FANTASTIC Mr. FOX Review

I’ve never read the Roald Dahl’s classic book that this claymation is based on but I must say, FANTASTIC Mr. FOX is the fist Wes Anderson’s movie I enjoy without having to try too hard to get inside Anderson’s head. His movies usually are what I’d considered to be oddballs (Life Aquatic, Royal Tenenbaums), his comedy is usually thin and often times you’d have to dig deeper to reach the story’s profundity about life but… both the comedy and the themes in FANTASTIC Mr. FOX, on the other hand, are fairly fast, clear-cut, and straightforward. Anderson’s signature marks are present, with the use of title cards and characters with unique, quirky personalities. FANTASTIC Mr. FOX may not be the best animated feature but it’s definitely in a league of its own. The cuss you are.. Ha!

Mr. and Mrs. Fox (Clooney and Streep) live an idyllic home life with their son Ash (Schwartzman) and visiting young nephew Kristopherson (Eric Anderson). But after 12 years, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr Fox’s wild animal instincts. Soon he slips back into his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief and in doing so, endangers not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community. Trapped underground and with not enough food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil Farmers – Boggis, Bunce and Bean – who are determined to capture the audacious, fantastic Mr. Fox at any cost.

Imagine if George Clooney’s Ocean’s Eleven character, Danny Ocean was a Fox, that’s what Mr. Fox in this movie basically is. Of course, Mr. Fox talks faster and he’s cockier to the point of selfish and reckless. He’s the man with the plan. His plans may not always be perfect but he’s always got ideas and tricks up his sleeves to counter his opponents’ every move. At first I had my reservation about Clooney being the voice star but after watching this movie, I can’t think of any other more deserving actor who can talk his way out of anything like what Clooney does when voicing Mr. Fox.
Excellent clay animation and the attention to details, even the movie itself puts heavy emphasis on making us observe closely the Fox’s hair. The extent of Wes’ imagination for the Fox’s world and what they go through on a daily basis and how the clay work would be incorporated into depicting that may not be as boundless as Adam Elliot (Harvie Krumpet) but I think Henry Selick (Nightmare Before Christmas) and Steve Box (Wallace & Gromit) would be proud of what Anderson and his crew have accomplished.

That actually goes along with my observation of how Mr. Fox and all his community act like humans. They ride motorcycles, they wear suit, they go to school and buy real estate. Besides how they eat and their digging skills, they practically act like humans and I think that could also be a problem because this movie would be much more amusing if Anderson made the characters use daily objects that are like what humans use but don’t look quite exactly the same, it would be much more amusing if they were mere representations, there’d still be a fridge but it would be Fox-esque, something new and surprising.

Once again, I’ve never read the Roald Dahl book so I have no idea how faithful Anderson’s adaptation is to the original material but the FANTASTIC Mr. FOX story is a clever cat-and-mouse game. You’ll get caught up in entertaining cat-and-mouse back and forth vengeance-ridden game between the three mean farmers and Mr. Fox, it’s like taking turns to see who would get the upper hand. The more the farmers lose, the more motivated they are, the more evil their methods become and the cockier Mr. Fox gets, the more he realizes how much he’s putting his family and his community on the line,.. he’s an adrenaline junkie. Collecting chicken isn’t as important to him as the act of stealing them and in the process, without realizing it, he discourages his son who looks up to him but obviously doesn’t have the stealth skills he’s looking for to help him get the job done. The need to keep his reputation of being considered Fantastic has blinded him of the responsibility that comes with being a husband and a father. At the same time, the story is also about embracing your wild side but using it in a way that would benefit the entire gang instead of just self-indulgence or turning it into an excuse to live a risky life.

I never thought I’d say this, mainly because I have much respect for the great Meryl Streep but her voice work as the wife, Mrs. Fox is the weakest link in this movie. She’s too calm and soothing for the situation at hand. And just like The Vampire’s Assistant, the great Willem Dafoe whom we know is a brilliant actor unfortunately only has about as much an opportunity in this film as Owen Wilson’s character. Dafoe does a wonderful job voicing Rat, that’s the character I’d like to see more.
But the screenplay by Anderson and Baumbach does a great job of making sure anything explained in the beginning parts of the movie eventually would come in handy in the later parts, that vicious yet entertaining circle,.. nothing about this film is left hanging or unresolved.

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