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Based on the classic novel by Roald Dahl, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is a triumphant stop-motion cartoon that delivers countless laughs, a witty and snappy story and a heartfelt message of the importance of community and family.
The novel was transformed into a comical and equally entertaining movie by director Wes Anderson, whose movies include “The Royal Tenenbaums” and “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.” The movie has a diverse and talented voice cast, including George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Willem Dafoe.
Mr. Fox (George Clooney) is a sly, charming and clever fox whose passion is stealing chickens from neighboring farms. But when his wife Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep) becomes pregnant, it’s time for him to settle down and become a family man.
Two years later, Mr. Fox has a steady job at the newspaper, a new home in a tree and a son named Ash (Jason Schwartzman). Mrs. Fox’s nephew Kristofferson (Eric Anderson) also comes to live with them soon after. Things go downhill after Mr. Fox returns to his old ways of stealing, from the three meanest farmers of all time.
The situation gets even worse when the farmers retaliate and begin to attack Mr. Fox’s neighborhood. It is then up to Mr. Fox to save his community from the farmer’s relentless attacks, and put a stop to them once and for all.
Clooney and Streep give very enthusiastic performances as the foxes, and seem to feel right at home with their roles, like they’ve been foxes their whole lives. The rest of the cast also gave great performances and fit well into their roles. Not one actor seemed miscast or out of place.
Watching the movie was an enjoyable and sometimes odd experience. It showed characteristics of both a book and a movie, with the plot progressing in chapters and showing expansive detail of everything.
Stop-motion animation can be an amazing filming technique, seen in such films as “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and more recently, “Coraline.”
The animation in “Fantastic Mr. Fox” has an older look to it, but Anderson makes it work with quick and comical character movements and hilariously old animation techniques like non-computer animated effects.
Easily, the best part of this movie is all of the humor, which it was full of, and had audiences laughing the whole time. It has its own special brand of humor that brought hysterical laughter without ever really telling any jokes. The characters’ personalities and speech were enough to be really funny.
The laughter also came from Wes Anderson’s uncanny directing, and the talent of the actors that made their characters both original and entertaining. There wasn’t one character I found to be not funny, out of place or cliché.
A few tiny parts in the movie did drag slightly, and could have been made more interesting; however, it did have great pace overall.
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” was, for lack of a more appropriate word, fantastic, and will amuse fans of the novel and newcomers alike. It was wonderful from beginning to end and may be one of the best animation movies of the year.
Reach reviewer Gabe Jorgensen at Gabriel.Jorgensen@usd.edu.
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