The Little Fox

The Little Fox
DVD cover
Directed by	Attila Dargay
Screenplay by	Attila Dargay István Imre Ede Tarbay
Based on	Vuk by István Fekete
Starring	Judit Pogány (young Vuk) József Gyabronka (Vuk) Teri Földi (Íny) Gyula Szabó (Kag)
Cinematography	Irén Henrik
Edited by	János Czipauer Magda Hap
Music by	Peter Wolf
Production company	Pannónia Filmstúdió
Distributed by	Mokép (1981) (Hungary) (all media) Celebrity Home Entertainment (1987) (USA) (VHS) Hal Roach Studios (1987) (USA) (all media) Just For Kids Video/Feature Films For Families (1994) (USA) (VHS)
Release dates	10 December 1981 (1981-12-10) (Budapest, Hungary) August 1987 (1987-08) (USA)
Running time	76 minutes
Country	Hungary
Language	Hungarian Budget: 7,000,000 Gross Revenue: 17,162,193

The Little Fox, known in Hungary as Vuk, is a 1981 Hungarian animated film produced by Pannónia Filmstúdió, based on the novel Vuk by István Fekete. The film is directed by Attila Dargay and written by Attila Dargay, István Imre and Ede Tarbay, and released in 1981.

A computer animated and widely panned sequel, A Fox's Tale, was released in 2008.

Plot

The film tells the story of a little fox kit, Vic (Vuk in the original Hungarian version), who ventures away from his family's den and, upon his return, learns from his uncle Karak that his entire family has been shot and killed by a human hunter (called "Smoothskinner" in the cartoon). Karak then offers for Vic to stay with him, and Karak continues to raise him.

As Vic grows older, he develops much cunning and cleverness. Now a young adult fox, he even dares to infiltrate the hunter's house, during which he finds a vixen, named Foxy, held captive in a cage. During a stormy night, he tricks the guard dogs and other animals, as well as the hunter himself, and eventually helps the vixen escape by smashing the cage open with a loaded wagon.

Foxy joins Vic and Karak in the woods, but when Autumn comes, Vic's uncle is shot by the hunter during the seasonal hunt. Vic swears revenge on the hunter and finally accomplishes it: first by breaking into the food locker and eating up all the eggs, then taking away all the poultry from the cages while playing many jokes on the hunter's stupid dogs (which results the two dogs to become strays at the end). Eventually, the hunter decides to set up bear-traps around his house, luring Vic with goose roast; however, the two hunting dogs fall into said traps, and the third one seriously injures the hunter himself as well. At the end of the film, Vic and Foxy have cubs of their own.

Voice cast

• József Gyabronka - Vuk
  • Judit Pogány - Young Vuk
• Teri Földi - Íny
• Gyula Szabó - Kag
• László Csákányi - Karak
• Erzsébet Kútvölgyi - Fox girl
• Tibor Bitskey - Narrator
• Róbert Koltai - Simabõrû the Hunter

English version

The English-language dub of the film, titled simply The Little Fox, was made in 1987 and released in the United States on home video by Celebrity Home Entertainment. The English dub changes Vuk's name to "Vic" and his wife's name to "Foxy," although Karak's name remained unchanged.

Voice cast

• Steven R. Weber - Adult Vic
• John Bellucci - Vic's Father, Narrator
• Anne Costello - Vic's mother, Additional Voices
• William Kiehl - Karak
• Les Marshak - Additional Voices
• Lucy Martin - Foxy
• Peter Newman - Additional Voices
• George Gonneau - Chester the Hunter
• Maia Danziger - Additional Voices
• Ira Lewis - Additional Voices

Home media

The film was released on VHS in 1987 by Celebrity Home Entertainment (re-released 4 November 1994).

See also

• The Fox and the Hound-a similar 1981 animated film about a fox.
• List of Hungarian films
• Pannonia Film Studio

External links

• The Little Fox at IMDb
• The Little Fox on MUBI
• The Little Fox on Rotten Tomatoes