Source: hollywoodreporter.com
Publish Date: June 12, 2019
Author: Jordan Mintzer

It’s a dog-eat-dog world in Marona’s Fantastic Tale (L’Extraordinaire voyage de Marona), Romanian filmmaker Anca Damian’s evocatively animated French-language chronicle of a puppy that never quite gets the love she deserves.

Working with talented Belgian artist Brecht Evens, who created the character designs and graphic palette, the director builds an aesthetically rich world of 2D, 3D and cut-out imagery chronicling one cute little canine’s journey through a series of temporary homes, garbage cans, alleyways and other periods of her hangdog existence.

The film has its upbeat moments but can also be a tad gloomy — or maybe just classically Romanian, for anyone familiar with the recent cinematic output of that country — for what’s essentially a movie aimed at children. But the colorful animation helps to liven up the atmosphere, which may explain why this stray was nabbed by U.S. distributor GKIDS at its world premiere in Annecy.

Opening with a tragedy that will linger over the rest of the story, the script (written by Anghel Damian) then flashes back to the origins of our titular pooch (voiced by Lizzy Brochere), whose name changes as she passes from one household to the next.

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