The Little Fox

The Little Fox (known as *Vuk* in Hungary) is a 1981 Hungarian animated feature from Pannónia Filmstúdió, adapted from István Fekete’s 1956 novel *Vuk*. Attila Dargay directed the film and co-wrote it with István Imre and Ede Tarbay. It was released in December 1981.

The story follows a red fox kit named Vic (Vuk in the original). After wandering from his family’s den, he returns to find it empty and smells a human hunter, whom the cartoon calls “Smoothskinner.” His maternal uncle Karak finds him, takes him in, and raises him. As Vic matures, he becomes cunning. He sneaks into the hunter’s house, discovers a captive vixen named Foxy in a cage, and during a stormy night tricks the guard dogs, other animals, and the hunter. He frees Foxy by smashing the cage with a loaded wagon. Foxy joins Vic and Karak in the woods, but during the autumn hunt the hunter shoots Karak. Vic swears revenge: he breaks into the food locker and eats all the eggs, steals poultry from cages, and plays tricks on the hunter’s dim-witted dogs, which end up as strays. The hunter sets bear traps near his house, luring Vic with a goose roast, but the two hunting dogs fall into the traps, and a third dog seriously injures the hunter. At the film’s end, Vic and Foxy have cubs of their own.

Originally conceived as a TV series, Dargay studied newborn fox cubs’ movements and habits at the Budapest Zoo. The English dub, titled *The Little Fox*, was produced in 1987 by Robert Halmi, Inc. It aired in the United States on Nickelodeon’s Special Delivery block and was released on home video by Celebrity Home Entertainment. The dub changed Vuk’s name to Vic and his partner’s to Foxy, but kept Karak’s name. The English voice cast includes Anne Costello, George Gonneau, Les Marshak, Peter Newman, Maia Danziger, and Ira Lewis.

*Video Choice* gave the film a positive review, calling it “charming and visually appealing.” Author Giannalberto Bendazzi, in *Animation: A World History*, described it as “an excellent example of the personality of animation.” A digital restoration, supervised by the film’s cinematographer, was completed in 2021. The director considered putting *Vuk* on screen one of his dearest cartoon works.