Marmote Intrépide (Fearless Gopher)
2020 · 6m · Canada
Directed by Miguel Lambert
Genres: adventure, comedy, coming-of-age
Tones: humorous, tender, whimsical
A determined young boy scout devises a mission to liberate his friend from her house after her overprotective father forbids her from attending summer camp.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Earnest boyscout liberates his friend — comparisons to Beasts of the Southern Wild and 400 Blows are doing comically heavy lifting for what sounds like a wholesome French-Canadian kid romp. Sweet, but not for me.
Lambert applying full-rescue-mission grammar to a child's friendship errand is the gesture François Truffaut understood — small stakes filmed with cosmic seriousness. The Filmshortage placement suggests competent, charming Quebecois work rather than discovery.
Cousins Gabriel and Léonie Noël playing the kid-scale rescue mission gives this a real-relationship anchor most child-led shorts can't fake. Page summary is thin on craft specifics, but Daily Short Pick selection and the Quebec scout-film tradition suggest tender execution.