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The Little Fox
The Little Fox
	DVD cover
Directed by	Attila Dargay
Screenplay by	Attila Dargay; István Imre; Ede Tarbay
Based on	Vuk; 1965 novel; by István Fekete
Starring	Judit Pogány; József Gyabronka; Teri Földi; Gyula Szabó
Cinematography	Irén Henrik
Edited by	János Czipauer; Magda Hap
Music by	Peter Wolf
Production; company	Pannónia Filmstúdió
Distributed by	Mokép
Release dates	10 December 1981 (Budapest, Hungary); 7 November 1987; (USA)
Running time	76 minutes
Country	Hungary
Language	Hungarian
Budget	7 million Ft
Box office	17.2 million Ft

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.^[1] The film is directed by Attila Dargay and written by Attila Dargay, István Imre and Ede Tarbay, and released in December of 1981.^[2]^[3]

A computer-animated sequel, A Fox's Tale, was released in 2008 to negative reception.^[4]

Plot

The film tells the story of a little red fox kit, Vic (Vuk in the original Hungarian version), who ventures away from his family's den and, upon his return finds it empty. He concludes that his whole family left the den with the human hunter (called "Smoothskinner" in the cartoon) because he can smell him. His maternal uncle Karak finds him, then offers for the little fox 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 dim-witted dogs (which results in the two dogs becoming 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 the traps, and the third one seriously injures the hunter himself. At the end of the film, Vic and Foxy have cubs of their own.^[5]

Production

Originally produced as a TV series, Dargay visited the Budapest Zoo to study the movements and habits of newborn fox cubs.^[3]

Voice cast

Character	Original	English
Vuk	József Gyabronka	Steven R. Weber (Vic)
Vuk	Judit Pogány (Young)	Corinne Orr (Young Vic)
Íny	Teri Földi	Anne Costello (Vic's mother)
Kag	Gyula Szabó	John Bellucci (Vic's Father)
Karak	László Csákányi	William Kiehl
Fox girl	Erzsébet Kútvölgyi	Lucy Martin (Foxy)
Simabőrű the Hunter^[6]	Róbert Koltai	Peter Newman (Chester the Hunter)
Vahúr	Sándor Szabó	Unknown
Fickó	András Márton
hooded crow	Gyula Bodrogi
shepherd dog	Ottó Füzessy
Narrator	Tibor Bitskey	John Bellucci

Additional Voices

Anne Costello
George Gonneau
Les Marshak
Peter Newman
Maia Danziger
Ira Lewis

English version

The English dub of the animation, titled simply The Little Fox, was produced in 1987 by Robert Halmi, Inc. It was broadcast in the United States as part of Nickelodeon's Special Delivery block and released on home video by Celebrity Home Entertainment.^[7] The English dub changed Vuk's name to "Vic" and his partner’s name to "Foxy," although Karak's name remains unchanged.^[8]

Reception and legacy

Video Choice gave the film a positive review, calling it a "charming and visually appealing film" while author Giannalberto Bendazzi (Animation: A World History) called it "an excellent example of personality of animation".^[9]^[10]

A digital restoration was completed in 2021 under the supervision of the film's cinematographer.^[3] It remains the most-popular Hungarian animated feature of all time.^[3]^[11] The director had said that putting Vuk on screen was one of his dearest cartoon works.^[12]