The Man, the Snake and the Fox
1978 · 11m · Canada
Directed by Tony Snowsill
Genres: animation, family, fantasy
Tones: mythic, tender, whimsical
A traditional Ojibwa legend about a hungry hunter, a huge snake, and a wily fox is told to children through puppets, ending with a warning not to make promises that cannot be kept.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A morality fable dressed up in puppets and folklore—exactly the kind of earnest, consensus-safe storytelling that puts me to sleep, even if Snowsill's puppet work has some teeth to it.
The real work here is how Snowsill translates oral tradition into tactile animation without losing its ceremonial weight; this 1978 NFB film sits precisely in that lineage of Canadian documentary-animation hybrids that treat indigenous narratives with formal respect rather than condescension.
What makes this linger is the decision to let the puppet shadows do as much narrative work as the figures themselves—that single choice of letting darkness and silhouette carry the myth's warning gives a handmade film genuine ceremonial gravity.