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Fantastic Mr Fox was the first book I ever read on my own and to this day, it still holds a place in my heart that is second only to my first bike – a Raleigh BMX Burner with mag wheels if you don’t mind – for pure nostalgic affection.
Roald Dahl’s story of a quite fantastic little fox, some horrendous farmers and their shared love of well stocked warehouses of free-range food planted the seeds of my love of reading, interest in food and, thanks to Mr Dahl’s surreal and slightly macarbe sense of storytelling, an eventual affection for the likes of Bill Hicks, the Coen brothers and Tim Burton.
Based around the efforts of Mr Fox to keep his family fed by pilfering the storehouses of three local farmers, Mssrs Boggis, Bunce and Bean (“one fat, one short, one lean”, as one of the film’s recurring musical cues creepily chants), Fantastic Mr Fox the book was a simple story that still had many of the dark and “anti-kid’s story” touches – people get hurt, actions have real consequences and things get properly scary – that made Dahl’s books beloved to generation after generation.
In the hands of Wes Anderson the Fantastic film is a stop-motion animation affair similar in style to The Magic Roundabout but far more polished. The writing team has fleshed out the book’s story considerably but with a similar attitude of dealing with surprisingly adult themes – the fact that relationships need more than a Hollywood version of love to flourish, for example – has maintained the tone perfectly.
With the meat of Dahl’s book making up the bulk of the film’s second act, the Fantastic film sets Mr Fox (George Clooney) up as a kind of Danny Ocean-style character who reigns supreme in the world of poultry theft. Upon hearing that she’s pregnant, however, Mrs Fox (Meryl Streep) demands her hubby take a less dangerous line of work and, for the good of his family to be, he does.
Family life ain’t easy though and the mini-Fox, Ash (Jason Schwartzman), grows up to be a grumpy, cape-wearing teen – not quite a chip off the old block and very, very definitely “different”. The arrival of Ash’s overachieving cousin, Kristofferson, to stay makes the situation between father and son even more tense.
All this family drama – a recurring theme in Wes Anderson films – runs counterpoint, however, to the main story of Mr Fox getting back into the groove of poultry poaching and how the “jobs” he does on the local farmers’ stores incurs their ire and sees his home destroyed, neighbours displaced and terrified and his nephew kidnapped.
Clooney is perfect as Mr Fox, a smooth vulpine too-clever for his own good and the sort of a fella who still hankers after a life of crime and adventure despite his years as a family man and underappreciated journalist. Much like Clooney’s public face, Mr Fox is full of it but he knows it and his self awareness takes the edge of his smarm.
Streep – a late replacement in the role for Cate Blanchett – is also perfectly cast as the no-nonsense but still fun-loving wife and the real pant wearer of the Fox family.
Fantastic Mr Fox is, as most of Wes Anderson’s flicks, a thing of wonder and whimsy. Philosophies won’t be changed and the earth won’t be shattered but for 87 minutes, there is fun and spectacle to beat the band. Voicing the many members of the Foxs’ eco-system are the likes of Bill Murray as badger lawyer Clive Badger and, in the film’s funniest cameo and possibly the greatest West Side Story reference ever, Willem Defoe as cider-coveting Rat.
As charming as the voice acting is, as seemlessly as the old and new stories mesh together and as well as the stop motion animation suits Fantastic Mr Fox to a tee, there are a few niggles with the film that will likely see it relegated to beloved curio rather than a universally beloved masterpiece in years to come.
First off, there aren’t very many laughs. That’s not to say the film isn’t funny because it is. It’s just not the sort of humour you can expect to see a five-year-old and a 50-year-old laughing at equally. Toy Story it ain’t. Barring a few Bill Murray bits, there are few laugh out loud moments. It’s a small niggle though, especially for anyone who has any sort of affection for the book, the author or the films of Wes Anderson.
A great flick through and through.
