Moi Renart (found French animated TV series; 1986)
Cover of a rare VHS release by Billy Clap Video.
Status: Found
Date found: 2000s-2013
Found by: The Reynard, Chris Rodriguez, Various users
Moi Renart ("I Reynard") is a French animated series that originally aired in September 1986 on channel Canal+, which produced it alongside animation company IDDH (that also coproduced the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, Denver The Last Dinosaur and the Back to the Future animated series).
Moi Renart is loosely based on the medieval written stories Le Roman de Renart, known in English as The Tale of the Fox starring Reynard the Fox, with the animal characters in this adaptation being heavily anthropomorphized and set in then-modern 1980s Paris.[1]
Premise
A young male fox, Renart, arrives in Paris so that he can make himself a name in the city. Opportunistic, wide-eyed and ambitious, he creates an agency where he claims to be able to do any job, using his wits to trick himself out of any unpleasant situation. He is accompanied by his pet monkey Marmouset, he often clashes with his uncle Ysengrin who is a car salesman, he woos beautiful vixen journalist Hermeline, he gets into trouble with police chief Chanteclerc and his detective Tibert, while also thwarting criminal vulture Moufflard with his henchmen rat Pelé and dog Budvilin.
The series infamously contained some risqué content, such as depiction of sexualized "furry" anthropomorphic animals, and yet was still aired in children's morning programming.
Many characters were also based on famous French 1980s public figures, such as the President Ducoi based on then real-life President François Mitterrand and news anchorman Jules Frénési being based on real-life anchorman Yves Mourousi.
Episode List
| # | Title | Alternate title(s) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | L'aventure de Renart ("Renart's Adventure") | Unknown | Found |
| 2 | L'agence Renart ("The Renart Agency") | Unknown | Found |
| 3 | Les grandes manoeuvres ("Military Exercises") | Unknown | Found |
| 4 | Renart fait sa pub ("Renart Advertises Himself") | Unknown | Found |
| 5 | Le concert Moulio ("The Moulio Concert") | Unknown | Found |
| 6 | La Renarde ("The Vixen") | Unknown | Found |
| 7 | Jess Bomb | Unknown | Found |
| 8 | Renart Big Mac | Unknown | Found |
| 9 | Traquenard ("Trap") | Unknown | Found |
| 10 | Koko de St-Zéphyr | Unknown | Found |
| 11 | Jolibois contre Porkyland ("Jolibois VS Porkyland") | Unknown | Found |
| 12 | L'art de Renart ("Renart's Art") | Unknown | Found |
| 13 | L'affaire du kiosque ("The Newsstand Affair") | Votez Renart! ("Vote Renart!") | Found |
| 14 | Gold Star | Radio Bigoudi ("Haircurl Radio") | Found |
| 15 | Le petit chaperon rouge ("Little Red Riding Hood") | Un sacré neveu/L'affaire du collier ("One Heck of a Nephew"/"The Necklace Affair") | Found |
| 16 | Ô nuages, ô désespoir ("Oh Clouds, Oh Despair") | Nuage mortel ("Deadly cloud") | Found |
| 17 | À la poursuite du radis double ("The Hunt For the Double Radish") | Vacances en amoureux ("Lover Vacation") | Found |
| 18 | Il était une fois Renart ("Once Upon A Time Renart") | Drôle de nurse ("Odd Nanny") | Found |
| 19 | Tartala Bloune | Unknown | Found |
| 20 | Le Renart dans les étoiles ("Renart in the Stars") | L'étoile précieuse ("The Precious Star") | Found |
| 21 | Coup de sang ("Blood Rush") | Vampires | Found |
| 22 | Ciné fric frac ("Breakyn-Enter Movies") | Renart cinéaste ("Renart Movie Director") | Found |
| 23 | Le club des cavernes ("Cave Club") | Unknown | Found |
| 24 | Paris-Kokar ("Kokar Rally") | Le Paris-Cocard ("Black-Eye Rally") | Found |
| 25 | Petits petits petits ("Hey Little Ones") | Enfance ("Infancy") | Found |
| 26 | Big Boom sur les ovnis ("Bangers on the UFOs") | Le Film ("The Movie") | Found |
Availability
The series was aired on French TV several times. Originally a Canal+ product, it reaired regularly on public channel France 3 (aka FR3) in the 1990s, and sometimes on M6.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, Moi Renart had some of its episodes released on VHS. However, those tapes have become rare and difficult to find, and some episodes have no known VHS tape releases, mostly from the first half of the seasons. The latter half of the season was released on Fil à Film video editions, that strangely renamed the episode titles. Some of those releases only have tiny images as evidence of their existences.
The series never had a DVD release, reairing in the new millenium or any official streaming distribution. While the opening theme song is fondly remembered by many, the cartoon was never that popular and is at best a cult classic.
Some episode rips were shared on the Internet for years, but were only accessible through peer-to-peer programs, and for a while, only two episodes were on YouTube (episode 1 and 24).
In the early 2010s, user The Reynard ordered online rare VHS tapes of episodes 18, 20, 21 and 22. He got them digitalized and uploaded the VHS rips on YouTube, alongside the peer-to-peer-exclusive episodes. Later, he got contacted by a fan, Chris Rodriguez, who had taped the whole series on VHS and ripped them on DVD, and shared it with The Reynard. Since then, the series can be considered found.
Gallery
Footage
Images
Billy Clap Video VHS release that announces episode 2; it may also contain episode 1.
Fil à Film VHS release with renamed episode 13 and 14.
Fil à Film VHS release with renamed episode 15 and 17.
Fil à Film VHS release with renamed episode 18 and 26.
Kid's Club Video VHS release with renamed episode 21 and 22.
Fil à Film VHS release of the Vampires episode.
Fil à Film VHS release of barely renamed episode 23 and 24.
Cel art of vixen character Hermeline.
Moi Renart mentioned in magazine Poche Junior.
Trivia
- According to several YouTube commenters, Moi Renart aired dubbed in Spanish in South-American countries under the title Zorrás.
- Moi Renart also aired in Poland localized as Pan de Lis. Its Polish dub is also lost.
- There is a book based on the Tale of the Fox that is also called Moi, Renart, but seems otherwise unrelated. However, one might have influenced the other.
- The character designer of the show, Pascale Moreaux, also did the character design for the French animated series Clémentine (known as Clementine: A Young Girl and Her Dreams in English). The first episode of Moi Renart shows Clémentine appearing on the screen of Renart's TV watch.
See Also
- Virgul (partially found French animated TV series; 1988) (many of the Fil à Film VHS releases included two episodes of the Virgul cartoon).
External Links
References
- ↑ Planète Jeunesse website listing of Moi Renart (French). Retrieved 29 Mar '23