| The Tale of the Fox | |
|---|---|
 Original French poster | |
| Directed by | Ladislas Starevich Irène Starevich |
| Screenplay by | Roger Richebé Jean Nohain (dialogue) Antoinette Nordmann (dialogue) |
| Story by | Irène Starevich |
| Based on | "Reynard the Fox" as told by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe |
| Produced by | Louis Nalpas (1929–1931) Roger Richebé (1939–1941) |
| Starring | Claude Dauphin Romain Bouquet Laine Sylvain Itkine Léon Larive |
| Cinematography | Ladislas Starevich |
| Edited by | Laura Sejourné |
| Music by | Vincent Scotto |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 65 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Languages | German (1937) French (1941) |
The Tale of the Fox (French: Le Roman de Renard, Dutch: Van den vos Reynaerde, German: Reinecke Fuchs) was stop-motion animation pioneer Ladislas Starevich's first fully animated feature film. The film is based on the tales of Renard the Fox. Although the animation was finished in Paris after an 18-month period (1929–1930), there were major problems with adding a soundtrack to the film. Finally, funding was given for a German soundtrack by the UFA—Goethe had written a classic version of the Renard legend—and this version had its premiere in Berlin in April 1937.
Released eight months before Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, it is the world's sixth-ever animated feature film (and the third surviving animated film, as well as the second to use puppet animation, following The New Gulliver from the USSR). The film was released in France with a French language soundtrack in 1941; this is the version which is currently available on DVD.[citation needed]