I must have watched the trailers hundreds of times and even wistfully looked the at the new Funko Pop figures. I'm a sucker for a unlikely pair teaming up to fight crime/solve a mystery and with Judy Hopps, a rabbit and Nick Wilde, a fox as the lead characters, I've been won over already.
Anyone who knows me, knows I have a thing about foxes. I even have a tattoo of one on my arm. Foxes are always the villain in stories and folk tales but there are a few that are either heroes or just fantastic.
In the Fables comic, there is of course a fox, Reynard in fact. He is known mainly as a trickster and there is a whole wiki page about him and his history HERE. The character is based on this legendary character. But he isn't an evil character, he's sly and manipulating but he sides with the 'good' fables every time.
In The Animals of Farthing Wood, Fox, that's his name, is the leader of the group of animals fleeing their home as its destroyed. Technically it was children's TV show but it barely had any comedic moments, plus lots of characters were killed off or injured dramatically. I loved this when I was younger.
One of my all time favourite Disney films is Robin Hood. Taking a legendary, sometimes mythical figure in English history, robs from the rich to give to the poor and adding animals is pure brilliance. Making the hero of the story a fox may at first seem like an odd choice but as foxes are quick, sly, clever and let's face it cool under pressure, a fox is perfect.
I wasn't too fond of this tale of a doomed friendship between a fox and a hound, but Tod the fox and Copper the hound are adorable when young. The real story behind this Disney sugar coated adaptation is sad and I understand the changes but I couldn't casually watch this for fun.
Quote unquote fantastic Mr Fox is, fantastic. But in this brilliantly constructed stop motion animated film of Roald Dahl's classic short story, Mr Fox is another, in a long of Wes Anderson creations, a bad dad who is full of himself. He is a clever fox but he gets carried away, ultimately he does redeem himself. He is also quite a snappy dresser too.
Looking forward to Zootropolis next week and for any future fox stories, but nothing beats this fox here.
