The Queen Of The Foxes

There's an energy and sense of motion reminiscent of Quentin Blake about this delightful Swiss animation from Marina Rosset. The foxes are as a child might imagine drawing them, with big bushy tales and black eyes, hand drawn in what looks like charcoal and pastel,

The pack look like a collective as they curl one over the other while the queen, her crown at a rakish angle, sits on her throne. The queen, however, is sad. In order to cheer her up, the foxes head to the local town each night for a good old rummage through the bins. There they dig out and uncrumple love letters and perfume them before giving them to the foxes to read. The queen wants something more, of course, but that's all part of the discovery in this quirky short.

Rosset has a welcoming style, the higgledy-piggledy houses of the town, each with their busily writing humans welcome repeat viewings to you can consider the details of them all. The score from Rahel Zimmermann, with its plucked strings and flavour of the night is also a treat. There's visual humour, too, in the way the fox pack operates and in the way the queen finally gets something she didn't even know she was seeking. Simple enough for all ages to understand and enjoy and with a nicely worked message of inclusivity, it's easy to see how this charmed the jury at Tallinn Black Nights, who gave it the Best Children's Animation prize.