# The Glacier Fox

The Glacier Fox (Japanese: キタキツネ物語, Hepburn: Kita-kitsune monogatari), also known as The Tale of the Northern Fox and The Fox: In the Quest of the Northern Sun, is a 1978 Japanese nature docufiction film written and directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara. It was released in Japan on July 15, 1978, where it was distributed by Toho. The film follows the lives of two red foxes and their family in northern Japan.
The Glacier Fox preceded two other Kurahara-directed animal films: 1980's Elephant Story (象物語, Zou monogatari) and the 1983 blockbuster Antarctica (南極物語, Nankyoku monogatari).

## Premise

Director Koreyoshi Kurahara chronicles a year in the lives of Flep and Leila, two foxes living in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, where the freezing winters are long and the mild summers short. After Flep defeats another male fox to become Leila's lifelong partner, they mate and raise a litter of five kits. With their family complete, the group must contend with human interference in their habitat, such as chicken farms and snowmobiles, and struggle against the debilitating cold of winter. The animals experience both triumph and tragedy, as the law of this harsh land proves – only the strong survive.

## Production

The Glacier Fox was Japan's first major nature documentary, capturing the ecology of northern red foxes living in a harsh natural environment. The project originated from the work of veterinarian and zoologist Minoru Taketazu, who had researched red foxes for years. Ken Takahashi, editor-in-chief of the animal magazine Anima, published an article written by Taketazu on the subject of the red fox in the magazine's first issue in 1973. This article inspired Takahashi, who later proposed the project to Sanrio, which agreed to fund the film. Kurahara was hired shortly afterwards. Taketazu also served as animal handler and animal director in the production.
The film was shot over a period of four years near Kitami, Kushiro, Abashiri, Monbetsu, and Koshimizu along the Sea of Okhotsk coast of Hokkaido.
Co-cinematographer Akira Shiizuka would go on to shoot several animal-related films, including Kurahara's Antarctica; co-editor Akira Suzuki also contributed to that film. Additionally, co-cinematographer Tsuguzo Matsumae later shot A Tale of Africa, another Sanrio production.
The score was composed by Masaru Sato, while the songs (including the film's theme song "Red Hunter") were written and performed by the band Godiego. The lyrics for the English-dubbed version were written by Yoko Narahashi, Randy Bishop and Marty Gwinn, with vocals by Gwinn, Rod Burton and Bartholomew Bishop. Recording for the dubbed songs took place at Rusk Sound Studios in Hollywood, with Randy Bishop as producer and T. E. Sadler credited with re-recording.

## Release

The Glacier Fox was theatrically released in Japan on July 15, 1978. It was a hit, drawing an audience of 2.3 million people and grossing 970 million yen at the box office.
It was later broadcast on Fuji Television's "Golden Western Movie Theater" program on August 10, 1979, garnering a viewership rating of 44.7%. As of 2013, it still held the record for highest ratings for a live-action film on a Japanese television network.
An English-dubbed version running 90 minutes in length was given an American theatrical release by The Samuel Goldwyn Company on January 5, 1979. This version was written by Walter Bloch and narrated by Arthur Hill. It grossed $3.5 million in its limited release, with an estimated 1.39 million tickets sold. The Glacier Fox aired 24 times on the Disney Channel from 1984 to 1986, and was distributed on American VHS in 1985 by Family Home Entertainment.

## Anniversary edition

In 2013, 35 years after its initial release, the film was digitally restored and re-edited, incorporating different voice actors for the foxes' thoughts and new music, as well as previously unreleased footage cultivated from 100 hours of unused material. This version was released as a "35th Anniversary Revised Edition" on October 19, 2013. The original film was 117 minutes long, but the anniversary edition is 97 minutes long. Junichi Mimura, director of the anniversary edition, who also served as assistant director on the original production, was inspired to re-edit the film by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. He chose to juxtapose images of the disaster-stricken areas with the original story of foxes surviving the frozen Hokkaido landscape.