The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales (2017)

French and Belgian animation has a long and distinctive tradition of working slightly apart from the mainstream, and The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales (released in France as Le Grand Méchant Renard et autres contes in 2017, reaching wider international audiences the following year) sits comfortably in that lineage. The film is an anthology, presenting three separate comic stories set on a single farm, each one built around a different animal and a different flavour of gentle chaos. The format owes something to the tradition of illustrated children's fables, and the source material is the graphic novel series by Benjamin Renner himself, which gives the whole production a pleasingly personal, author-driven quality. StudioCanal handled distribution alongside the French production houses Folivari and Panique!, keeping the film within the kind of mid-sized, craft-focused European co-production model that tends to prioritise personality over polish.

Benjamin Renner co-directed here with Patrick Imbert, and Renner is a figure worth paying attention to in contemporary European animation. Viewers who have caught his earlier feature Ernest & Celestine will already have a sense of his aesthetic instincts: a preference for hand-drawn warmth, loose expressive line work, and stories that feel genuinely made rather than manufactured. Imbert, taking on his first feature directing credit, brings a background in animation that complements Renner's vision without pulling it in a different direction. The result is something consistent in tone across all three segments, which is no small achievement given the anthology structure. The film runs at a brisk 83 minutes, and the French-language voice cast, including Guillaume Darnault, Damien Witecka, Kamel Abdessadok, Antoine Schoumsky, and Céline Ronté, keeps the comic timing tight throughout. Voice performance in animation is often underappreciated, and there is real ensemble work here, the kind where characters feel like they are reacting to one another rather than recording lines in isolation.

As a family film, it arrived at a moment when the genre was (and remains) heavily dominated by big-budget American CGI productions, the sort of thing that is polished but unremarkable in the way that corporate confidence tends to produce. The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales is a useful counterpoint to that, and worth comparing to other family-oriented work reviewed on this site, including Trolls and the Disney classic Alice in Wonderland, to get a sense of where it sits in the broader landscape. For those interested in what European animation has been doing more recently, Josep is another example from the same tradition worth a look.

Big Bad Fox and Other Tales (2018), from the same French-Belgian team behind Ernest & Celestine, is a charming, hand-drawn delight, structured as three whimsical fables set on a sleepy farm, each more absurd and endearing than the last. The animation style is gorgeous: soft watercolor textures, loose ink lines, and expressive characters that feel alive with personality. It’s a joy to watch, especially in an age dominated by glossy CGI, this feels like a storybook come to life. My son absolutely loved it, and for good reason. It’s funny, fast-paced, and full of slapstick that lands with both kids and adults. The first segment is the worst of the three, but the second and third tales are pure comedic gold. The soundtrack is playful and perfectly timed, enhancing every gag and emotional beat. Light, clever, and bursting with heart. Not quite as emotionally deep as Ernest & Celestine, but made with the same love for craftsmanship and storytelling. A wonderful little film that reminds you animation can be simple, handmade, and still utterly magical. Perfect for family viewing, especially if you’ve got young ones.

I do think that comparison to Ernest & Celestine is the right frame for placing this one. It is a slightly lighter piece of work, less concerned with landing an emotional punch, but that is not really a criticism. Sometimes a film earns its place simply by being genuinely funny and beautifully made, and this one does both. The anthology structure means it takes a little time to find its rhythm, but once it does, the second and third segments in particular have a kind of loose, confident comic energy that is harder to achieve than it looks. For what it is, and what it sets out to do, it is difficult to fault. Sometimes the simplest things are the ones worth cherishing.

Rating: ★★★½  | Year: 2017  | Watched: 2025-11-29

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Trailer

▶ Watch the official trailer for The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales (2017) on YouTube

Where to watch

Watch in the UK
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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Benjamin Renner: Ernest & Celestine (2012)
More from France: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Letter from Siberia (1957) · Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Here and Elsewhere (1976)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More family: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Wonder (2017) · Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anastasia (1997)
More animation: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)