Director – Michelle Chua – 2019 – Canada – 6m
*****
From the Annecy 2020 Online Animation Festival
This starts off opening a children’s book cover for a tale about, you’ve guessed it, a fox and a pigeon. In the time honoured tradition of such books, there are illustrations and words (in rhyming couplets) on the page. And like so many animated films, the characters move and come to life while the author acts as a narrator and reads the words.
What’s different about The Fox And The Pigeon is that while the characters want to live their own story – screenwriters often say that as they write they feel their characters talking to them and dictating the direction things should go – the narrator has other ideas and tries to impose his own narrative upon them. The fox finds a coin and buys an ice cream cone. Sitting on a park bench, he’s aware of the pigeon, who clearly wants to share the ice cream. But, intones the author reading his words, “why would a fox want to share with a pigeon?”
As the tale plays out, the author becomes increasingly vindictive, wanting the two characters to conflict with one another, to the point of one killing the other. However, the fox and pigeon refuse to let this happen, eventually rewriting the story to the ire of the author so that they can act and live together in peace and harmony. I was reminded of Chuck Jones’ classic, anarchic Merrie Melodies short Duck Amuck (1953) in which Daffy Duck finds himself in conflict with the animator making the film. Although very different in tone, The Fox And The Pigeon is equally postmodern and equally complex.
While it works perfectly well as a children’s story, there’s something else going on here at a much more sophisticated level. This is a clever essay on how narratives can shape our lives. Stories told by, for example, politicians, the media or artists can so easily make us think or act in particular ways to fit those narratives. And clearly, different political parties or pressure groups can try and make a story go this way or that or another.
In the end, people acting alone or better still with others can counteract these narratives and change both story and outcome. Our author thought for the sake of dramatic conflict and a great story, his two characters needed to be antagonists, but they proved him wrong and made a better book. Sometimes we too can prove wrong those who wish to shape the narrative and move events towards a better outcome.
A magnificent little film masquerading as a children’s short. See it with your kids if you get the chance. Or without if you have none. Or borrow some.
The Fox And The Pigeon plays in the Annecy Animation Festival which is taking place in a special online edition this year right now. It can be found in the Graduation Films 2 programme. Trailer here:
The Fox And The Pigeon won Annecy’s first ever YouTube Award. Anouncement here:
Festivals
2020
Annecy Animation Festival special online edition:
Monday, June 15th to Tuesday, June 30th.
Festival trailer: