The Fox and the Bird
2019 · 12m · Suiza
Directed by Frédéric Guillaume, Samuel Guillaume
Genres: animation, family, fantasy
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
A solitary fox finds himself acting as father to a newborn bird; two paths cross and form a family, until destiny reminds each of them what life they must live.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's a fable, sure, but it sidesteps the treacly inevitability you'd expect—the separation feels genuinely earned rather than pre-scripted sentimentality, which is the only reason I'm not already bored.
The Guillaume brothers situate this squarely in the lineage of anthropomorphic fable-animation (Aesop, yes, but also a rigorous formal awareness of how that tradition handles temporality and loss), and the restraint in the editing—the spaces left unsaid—demonstrates real curatorial confidence.
The decision to hold the camera static during the parting, letting the animation do the emotional work without cutting, is the kind of formal choice that transforms a sweet premise into something that actually breaks you.