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It begun with an email

I’m Michel Gagné, a BAFTA and Annie Award-winning animation filmmaker, and I thought the story behind my new feature film, The Saga of Rex, might be of interest to Furry Times.

Rex is an anthropomorphic little fox I first created in 1998 in a 32-page black-and-white storybook, A Search for Meaning: The Story of Rex. In 2002, I released a color edition of the book, which was a huge hit at Anthrocon 2004, where I was Guest of Honor at the convention.

The character later evolved into a series of graphic-novel chapters published in Kazu Kibuishi’s FLIGHT anthology and was eventually collected as the graphic novel, The Saga of Rex, by Image Comics.

For the past 14 years, I’ve been adapting that story into a hand-drawn animated feature film. I created, directed and single-handedly animated the film, with the assistance of one inbetweener, my friend Seung Kim.

The film’s first official trailer will premiere worldwide online this Friday, August 21, at noon Pacific Time.

My professional career has included work on more than 25 feature films, as well as animation, visual effects, video games and comics, but The Saga of Rex has been an unusually personal undertaking. I essentially stepped outside the traditional production system and spent 14 years creating the feature according to my own vision.

I thought the connection to the furry community going back to Anthrocon 2004, combined with Rex’s long history as an anthropomorphic character and the unusual 14-year production, might make for an interesting story or interview for Furry Times.

I’ve attached my press release, which includes a private screener link for the trailer, as well as production stills and additional information. I’d be happy to provide anything else you might need or make myself available for an interview.

Thank you for considering it.

Best,

Michel Gagné
Creator / Director / Animator
The Saga of Rex

Sorry for the delay folks, but here it is finally the trailer of The Saga of Rex

Gagné began developing the feature film in earnest following a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2012. Shortly afterward, the film was optioned by GRID Animation in Belgium. GRID ultimately relinquished the option in 2018, and the IP and all rights reverted to Gagné.

Free from the constraints of a traditional production structure, he embarked on an unusual experiment: making the feature himself, with the assistance of a single inbetweener.

The result is a film born from an intensely personal creative process—one in which Gagné created, designed and animated the film over more than a decade.

“I wanted to make the film that was in my soul,” says Gagné. “To do that, I needed to remove the commercial and transactional aspects of the process. The film became a pure form of expression, dictated by the story and by my own creative instincts.”

Gagné’s career spans decades of work in animation and visual effects, including work on numerous major feature films. He is a BAFTA and Annie Award-winning animation filmmaker whose distinctive visual style has been seen across films, video games, comics and more.

Yet The Saga of Rex represents something fundamentally different: an attempt to create an entire feature film according to one artist’s singular vision and on his own terms.

The film is now nearing completion, with final sound work underway. Gagné plans to have the film completely finished by the end of 2026, with festival screenings and release plans beginning in 2027.