Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Director:

Wes Anderson

Writers:

Roald Dahl (novel) and
Wes Anderson (screenplay)

Release Date:

25 November 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family

Tagline:

Dig the life fantastic.

Plot:

Angry farmers, tired of sharing their chickens with a sly fox, look to get rid of their opponent and his family.

Plot Keywords:

Fox | Farmer | Cider | Tale | Anthropomorphic

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 5 wins & 8 nominations

US Showtimes:

Culver Plaza Theatres

12:00pm | 4:20

(personalize)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

George Clooney	...	Mr. Fox (voice)
Meryl Streep	...	Mrs. Fox (voice)
Jason Schwartzman	...	Ash (voice)
Bill Murray	...	Badger (voice)
Wallace Wolodarsky	...	Kylie (voice) (as Wally Wolodarsky)
Eric Chase Anderson	...	Kristofferson (voice) (as Eric Anderson)
Michael Gambon	...	Franklin Bean (voice)
Willem Dafoe	...	Rat (voice)
Owen Wilson	...	Coach Skip (voice)
Jarvis Cocker	...	Petey (voice)
Wes Anderson	...	Weasel (voice)
Karen Duffy	...	Linda Otter (voice)
Robin Hurlstone	...	Walter Boggis (voice)
Hugo Guinness	...	Nathan Bunce (voice)
Helen McCrory	...	Mrs. Bean (voice)

MPAA:

Rated PG for action, smoking and slang humor.

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | SDDS

Certification:

USA:PG (certificate #45468) | Ireland:PG | Australia:PG | UK:PG | South Korea:All | Singapore:PG | New Zealand:PG | Canada:G (British Columbia/Manitoba/Quebec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/Ontario) | South Africa:PG | Philippines:G (MTRCB)

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

This is Wes Anderson's first film that did not feature one of his signature slow motion sequences.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The film avoids identifying its setting as either Britain or America. Conveniently, Mr. Fox's species Vulpes vulpes is found in both countries. The human town has some very British details including a round red post box (American would be square and blue), the station wagon has a right-hand drive, and the humans have British accents. (Even if the setting is England, the animals' American accents are permissible as an element of fantasy.) The beaver's species is given as Castor fiber, the Eurasian variety (the American variety is Castor canadensis). However, the wolf's mountain looks more like a place in America or Canada, and more conclusively, there is an American opossum among the animals. There are no native opossums, nor any marsupial relatives, anywhere in Europe, so an opossum cannot be from the same region as Castor fiber.

Quotes:

Mrs. Fox: This story's too predictable.
Mr. Fox: Predictable? Really? Then, how does it end?
Mrs. Fox: In the end, we all die. Unless you change.

Movie Connections:

References Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

Soundtrack:

Fantastic Mr. Fox AKA Petey's Song

Roald Dahl's tone and Wes Anderson's quirky vision come together for a delightful romp!

Watching the fine 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', I could not help but think of how difficult it must be to adapt Dahl to the screen. While most adaptations are fairly competent, it takes something special for it to be an excellent film in its own right. The only film I really rate of Dahl's oeuvre is Tim Burton's adaptation of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' - while it was Americanised and imprinted with the director's vision, the film had the tone and spirit of the novel to a tee and this is much the case with 'Fantastic Mr. Fox.'

The titular character, voiced by George Clooney, is a newspaper man who returns to his old habits of stealing from three vile farmers to pay for their new house, much to the chagrin of his wife, played by Meryl Streep. On hand is his offbeat son, Ash (voiced by Anderson regular Jason Schwartzman) vying for his father's affection after the arrival of his cousin, Kristofferson as well as the other animals of the area, including Bill Murray's Badger, Willem Defoe's rat and cameos from the likes of Adrien Brody and Anderson himself - all played to the sounds of the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, among others.

The voice cast shine here - one can just imagine Clooney as the sly Foxie, the upright soul with the sharp clothes and snappy dialogue and Streep, who has considerably less to work with, as his long-suffering but loving wife. Some of the secondary characters, particularly Schwartzman's Ash, might seem a bit tiresome after a while, but they are eccentric, whimsical and memorable and typically Anderson.

Some fight find the transformation of the quintessentially British institution that is Dahl's story into a quirky and offbeat film, of mostly adult humour as a pretentious travesty, but it could not be less so in my opinion. Granted, the film is undoubtedly Anderson's vision - directorial habits such as dividing the film into chapters and frequent use of close-ups and quick pans are present, and of course it has themes such as the dysfunctional relationships between family members, particularly between a father and a son, trying to find his own niche, just as in Anderson's previous efforts such as 'The Royal Tenenbaums' or the recent 'The Darjeeling Limited' but it somehow works wonderfully for this story. The script is wonderfully witty and slick, humorous and delightful all at once, and terribly quirky. The stop-motion animation really suits this style and is really wonderfully executed, albeit it does seem a little bizarre for the first few moments, yet it never fails to become monotonous, grabbing our attention all the time with its bright and fast dynamics. The film seems delightfully patched together like some sort of celluloid quilt and this handmade attribute is what gives it such admirability.

I highly recommend this film to anyone - it is hugely entertaining, quite absorbing with a rocking soundtrack and fun direction, screenplay and voice performances. There will be those who will say how Dahl's work has been ruined, but in my opinion this film is very much a standalone entity yet incorporates that tone, spirit and humour that was found in the original novel.