written or unlikeable characters (including the main character).
- Idiotic songs (for starters, there's a rapping crow!)
- It's somewhat a bit too dark for a movie made for kids, with scenes where animals get violently killed on-screen.
- The characters look nothing like they did in the original film.
- It feels way too late to make a sequel, as The Little Fox came out in 1981.
- Wasted the talents of Freddie Highmore, Miranda Richardson, Bill Nighy, Sienna Miller, etc.
- The writing is very poor, with cheesy humor that falls flat.
- This film is what possible killed the franchise, as there has yet to be a third film or even a reboot of this series since then.
The Only Redeeming Quality
- Unlike other English dubs of non-English-language media, at least it isn't full of broken English.
Reception
The film became infamous for the extremely negative criticism it got from its Hungarian audience, who were mainly disappointed by the film's failure to capture the style and spirit of the original 1981 film.
Trivia
- After being shown the first animated trailer, Attila Dargay's (who directed the original 1981 film) reaction to it was: "No comment".
- 20% of the movie's budget was financed by the Hungarian government. It cost 1.4 billion Hungarian Forint (roughly $5 million in US Dollars) to make.
- The movie's official website remained accessible for several years after the film's release. The last news entry was dated May 24, 2008. The link for its official forum redirected visitors to e621.net, an adult image-sharing site with pornographic furry and "My Little Pony" artwork.
Videos
The Movie
Reviews
References
External links
Comments
- Based on books
- Family films
- Adventure films
- Comedy films
- Sequel films
- Low-budget films
- Films dubbed in English
- Animated films
- Hungarian films
- British films
- Animal films
- Sequel in-name only films
- Twenty-plus years too late
- Films for free on YouTube
- Computer-animated films
- Terrible grasp on the source material
- Obscure films
- Featured on TV Tropes' So Bad, It's Horrible