Moi Renart



Moi Renart ("I Renart") is a French animated series first broadcast in 1986, made by Bruno-René Huchez, who was behind several popular French animated series in The Eighties.

It is a very loose adaptation of Le Roman de Renart, an anthology of satirical tales written in the French Middle Ages. The original stories were about a fox called Renart outwitting other animals as they try to chase food. Those tales were so popular that it even replaced in French vocabulary "goupil" with "renard" (French for fox).

The animated series is set in Paris during The Eighties. The characters are very anthropomorphized animals (realistic human bodies, animal heads). It has a much more comedic tone, and more often than not, Hilarity Ensues.

The plot is about Renart, a cocky and joyful young fox, who goes in Paris and decides to set up an agency where he says he can do any job. He often badgers his greedy and grumpy uncle Ysengrin who is a car salesman, gets in trouble with the law, and tries to seduce beautiful vixen journalist Hermeline.

Tropes:
 * Alien Abduction: There are no actual extraterrestrials in the show, but an episode is about Renart's aunt Hersent, who sees a movie about an alien invader who abducts a french fries salesgirl and they live Happily Ever After (because the alien's a cool guy and she was in an unpleasant engagement). So she sets up a french fries stand and waits for an alien to abduct her!
 * Animated Adaptation
 * Attractive Bent Gender: Renart impersonates a woman several times, and they are more often attractive than not. Even his own uncle wants to touch Renart's leg when he is impersonating a cleaning lady. What is less attractive is his incapacity in making an attractive female voice.
 * Big Badass Wolf: Uncle Ysengrin.
 * Catgirl: Many of the hotties Renart meets are anthropomorphic cats.
 * Clear My Name: Renart gets framed for bank robberies in one episode and has to take matters in his own hands to prove himself innocent.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Renart's aunt Hersent, especially in the Alien Abduction episode.
 * Everything's Better with Monkeys: Renart has a tiny white non-anthropomorphic monkey called Marmouset as a pet and sidekick.
 * The Eighties: Moi Renart was set and broadcast in this period. There are actually very little Eighties culture elements visible; the most visible part is when Renart daydreams a music video starring himself with showgirls, robots serving champagne, Grace Jones spitting a car and the Statue of Liberty on rockets.
 * Frogs and Toads: The first episode is about Renart thwarting frog trafficking.
 * Furry Confusion: There are anthropomorphic animals treated like humans, and non-anthropomorphic animals treated like, well, animals.
 * Furry Fandom: It is sometimes speculated that this series launched several young French people into furries...
 * Gay Paree: The action mainly happens in Paris, although it is hardly a romantic one.
 * Guile Hero: Guess who.
 * Intrepid Reporter: Hermeline, Renart's would-be girlfriend.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Renart, though he is not so much of a jerk.
 * Latex Perfection: Renart is able to impersonate female characters with a good latex mask. There's also an episode where villains frame him for a bank robbery by masquerading as Renart himself.
 * Lighter and Softer: The original tales are a bit hell of a lot darker and more pessimistic, but the difference is a bit too big to make a comparison.
 * Master of Disguise: Renart, who only occasionally uses Latex Perfection.
 * Non-Human Sidekick: Marmouset the monkey. Okay, okay, nobody is technically human in the show since the "human-like" are anthropomorphic animals... but hey, it still counts, right?
 * Petting Zoo People: All of the characters (except Marmouset) are furries with almost photo-realistic human bodies.
 * Shout-Out: In the first episode, Marmouset goes watch a TV series on a TV watch. On the screen is shown Clémentine, another classic French cartoon of the 80's that was also made by Bruno-René Huchez. The music heard is Renart's theme, though.
 * Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Inspector Tibert.
 * Tsundere: Hermeline shows parts of this.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: The "Vieux roublard" sequences in the first two episodes, in the music video described above.
 * Widget Series: It is a weird French thing.