Jungledyret[]
Rita first appears in the 1993 film Jungledyret. Hugo meets her after the city zoo closes for the night; noticing that he is a new arrival, Rita introduces herself and briefly describes her family, explaining that while her mother hunts for food she explores the city. Hugo quickly develops a crush, but they are interrupted when Conrad Cupmann breaks into the zoo and Rita flees the scene.
Hugo re-encounters Rita the following evening while venturing through the city. He helps her to raid a dumpster for food, but is put off by rotten leftovers, to which she suggests a restaurant that throws its leftovers out tostray cats. Against her warnings Hugo confronts the cats, and after he unwittingly antagonizes them she helps him escape on a skateboard found earlier. After they get away she angrily rebukes his recklessness and selfishness, but agrees to take him to her home and persuades her mother to let him stay for the rest of the day. She asks Hugo about life in the jungle and concludes it must be "awesome", but declines his offer to follow him back for fear of its dangerous wildlife. By now Rita reciprocates Hugo's affection, and suggests they find a home for him in the city so they can play together at night.
That evening, Rita proposes they go to the harbour themselves to find the banana ship, but her mother interrupts before they can leave, offering to take Hugo herself while Rita watches over her siblings. Undaunted, Rita secretly follows them and reunites with Hugo at a nearby construction site. She helps him evade Cupmann's bounty hunters by navigating the storm sewers to the harbour front. After finding the ship, they share a bittersweet farewell that is interrupted by one of the trackers, but her quick intervention saves him from capture. As the ship leaves the next morning, Rita returns to the harbour for one last goodbye, telling Hugo to come back next year, when she will be old enough to live on her own.
Jungledyret 2 - Den Store Filmhelt[]
The second film opens with Rita already deeply missing Hugo, having composed a song that she regularly sings to her siblings. When Mrs. Robin informs her that Hugo is back in the city, she makes haste to theCupmann film studio, and on her second attempt to infiltrate the grounds contacts him in his room, but their reunion is cut short when security is alerted to her presence and she is forced to flee.
Rita returns the following evening, by which time the success of the day's filming session has infected Hugo with film star arrogance; when he claims he can't leave until they finish the shoot, she rebukes him for putting comfort above freedom and her own concern and storms off bitterly. After he escapes and arrives at the den, she tries to guilt him for the previous night, but is overcome by her own relief and quickly welcomes him back. Although the den is too crowded for Hugo to stay, Rita realizes it is the perfect opportunity to move out and begins digging her own den nearby. Before it is complete they are spotted by Cupmann's staff, and in order to keep the tracking dogs from finding her siblings she and Hugo flee, catching a passing train that takes them out into the countryside.
Although Rita is reluctant to abandon her family so abruptly, she recognizes that she is now wanted alongside Hugo, and after escaping with the pigs into the nearby forest sets about finding a home for them both. Their new life seems happy at first, but Hugo adapts poorly to the woodland ecosystem, never learning to forage for his own food, and with the onset of Autumn his complaints become insufferable; when he muses returning to the studio, Rita is offended to the point of heartbreak and runs off. She later encounters Mrs. Robin and her family, who suggest travelling south for the season as they do. She reunites with Hugo, who apologizes for overreacting, and learns that Cupmann is scouring the forest and intends to kill her, deeming her a "bad influence". They escape the forest via a frozen river, and after foiling Cupmann's ambush follow the Robins to a bridge overpass where they hop aboard a southbound train.
TV Series[]
In the animated series, Rita is more pronounced as the straight man to Hugo's antics, keeping him on task during their many diversionary adventures. In the early episodes when the prospect of returning to the jungle looks unlikely, she tries in vain to convince him to settle down where they are. Her relief upon finally reaching the jungle quickly turns to frustration as Hugo neglects her to reconnect with his old friends and her unfamiliarity with the environment repeatedly lands her in danger. By the end of "Jungleanden", however, she is more comfortable with the inhabitants and declares she is willing to tough it out.
Crossovers[]
Rita the Vixen is a little fox who is the tritagonist of Hidden Chronicles. She is spunky friendly and fun-loving. Rita lived with her mother and two younger brothers and sister in a den near some railroad tracks until She and Pooh escaped from the scientists of NIMH.
A Romance between Pooh and Rita is hinted and even implied on Pooh's First Adventure. In the episode The Shooting Star - Since Winter came - Pooh and Rita traveled South. They joined up with Tigger to save the world from Kahmunrah.
In Fantasia in the Hundred Acre Wood: The Series - Rita is the main heroine. She discovered that people (including other animals) struggled to capture Pooh for a million dollar reward and give him to Bowser. Desperate to save her best friend - Rita joins up with Tomte Jeremy Gopher, Oswald (Mickey's older brother), Ortensia, Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy to battle Bowser's army.
Rita is voiced by Holly Gauthier-Frankel in Hidden Chronicles and later Mandy Moore in Fantasia in the Hundred Acre Wood: The Series.
Character animation supervised by Timothy Björklund