《大坏狐狸的故事》

A lively trio of cartoons that are wacky*, heartwarming and wise, “The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales,” to be released in China this Friday, showcases an animal farm like no other: The fox is far less cunning* than he is both kind and nurturing, a duck has no idea how to actually swim, a lizard shows up out of nowhere and speaking Mandarin and a stork* is far too lazy to deliver the baby in its beak.

Those are just some of the characters populating this second feature from director Benjamin Renner, whose “Ernest & Celestine” was one of the more memorable animated movies to come out of France a few years back, earning a Cesar Award and an Oscar nomination.

This time the source material is different, with Renner adapting his own best-selling comic book in a tone that’s equal parts Tex Avery and Dr. Seuss, with a bit of Adult Swim thrown into the mix. The result is lots of fun, if less compelling and cohesive than the last film, which should make it a shoo-in* with Gallic* tykes* as they head into the summer vacation.

Co-written by Jean Regnaud, all three stories feature animals that have a hard time fulfilling their traditional roles, whether it’s on the farm or in the forest. They could all also probably use a dose of Ritalin*; they seem constantly agitated* and incapable of chilling out for as much as a second.

In the first tale (“A Baby to Deliver”), a stork leaves a baby in the hands of a rabbit, a pig and a duck, urging them to make the delivery in his place. The second and longest story (“The Big Bad Fox”), based on Renner’s comic, follows a fox searching for food and winding up — not unlike Seuss’ “Horton Hatches an Egg” — with a set of baby chicks to take care of, proving he may be better at child-rearing* than at hunting. In the third part (“The Perfect Christmas”), the animals mistakenly think they’ve killed Santa Claus and try their awful best to replace him.

Each part offers an array of slapstick* gags, snappy dialog and winks at pop culture — including a possible reference to “Fargo” in the “Christmas” story — though behind all the chaos lies a rather sentimental core, especially in the fable where the hungry fox is constantly tempted to eat the very infants he’s falling in love with.

(SD-Agencies)