Four Souls of Coyote (2023) User Reviews

This is the best Native American movie I have ever seen.

[mtlpapermtl · 10/10 · 6 August 2023]

The Native American creation story made from the stories of different Native American tribes offers a special experience to everyone. Captivating story, beautiful visual world, excitement, adventure, drama, humor. Enjoyable as we immerse ourselves in the created and ever-expanding world, it reminds me of Avatar. One of the most amazing parts of the film is how the story of Adam and Eve was woven into the tales of the Native Americans, from whom the civilizations of the Old World originated.

"The Four Souls of the Coyote" is a beautiful fairy tale, an ode to nature. The story flows slowly until it sweeps the viewer along. We are not bored for a minute. In the film, we can see beautiful animation solutions. The animation technique used is a fresh splash of color in the palette of international films in the sea of three-dimensional Disney universes.

It can be seen that the director, Áron Gauder, is extremely familiar with Native American culture and loves it very much. Native Americans see the world differently, so this story sheds light on the main things in our lives from a special, unusual perspective. The director Áron Gauder dramatized the story with Géza Bereményi, one of the best Hungarian screenwriters.

According to the frame story of the film, an Native American grandfather tells his grandchildren how the Great Old Man created the world. Meanwhile, we know that this idyll is in danger, as the sacred land of the Indians stands in the way of an oil pipeline.

Main characters:

Old Man Creator is the one who has the gift of dreaming. He starts to form the material world with a handful of mud. He wants beauty and harmony. His only weakness is that he cannot control his anger and rage, so he unwillingly creates Coyote, the trouble maker.

Coyote is the ultimate trickster, the master of trouble-making. He is the one who was not created but appeared in the creator's dream. He is driven by his desires and begins to create life himself. A conflict with the Old Man Creator is inevitable.

Hoksila the first man on earth debuts as a new-born baby, he discovers the world step by step with the first girl. He grows and makes mistakes under the influence of the coyote but in the end, he finds his place in the council of living things.

Wichincala the first woman starts as a new born baby, she is always at the boy's side but is more cautious as she is the clever one of the pair. She is less attracted by blood and flesh and is more inclined to follow the rules of the Creator.

The story can be related to Imre Madách's "The Tragedy of Man", because Coyote is a similar dramatic figure to Lucifer, but also more complex. At the same time, "The Four Souls of Coyote" reminds us even more of Marcell Jankovics' cartoon "The Tragedy of Man", which, in addition to the story, can also be related in its visual world through symbols and metamorphoses.

The "Four Souls of Coyote" highlights the need for everyone to protect our created world. And for the solution, you have to realize that everyone is equal within the circle of creation, if we don't do this, the pre-world of our planet will be destroyed.

Catchy tunes accompany the film's scenes. The same music plays several times in the film, in harmony with the visual world. The rap music of the present-day frame story and the authentic and contemporary Native American music accompanying the creation story, naturally performed by Native Americans, can be heard even days after watching the film.

The final action-packed scenes of the film - a clash with the conquerors - are poignant, but at the same time make it the best Native American film I've ever seen.

An outsider's idea of native american mythology, with nice animation but very little to say

[bbshockwave · 5/10 · 12 March 2024]

As a hungarian and a fan of animation, I knew it was a matter of time before I checked this out. Scriptwriter Géza Bereményi is a big name in Hungary, he has written many importan movies here, like Eldorado and Bridge-Man. The director is less known, but overall the movie is well written and directed. The animation is very unique, fluid yet with a sort of angular look to many character, especially the humans, while the animals are more fluid and life-like, except for the titular Coyote - who looks more like a cartoon character from an 90ies Nickelodeon show, on purpose.

The story is mostly about creation, and the negative effect people have on their environment and nature. That'd be all right and good, after all many movies from Ferngully to Avatar had an environmentalist message. But those were original stories written for that purpose. Unfortunately this one tries to squeeze this heavy forced message about the evils of humans (but especially men) and the repercussions of greed, lust and selfishness into a native american creation myth. As a result, the titular Coyote, who in those legends is more of a trickster figure who either educates people or helps them (such as by stealing fire) or does a foolhardy venture that fails and helps people learn from his mistake (and laugh at his folly) rather turns into a Satan-like figure, the source of literally all evil in the world. I have read my fair share of creation myths, and Coyote was never the source of evil, or did he create humans just to spite the Old Man (the wise creator figure who follows dreams sent by the Manitou). During the course of the movie, he commits the first murder just to sate his appetite, tricks other animals to deadly accidents so he can eat them, frames his own creation, the humans, for his own sins, causes animals to want to reproduce, wants to rape his own creation, and so on. He is less Loki and more Mephistopheles here, always looking for a way to replace the Old Man or ruin his creations, even if he has nothing to gain.

The movie even portrays the first creation the same way as an idealized Garden of Eden where all animals lived in peace and ate plants before Coyote introduced killing to the world, causing everything immortal to be finite. He created the first native american man and woman from clay stolen from the Old Man, while his first discarded creation ends up thrown in the sea and becoming the white, african and asian man's ancestor, apparently.

The titular "four souls" refer to Coyote's quasi-immortality, as he can come back from the dead 4 times - unlike the real mythology, where he is permanently immortal. Unfortunately you will care little about his plight because he causes his own deaths himself with his petty lechery, greed and evil. But the humans fare little better, as they themselves are easily led astray (though the woman less so than the man, another modern view) and cause harm to the environment. The Old Man is shown as an irresponsible creator god, who gives little forethought to his actions and more often just goes with the flow and tries to mitigate disaster instead of having any foresight into what he does.

Overall I wish the writer would have made the story more similar to the real creation myths, and had not forced this hard to fit message into the movie. It is not a bad movie, but with few people to actually root for, not really that interesting. Also due to the gore, murders, female nudity, and a rather graphic depiction of childbirth, not really recommended for children.