The Cunning Little Vixen - A Furry Comic Becomes Great Art

[Rafe]

The Cunning Little Vixen, in 8 parts

There have always been, as far as I can tell, people who love stories with anthropomophized animals in them.  You might think that years ago, sure they had furry stories, but they were mostly fables and fairy tales for kids.  This isn't really true.  There were some very good ones that were filled with "adult situations". 

Back around 1922, a newspaper in Brno, in what is now the Czech Republic, was running a comic called "The Adventures of Vixen Sharp-Ears".  It was the story about a Vixen who is out with her mother one day, and is capured by forester.  He brings her home and cares for her, but she doesn't exactly get along with the other animals at his farm (there are some hilarious discussions of post World War I politics with the dog and chickens), and she finally ends up escaping later.  The real story though, is about her life, and how she affects the forester.  She's young and growing up and becoming sexy.  The forester was married, but his wife dies, and he (among others) tries to gain the attentions of a young gypsy bar-maid.  At one point a drunk schoolmaster mistakes the vixen for the girl, and he professes his undying love for her. 

This comic strip ended up being read by the composer Leos Janacek.  Janacek, who was in his 70's, fell in love with the comic strip story, and made The Cunning Little Vixen into an opera in 1924.   There are some very sad parts in the story, and, as I mentioned, some "adult" moments, but overall, it's a very affirming "circle of life" story. 

In 2003, it was made into an animated film by the BBC.  Maybe it's because it's an animated opera with foxes, but I'm surprised how few people have seen it.  The animation is good, the story is abridged and changed a bit, but still great, and the music is fantastic. 

To give you some idea, here's a still-shot preview of a scene which  I consider one of the great moments in animation:

After leaving the forester and returning to live in the wild, Sharp-Ears meets Dashwood Fox, whom she thinks is "gorgeous".  She introduces herself as "the adopted child of the forester", and they end up falling insanely in love, and he moves in with her..


Some time later, Sharp-Ears wanders off alone, and finds herself crying uncontrollably.


Dashwood finds her, and asks why she's crying:


Ashamed, she tells him...


...she's pregnant


"What are we going to do?"


Dashwood whisper back meekly,
"I... I..."         
"...I think we should find a priest."

So, being good Catholic foxes, they talk to the priest.


And then they get legally married.

[rabid_fox]

I thought it was a bit shoddy, to be honest.

[Rafe]

As I said, it is a film of the opera, but I assume most people don't have a problem with the dialog being sung.  It actually works really well in a lot of places, but being a fan of Janacek, I might be biased.  The character designs took a lot from the original comic, which was fairly basic line-art.  The animation might have been better, but I thought the water-color look worked pretty well.  God knows it could have been a lot worse.  They did make some cuts in the story, and they made the ending a little less gut-wrenchingly sad than the original, but I'm surprised at a lot of the things they did leave in, such as her fight with the badger (not violent but... well, ...urine is involved.)  The story is still very moving, in fact the last two people who mentioned watching it confessed that it had them in tears in places. 

I think Janacek loved the story so much because he identified so much with the characters, especially the forester who had seen so much love and beauty during his life, and saw too much of it die.  In Hukvaldy, where Janacek grew up, theres a statue of Vixen Sharp-Ears. 



People even today can't resists climbing up and petting her nose and tail, as you can see by how shiny they are.

Janaceck died four years after finishing this opera.  He had produced an impressive amount of beautiful music, but at his funeral, what they played was the final scene from the story about the life of a vixen.

[superluser]

There have always been, as far as I can tell, people who love stories with anthropomophized animals in them.  You might think that years ago, sure they had furry stories, but they were mostly fables and fairy tales for kids.  This isn't really true.  There were some very good ones that were filled with "adult situations".

Well, that's not terribly far away from what most fairy tales were. (Sleeping Beauty, recall, woke up when her newborn son sucked the splinter out of her finger.  Prince Charming was not as noble as he appears in the film.)

[Cogidubnus]

Well, that's not terribly far away from what most fairy tales were. (Sleeping Beauty, recall, woke up when her newborn son sucked the splinter out of her finger.  Prince Charming was not as noble as he appears in the film.)

*had to think about that one before the little light went 'Ah'*

[Baal Hadad]

Aww, I wish I could have seen that! 

I didn't even know about "Vixen Sharp-Ears" until I discovered the webcomic "Tails from the Mynarski Forest" (which I loved and which its creator called The Cunning Little Vixen meets Calvin and Hobbes).

And what I see of the animation here I like!

[Rafe]

Baal Hadad,
If anyone wants to see The Cunning Little Vixen, and didn't notice the link I posted, here it is again:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEgQFhKtB-A&feature=related

You can watch in on YouTube, in eight parts.  Hope you like it.

[Baal Hadad]

Baal Hadad,
If anyone wants to see The Cunning Little Vixen, and didn't notice the link I posted, here it is again:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEgQFhKtB-A&feature=related

You can watch in on YouTube, in eight parts.  Hope you like it.

I'm sorry--walls of text confuse my brain.    Anyway, I meant more about having seen it in a store and buying it.  But thank you for pointing that out to me.  I hope I will like it.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Prince Charming was not as noble as he appears in the film.

"I was raised to be charming, not sincere."

[Brownie]

Hmm...
I'm watching it and just got past the wedding.
I like it. Yes there are a few noticable shortcuts but I think that all-over it was well-done.