2020 was a bit of a bleak year. For feature animation, that is. Due to multiple other unprecidented global events, theaters had shut down, at risk to never open again. Many films in the middle of production were postponed one or two years later. Only a handful of films would be released digitally to audiences shut at home. GKIDS, the American distributor responsible for bringing a variety of international animated films to Western aduiences, offered a couple. Their prize film for the summer, in a very limited catelog of new features, was the French film "Marona's Fantastic Tale."The movie appeared to be the latest darling in the indie-animation scene. At first glance, I couldn't help but wonder... "why?" A story about a dog named Marona, the title was as generic as could be, the premise had no significance, and screenshots made it clear this was a tiny production, made up of animation likely painted by a single artist. Giving it a chance, I was impressed. "Marona's Fantastic Tale" is a bit better than any promotional materials could convey. It's a highly experimental, abstract feature, a mixture of films like "Boy and the World," "Window Horses," and a bit of "Persepolis" and "My Dog Tulip," or "The Girl Without Hands." And the film starts with a scene that makes the premise a bit more compelling: Marona, the dog, is hit by a car, and before she dies, she recalls her life from start to finish, the her first day to her last. For a dog, an ordinary life, but a fantastic life. Deep, eh?OK, OK... Marona recalls her mother, who after mating with another dog, has nine puppies, her being the last. The human owner gives away the puppies, Marona being the first. She wonders if her mother even understands what happened, and if she misses her as much as she misses her mother. Before long, Marona finds a new human owner, one after the other, from a street-performing acrobat, to a construction worker, to an abusive mother and wife, up to a child owner in present day. Each time, she's a good girl, relunctantly accepting the new name each human ignorantly gives her, fully appreciating her fortune to experience love from an owner, to have a job or repsonsibility to call her own. Each step in her adventure called "life" has observations and anecdotes from a dog's perspective, humorous and profound, occasionally snarky when the human is particularly dense, especially later in her life. 
At first, the story is mesmerizing, mostly because of the human characters Marona meets. Each has something wonderful about them, even the bad ones, from a dog's eyes. Some are almost magical (the acrobat was my personal favorite). Miraculously, it justifies the 90-minute runtime of a feature. Barely, though, and the dream-like nature of the story and the way it's conveyed makes it a little sleepy. Adults would appreciate the experimental, thoughtful nature, but children would likely get bored or fall asleep. And there ultimately isn't an ending that makes the experience worthwhile: what ending can you give to a story that covers the entirety of a life? Dog lovers (and who doesn't love dogs?) would appreciate the story, but for everyone else, it's the animation that's the main feature. It's a highly experimental use of mixed media, a variety of 2D styles, as well as 3D. Some of the characters are as well-animated and rendered as something from a Disney film. Some look like they were drawn with a black sharpie. Others as if they were painted roughly with watercolor. Character designs, for humans in particular, come in all shapes and sizes, sometimes in nightmarish ways. The environment is mostly 3D, with everything drawn as a 2D asset, like watching a camera move through a diorama of paper and crayon. Certainly, a lot of work was involved, and the important thing is that is lends personality and heart to Marona and the characters. But undeniably, it looks as cheap and "home-made" as it was. The best moments are when it leans heavily into abstraction, with human characters morphing into shapes of wonder and magic. The sheer variety of everything elevates the movie to being a worthy "arthouse" film than simply "just" one, especially for experimental animators to witness. An inspired art style and clever writing, mixed with an inherently French-style of thematic storytelling. "Marona's Fantastic Tale" is all of these things, but not much more than that. It shares similar company with a lot of other truly "indie" animated features, all of which are poignant pieces of art from a single creative mind... but only because they can't be anything more under their limitations, and ultimately struggle to give themselves meaning beyond their self-derived importance... but gosh, dogs are cute and smart little things.