The dog dies. This isn't a spoiler -- the very first scene of Anca Damien's animated film Marona's Fantastic Tale shows the title character lying dead in the middle of a busy road, her owner mourning her by her side. It's abstract rather than graphic, her corpse rendered as fading chalk as cars squash and stretch around her, but nonetheless it's maybe the easiest way for the first few seconds of a film to emotionally manipulate you.

Thankfully, the movie that follows is not about the dog's death, but instead about her life. The "film" of Marona's life flashes before her eyes as she dies, and while this experience still has significant dark and heavy moments, it's not an exercise in misery. Much of the film is filled with joy and love, presented in a way that feels true to the way a dog would experience joy and love.

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Maronas Fantastic Tale

More than anything, the film looks like no other film you've seen before. Just as Marona herself is a mutt of who knows how many breeds, the artistic DNA of Marona's Fantastic Tale appears to spring from a menagerie of disparate sources: Terry Gilliam, Billy Plympton, SquiggleVision, Dumbo's "Pink Elephants" sequence, Loving Vincent. Sometimes it's beautiful, other times it's frightening. Often it's both. In Brecht Evens' art direction, the hand-painted and crayon-scribbled co-exist with the digital; the animation ranges from extremely fluid to hyper-limited, at times in different elements of the same shot.

The different styles of animation feed perfectly into the characterization. Marona's "racist" father is a gruff angular figure that nonetheless melts at the sight of Marona's mother. Marona's first owner is an acrobat who, in motion, is presented as some sort of shapeshifter; the stripes on his shirt have a mind of their own moving separately. Her next owner's an architect who she sees as a giant, existing in an abstract plane of architectural diagrams. The architect's obnoxious girlfriend is drawn like a cross between an ostrich and Marzipan from Homestar Runner; his senile mother's face appears and disappears with her mental state.

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Maronas Fantastic Tale

The regular changes of characters and scenery keep the movie involving throughout its 90 minute runtime, though it could possibly be shorter overall. Individual scenes tell compelling stories (one bit late in the film where Marona saves an old man's life is particularly emotional), but there's not that much in the way of a major narrative throughline beyond the abstract of the dog seeking a sense of belonging. The episodic nature and blend of darkness and light could be compared to older Disney films like Dumbo and Bambi, but without a happy ending, this film might be too much for some kids.

It's a shame that Marona's Fantastic Tale couldn't play in theaters in the US. Its emphasis on soaking in its elaborate visuals makes it feel like something that would be better enjoyed on the biggest screen possible. Nonetheless, adventurous animation fans and dog lovers able to deal with the opening right on the sad ending should still check out this one-of-a-kind film in virtual cinemas.

Directed by Anca Damien, Marona's Fantastic Tale opens in virtual cinemas this Friday.

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