Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson, 2009): USA/UK

Reviewed by Mishone Feigin.  Viewed at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre at the AFI Film Festival, Hollywood.

Wes Anderson is in no way a lightweight filmmaker.  In my opinion, his films are almost impossible to categorize, due to the fact that his characters, and the circumstances that he puts these characters in, are such blatant departures from what is common, such as in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Darjeeling Limited.  That being said, I have never liked his filmmaking (with the exception of Rushmore) until now.  However, in Fantastic Mr. Fox, we find Wes moving in a completely different direction.  His stop-motion animation story about a family of foxes living life with the same familial trepidations and problems that we humans are faced with is cute and easy to wrap one’s head around.  

The fox family, Headed by George Clooney and Meryl Streep, is represented with human characteristic and attitudes, which is charming.  Mr. Fox, a retired chicken thief, is bored and anxious, and decides to embark on a few more jobs before he gives up his criminal lifestyle for good.  He begins stealing chickens from a nearby human farmer named Boggis, but is not done there.  After stealing ducks and geese from a farmer named Bunce, and alcoholic cider from a farmer named Bean, Fox is back on top and happier than ever.  Unfortunately, the three farmers are not so happy.  They hold a meeting and decide to try and wipe out the entire Fox family once and for all.  In doing so, they begin to dig and blow up the surrounding foxholes and tunnels, uprooting other animals on the way.  Fox, accompanied by his family and other underground residents, including Badger (Bill Murray), tunnel away from the three vicious farmers and into hiding.  At first, Fox feels guilty for being the cause of this turmoil.  Soon, however, he realizes that it is his responsibility to get the group out of trouble, and he devises a master plan to do just that. 

The film is very simple, which I thought was fantastic.  Instead of trying to capture some broad life lesson or make a comment on a social problem, Anderson simply told a story about a group of animals banning together to survive.  He never entered into any major clichés or allowed the characters to dry up and get old.  There were a few moments that were obvious and predictable, but they were forgivable.

Technically, the film is a brilliant specimen.  The stop-motion is very flawed and raw, which was so nice to see.  Instead of trying to forge a perfect film or make us forget that we were watching a stop-motion animated film, Anderson continually reminded us that we were watching one.  He did this with imperfect frames and speedy action, along with completely unrealistic physical abilities that he afforded to his characters.  This allowed me to enjoy the art of filmmaking just as much as the world that I entered while watching the film.  It was almost as if he was saying, “look at how much fun we had making this film.” 

It was big of him not to try and cram some self-indulged or overly informative animated tale down our throats.  I was able to really enjoy the film without feeling like I needed to decipher any hidden messages or make any judgments.  Films these days seem to try and conquer such large issues (which can be wonderful, don’t get me wrong), and often forget about crafting a succinct and manageable story with curious characters.   This film was nothing more than a fun story with lovable characters and wonderful images, which I greatly appreciated.