Marona’s Fantastic Tale Review
Marona’s Fantastic Tale is the first animated feature from the award winning Romanian director Anca Damian since her 2011 film ‘Crulic – The Path to Beyond’. The story presents a reflective journey through the life of a dying dog, her relationships with her various owners and their own relationships with the world and the people around them.
There’s a lot to like about this film from the colourful, almost pre-school art style backgrounds to the well observed and equally colourful characters that play through the narrative, Marona manages to stand out as the star. Sure, each of her owners have their appeal: Manole the struggling acrobat, Istvan the builder with his sick mother and his selfish wife, and Salonge the little girl who lives with her mother and her grandfather; each character playing as a short story pit-stop in the life of the eponymous dog.
Marona’s character development over the course of her story is very nicely regarded, from excitable and curious puppy to sensible adult, her thoughts and observations are cleverly articulated in a tone representative of her maturity with specs of cynicism creeping in with age but never overwhelming the love that a dog feels for it’s owner.
The story unfurls at a steady pace, never feeling as though it is dragging its heels to stretch the film to feature length or as though the director has attempted to crowbar too much into the 92 minute run time. Anca Damian and her team of animators have made a film that is full of heart, with interesting characters and a dog with a wonderfully dry sense of humour that will surely appeal to viewers of all ages.
I am left with only one question after watching this… why does everyone in the film describe Marona as being brown and white when she is black and white?