Moi Renart (found French animated TV series; 1986)
Cover of a rare VHS release by Billy Clap Video.
Status: Found
Moi Renart ("I Reynard") is a French animated series that originally aired in September 1986 on channel Canal+.
It 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 being heavily anthropomorphized and set in then-modern 1980s Paris.
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 anthropomorphic animals, and yet was still aired in children's morning programming.
List of episodes
| # | English Title | Status (English) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | L'aventure de Renart ("Reynard's Adventure") | Found |
| 2 | L'agence Renart ("Reynard's Agency") | Found |
| 3 | Les grandes manoeuvres ("Military Exercises" | Found |
| 4 | Renart fait sa pub ("Reynard Advertises Himself") | Found |
| 5 | Le concert Moulio ("The Moulio Concert") | Found |
| 6 | La Renarde ("The Vixen") | Found |
| 7 | Jess Bomb | Found |
| 8 | Renart Big Mac | Found |
| 9 | Traquenard ("Trap") | Found |
| 10 | Koko de St-Zéphyr | Found |
| 11 | Meet Mr. Bogus | Found |
| 12 | Jolibois contre Porkyland ("Jolibois VS Porkyland") | Found |
| 13 | L'art de Renart ("Reynard's Art") | Found |
| 14 | Gold Star | Found |
| 15 | Le petit chaperon rouge ("Little Red Riding Hood") | Found |
| 16 | Ô nuages, ô désespoir ("Oh Clouds, Oh Despair") | Found |
| 17 | À la poursuite du radis double ("The Hunt For the Double Radish") | Found |
| 18 | Il était une fois Renart ("Once Upon A Time Reynard") | Found |
| 19 | Tartala Bloune | Found |
| 20 | Le Renart dans les étoiles ("Reynard in the Stars") | Found |
| 21 | Coup de sang ("Blood Rush") | Found |
| 22 | Ciné fric frac ("Breakyn-Enter Movies" | Found |
| 23 | Le club des cavernes ("Cave Club") | Found |
| 24 | Paris-Kokar ("Kokar Rally") | Found |
| 25 | Petits petits petits ("Hey Little Ones") | Found |
| 26 | Big Boom sur les ovnis ("Bangers on the UFOs") | 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 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.