THE TALE OF THE FOX (FRANCE/1930/WŁADYSŁAW STAREWICZ, IRENE STAREWICZ)

Narrated by a bespectacled monkey, animator Władysław Starewicz’s only feature-length animation concerns the story of Renard, a mischievous fox who wreaks havoc in the kingdom of animals. After repeatedly receiving complaints about Renard stealing the food of others and bullying those more vulnerable than himself, King Lion puts him on trial to give him the opportunity to defend his actions. Naturally, the jury is unwilling to hear him out, and Renard is thrown down a well. Unaware that his wife is being pursued by an amorous lute-playing cat, the King legislates that no animal should have the right to eat another, and that love shall reign supreme. After managing to escape the well, Renard returns to his nefarious ways, and the King resorts to more violent measures to stop him.

Without discrediting Wes Anderson too much, the aesthetic of his interpretation of Fantastic Mr. Fox is very clearly inspired by The Tale of the Fox, and it is actually the latter which comes out on top visually. Even the humour is darker here, with such bizarre sights as a topless burlesque-dancing mouse and Renard seducing a hen so that he can eat her. Starewicz’s animation and set design are, as ever, difficult to fault, particularly in the bell-tower battle sequence at the end. One issue with the film is that Renard is such an unrelentingly evil character who is forgiven purely for his ingenuity, but if one views it as a cartoon rather than a social allegory, it becomes inconsequential.

LILIYA BELGII (RUSSIA/1915/WŁADYSŁAW STAREWICZ)

An unnamed little girl wanders through the woods aimlessly, until she comes across a dead lily pulled from its roots. Taking the lily home with her, she shows it to her entomologist grandfather, who begins to tell her a fantastical story about it. The lily had been growing for a time in a beautiful spot by a stream, becoming the envy of many a flowering plant. The lily, so says grandfather, was so beautiful that she inspired grasshoppers and frogs to convene beneath her and play music. But of course, such majesty has the ability to attract negative attention too, as a group of territorial beetles plan to kill her as part of the expansion of their empire. Despite the lily’s protestations, she is callously cut down and used as a bridge for the beetles to wage war on their neighbours. Of course, the rest of the woods refuses to let this happen, and the beetles are ambushed by frogs, grasshoppers, and even a furious pine cone.

Władysław Starewicz, the animator responsible for this touching short, was one of the first artists to make use of stop-motion animation, frequently using dead insects and animals as his puppets. Here, he mixes it with live action to tell a saddening tale of death and belligerence, in clear reference to the First World War which had been ongoing for a year when this film was made. Though aimed at children, the message of Starewicz’s film should resonate with everyone through its heartrending purity.