User reviews

In the 1930s, the art of animation had started to attract an Art Moderne direction across the world, especially in Europe. Two of the biggest innovators of that style were American financier Hector Hoppin and British painter Anthony Gross, who had experimented with their own Paris studio and attained recognition for their odyssey in high Art Moderne direction, La Joie de Vivre. This experimental exercise in ballet remains both a remarkable tribute to the electrical streamlined world of tomorrow trains serving as visual motifs and a misunderstood arthouse flick from Americans simply deeming it to be crude.

Fast forward to their second attempt but this time in colo, The Fox Hunt, they decided to go less for a surreal dreamland and more of a romanticized real world setting. While the entire cartoon follows a premise as basic as people and their dogs going out to hunt a fox, what makes the film stick out is the slow pacing and Hoppin and Gross' ballet performance dances. The film's art direction is executed in a much cozier style than La Joie, mainly by taking a familiar England country autumn setting and expanding the colors and sets into painterly landscapes. By taking the film in this type of realistic setting, it allows for what might be your routine carton premise to flow as smoothly as it needs to. In addition, the music tends to be a blend between jaunty jazz quite common with frantic American cartoons at the time and European harmonies suited for classic theatre. Through these clever visual and musical choices, Hoppin and Gross were successful in eliciting a genuine freedom for this film to distinguish itself away from the Disney picture-book range aesthetic of then.

That being said, it does have some similar shortcomings to La Joie de Vivre, mainly in how far it ends up falling into its own trap of overblown ambitions. Firstly, the beginning of the film basically focuses on showing off the upper class British wealth setting up for another day of hunting, complete with gorgeous ponies and architecture abound. Not only does it make the wait for the fox's appearance a chore to sit through, but it ends up feeling rather pompous in just how much the British love to get ready for events as borish and inhumane as hunting. Even when the fox does appear, the film will often lose focus on whether it should follow the hounds chasing after it or if they want to give the fox its time to shine as a dancer. As a result, we're left with a story that becomes so indulgent in its love of the moderne and ballet that it leaves any possible audience worth catching to be rather niche, although not quite as much as La Joie. Then again, perhaps the love and admiration put in this film was initially meant to be seen by that niche audience before a broad audience would come up.

With a fascinating approach to streamlined art direction and a basic concept executed to please two ambitious filmmakers, The Fox Hunt does stand as a testament to where animation was about to be heading. While America and eastern Europe had not yet encountered the radical boom from UPA and Zagreb Film just yet, little indie projects like these were the starting point of how much experimentation was yet to be done by artists desiring a change of pace in the art of moving images. As dated as this project may be, it is worth viewing at least once for your own historical benefits.