The love story is set to a beautiful segment from Leoš Janáček’s ‘The Cunning Little Vixen’, to which the the film utilizes its rhythm and flow of actions. The dance of the characters was intentionally limited to the actual movement as to reinforce the stylistic movement and natural characteristics of a puppet.
The story is straightforward in that it traces the Vixen’s journey throughout a forest, and the unusual characters she encounters along the way. It is only but towards the end of the animation, where the Vixen finally meets our Fox, and both become spellbound in love and dance. A comet comes crashing down from the night sky and explodes with a brilliance of light and sparkles – a metaphor for the transformation of the entwined couple sealed in permanence.
The concept of the animation was to allude to Eastern shadow puppetry and Victorian theatre. A forest was the proposed setting – a natural habitat of the animals, yet still interesting enough to create variety and enhance the operatic mood. The characters are surrounded by unusual trees and vegetation, somewhat “other-worldy”, yet still familiar to the viewer.
Klaus’ work and the iittala collection embraces a richness of Baroque patterns, textures and character exuberance. Tonalities of this world are deep, earthy, organic and natural