Every once in a great while a work appears on the scene that validates the usefulness of cartooning, whether via comics or animation… or both in this instance.  One of the last true examples of this was Jeff Smith’s ‘Bone’ comic book which upon arrival I found restored my faith in the comic book format for storytelling.

And now there appears this fox, Renard, and the supporting cast of his adventures.

Impressive stuff.

And an interesting parallel between Jeff Smith’s ‘Bone’ and Benjamin Renner’s ‘Le Grand Méchant Renard’ and that is how the imagery so expertly tells the story in pantomime.

In the case of ‘Bone’ the first issue was almost entirely silent… a black and white printed comic masterpiece.  In the case of ‘Le Grand Mechant Renard’ I don’t follow the language so must rely on the imagery (and music) and this works masterfully.

From concept to execution and with great insight into character motivation and staging we are seeing all the various and considerably complex elements of great storytelling distilled into the very essence of performance based simplicity.  The still imagery alone is emotively appealing.  The plot itself compelling.  The internal conflict of the central character continually draws us in and keeps us engaged.   Perhaps best of all, the animation raises the whole experience to a higher level of entertainment.  In a word… perfection.

For more see:

http://folivari.com/en/projet/the-big-bad-fox-and-other-tales/