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Reviews Counted:26
Fresh:13
Rotten:13
Average Rating:5.3/10
Consensus: Jackanory-esque voiceover from Winslet lends a syrupy tone to this mawkish and slow, but beautifully shot, human/beastie buddy movie.
Australian Theatrical Release:
Jun 20, 2009 Wide
US Box Office: $0
Synopsis: THE MARCH OF THE PENGUINS director Luc Jaquet makes his narrative debut with this family-friendly film. Inspired by Jaquet's childhood, THE FOX & THE CHILD centers on a young girl who discovers the... [More]
Director: Luc Jacquet
The result is Nature seen through the eyes of a solitary and fanciful child with Jacquet intensifying the theatricality of it all by playing around with scale, amplifying every sound and raising the wildlife count.
Top CriticThe Fox and the Child is more than a wildlife documentary. It invites us to contemplate alternative worlds of sensation and experience, to enter the consciousness of other species, to explore our contacts with them.
Top CriticIt's very beautiful, but it's so contrived.
Top CriticLuc Jacquet doesn’t do great narration, but he does animals really well.
Top CriticA strange mix of doco/fairy tale, this film does have beautiful cinematography but is let down by inconsistencies in tone.
Top CriticExquisite cinematography and a beautifully told story about the unlikely friendship between a little girl and a wild fox, make this a magical experience
Top CriticThere's plenty of scope for sentimental tears, but I hope most children will go away with something punchier - a longing to observe the natural world in this much detail, and a new respect for the difference between owning something, and loving it.
Top CriticIf, for example, Alvin and the Chipmunks is a children's movie, then The Fox and the Child is a children's movie for children who'd prefer to hang out at the local arthouse cinema than at the multiplex.
The Tally-ho! brigade may need an extra snifter of sherry if they see Jacquet's new film. It's about to do for foxes what Babe did for pigs back in 1995.
Gorgeously scenery and a virtually dialog-free script lends this film an almost fairy tale quality that makes the most of the astonishing camerawork. And this almost makes it bearable as it heads into a rather cloying finale.
Children will undoubtedly adore the film, and the local tourist board will probably have to take its phones off the hook.
Kate Winslet does a syrupy voice-over to this bedtime story, but given what we know of foxes, it's a tough one to swallow.
There seems no other reason to tell this rambling, glutinous tale – other than for us to go “ooh, aah” at the scenery, the seasons and the melting-eyed close-ups of Reynard the heart-throb.
There is little insight into the life of this resourceful creature and it certainly will not educate your cubs.
The main problem is it’s so incredibly slow as we’re forced to endure the unnamed girl’s patient attempts to gain the animal’s trust, while the youngster herself is too wide-eyed for her own good.
This isn't Fantastic Mr Fox, it's just an ordinary vixen who I wished would stay well away from this tiresome child, and let her make some friends with someone of her own age and species.
Kids will be hooked, but adult viewers may yearn for something a bit racier, with fewer cute field-mice and more fox fucking.
Perhaps a shade too long to hold the youngest viewers in permanent thrall, this is a family film in the truest sense - only the grouchiest bear won’t find something to like.
The twee, simpering voiceover is annoying, and what dialogue there is has been badly dubbed.
Top CriticAll the while Winslet bangs away remorselessly, trying to pull the narrative into focus but pushing the viewer farther from it with each cack-handed observation.
Top Critic
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