Rute e Dolfo

Rute e Dolfo is a 1991 Brazilian animated drama feature film directed by Cleto Fontana and derived from a children's book and concept album he created some years prior. It is the second film produced by Estúdios Pintura after Gatarina e a Voz da Harmonia in 1989 and is one of their few animated productions not to include Catarina in any capacity.

The film deals with accentuates harsh themes more so than the book and album they were based on, and the film has been known among those who saw it to be fairly dark even for the time period in which it was made, with some noting similarities to Disney's The Fox and the Hound.

It was released by ART Films in Brazil on January 4, 1991 and later sold to other territories, garnering initially mixed reception before eventually getting reevaluated as one of "Brazil's most underrated animated productions".

Synopsis
Claúdio the Golden Retriever is one of the few pets owned by farmer Senhor da Silva out in a rural area. At some point during a rough period, female red fox Rute and gray wolf Dolfo partner up in the hopes that Rute will avoid being eaten by Dolfo and they can find food and water, until they end up rescued from certain death by Claúdio accompanying da Silva for a hunt.

Though Claúdio is convinced that his kindness is paying off, the farmer's Border Collie named Celso isn't so welcoming and the pet cat Ramona, despite her laziness, is naturally distrustful of both Rute and Dolfo. Indeed, it appears both the fox and wolf are taking advantage of Claúdio for their own selfish ends.

Cast

 * Cleto Fontana as the Narrator
 * Heitor Bergmann as Claúdio and Dolfo
 * Marisa Barcellos as Rute and Ramona
 * Tobias Kirschner as Sr. da Silva

Production
Fontana originally had Rute e Dolfo published as a children's book by Editora Kirschner in 1984 (one of their first book offers during this time) as his response to the 1981 Disney animated feature The Fox and the Hound, which he deemed "too American" and "emotionally lightweight" for the people of Brazil. At Tobias Kirschner's suggestions, he tried designing the setting and characters to be "familiar" for a potential international audience whilst also giving the story a "distinctly Brazilian" style of emotional and dramatic weight which could be universally accepted.

Though the book sold moderately well and Kirschner even tried offering it to international publishers, Fontana was frustrated by his inability to get the book adapted into an animated film, seeing that (even with film efforts like Maurício de Sousa's A Princesa e o Robô) Brazil's animation industry continued to struggle. Seeing short films by the studio of Estúdios Pintura by chance on television one day, he promptly got into contact with them and learned they were planning their first film to star Catarina.

After much talks, Pintura and Fontana came to an agreement but were busy with Voz da Harmonia, so they allowed him to spend time working out a script and storyboard. By the time both were ready, keyframe work on Voz da Harmonia wrapped and the studio was ready to prepare its animators (also arranging for studios overseas to contribute keyframes and ink-and-paint work).

The lone difficulty Pintura's animators faced was trying to properly translate feral animal movements into animation, as they were more experienced with humanoid beings. This was rectified by spending a fraction of the budget on air fare to hand-picked animators sent to the United States and Canada, where they were to then request permission to bring cameras into zoos and wildlife parks to study foxes and wolves (some remained at home and did a similar thing with family or friends' pet dogs and cats). In the end, this ultimately proved to be incredibly helpful for the staff.

Once again enlisting the aid of Jaime Diaz Productions in Argentina, along with Pacific Rim Productions in China, the film took 11 months to complete (significantly less than the studio's previous effort) from November 1989 to December 1990, this was attributed mainly to that the film was produced in a "limited animation" style akin to that of Hanna-Barbera and Filmation (some have also described it as similar to Pannónia Filmstúdió) on a budget of R$505,577 (approx. $100,000 USD). As noted by Fontana himself, the only sequences really requiring additional effort from staff were the dreamy song sequence involving Claúdio, Rute and Dolfo and the climax.

Release and reception
Due mainly to minimal promotion, with only TV Cultura and TVE Brasil attempting to draw the public's attention via television, the film only accrued somewhat over 500,000 spectators during a limited theatrical run. Some publications' reviews found the movie derivative of classic Disney films and disparaged the "cheap" quality of the animation, while others praised the story for its emotions and hard but important message.

Though due in part to being a more internationally accessible film, it was successfully sold to other countries, including the United States and Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Sweden, Finland, Japan and Australia etc.

When it was initially sold in North America, where its release was to blatantly cash in on the video debut of The Fox and the Hound in the spring of 1994, comparisons were soon drawn by viewers, many of whom posted even more negative reviews of the film on Amazon.com and other platforms.

In more recent years, however, the film was reevaluated with a more positive outlook, finding the limited animation style charming and praising the film for its message about toxic friendships and deceit. Pintura founder Rodrigo Barbosa himself stated "(the film) was one of the studio's best".

Home media
The film was released on VHS in late February 1991 by CIC Vídeo in Brazil and later re-released a few times afterwards in the country on video and later DVD. The American VHS release occurred on March 11, 1994 by Worldvision Home Video (after airing for nearly a year sporadically on television across the territory with Worldvision owning broadcast rights).