Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Review:

Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is the director’s first foray into animation and what a fabulous success it is! I will maybe be the first and only one to ever admit such a thing but here I go: I think I liked it better than “Up” (2009). Yes, “Up” is a beautiful and very touching film, a masterpiece of computer animation and a palette of real emotions, but “Fantastic Mr. Fox” has that ‘je ne sais quoi’ that leaves my mind a-flutter after a viewing. Perhaps that ‘je ne sais quoi’ is simply a genuine charisma or maybe its a reassuring quirkiness. Perhaps it’s simply a well fleshed out story with believable anthropomorphic characters. I don’t know really. It just left me with a lot more to think about than most animated films. I loved this film. It is Wes Anderson’s best since “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001).

Based on the children’s book by Roald Dahl “Fantastic Mr. Fox” spins the tale of Mr. Fox (George Clooney), a natural born chicken thief who is persuaded by his wife, Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep) to leave behind his life of crime. Several years later though, Mr. Fox is feeling that itch to burglarize again. In his new scheme he involves opossum Kylie (Wallace Wolodarsky) and his capable nephew Kristofferson (Eric Anderson). He plans to rob three mean farmers, Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. All the while he is keeping his reactivated life of crime a secret from his disapproving wife and his odd ball son Ash (Jason Schwartzman).

The basic story from Dahl’s beloved book is maintained in the film, but Anderson in his typical fashion of writing and filming, infuses a lot of humorous eccentricities and style into the story. For instance, Mr. Fox’s nephew Kristofferson (who is not in Dahl’s book) regularly meditates. In a moment where his cousin Ash insults him, Krisofferson withholds his anger and states, “I am going to go meditate for half an hour.” Most writers would have had Kristofferson blow up in an angry fit, or have him cry and run off; how rare, and how specific, to have a character with such faculty over his emotions (especially in a cartoon). Its moments like this that makes “Fantastic Mr. Fox” sparkle.

The animation is also superb and lends itself well to the story. It is stop motion animation - the best (i.e. most fitting) stop motion I have seen since “A Nightmare Before Christmas” (1994). The detail is effervescent. I love a scene in which one of the farmers, digging through the Fox’s layer finds a landscape painting by Mrs. Fox. He holds it up and regards it with such antipathy. If a real person found a landscape painting by a fox they’d be baffled and amazed.

And ultimately, I love the sense of melancholy that runs throughout the movie. It’s very grownup at heart. All of Wes Anderson’s movies are very funny but very melancholy. There’s great sadness behind a lot of his funniest characters. Here, Meryl Streep provides the true melancholia of the film. She is at a loss to change her husband’s ways and she knows it.

I like that this film does not shy away from adult humor. There are cigarettes, alcohol, knife fights, cussing, and serious questions of identity. I found myself very moved the film and wanting to buy it right away. That so rarely happens.

Rating:

On a scale of one to Casablanca this film is a “Roman Holiday” (1953)

Rationalization:

“Roman Holiday” (1953) is a film I have always respected for not giving us the easy, expected ending. Instead it gives us the right ending and so the rest of the story is rendered more significant. “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is similar. I respect it for going way above and beyond what it could have been. Some other director or writer would have given us a straight rendition of Dahl’s story but Wes Anderson dares to take the right liberties with it. He breathes new and original life into his characters and so too breathes life into anyone who watches this film.