Stop Action and Intrigue
by Lori Hadacek Chaplin in Reviews on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 7:56 AM
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Instead of high tech 3D computer animation, Fantastic Mr. Fox is a stop-action movie — meaning objects are shot frame-by-frame to make them appear to move on their own.
At first glance the scruffy fox dolls with mesmerizing glass eyes were a bit jarring to my over-computerized sensibility — especially after just seeing movies like Up and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Easily moving past this, I found that I was into the simple artsy mise-en-scène of this film, with warm-hued, cozy, fanciful sets and painted backdrops.
The voices are convincingly performed by veteran actors. George Clooney does the voice of Mr. Fox and Mrs. Fox’s voice is performed by Meryl Streep — the rest of the cast of animals are also done mostly by well-known actors. However, like all animations, I’d prefer that they used lesser known actor’s voices. I find myself dwelling on which actor might be doing the voice; and I couldn’t help but think of Clooney in another heist job movie, Ocean’s Eleven.
Director and writer Wes Anderson, does a good job with the storytelling, which is based on a Ronald Dahl’s children’s novel by the same name. This is the first Anderson film that I’ve enjoyed. I find it difficult to understand his bizarre humor in movies such as The Darjeeling Limited, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and The Royal Tenenbaums. Fantastic Mr. Fox
Fantastic Mr. Fox is a story about Mr. Fox, a reformed bird thief turned newspaper columnist who decides to do one last (actually three) acts of thievery against three crooked farmers — Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. He pulls off the heists, but the three mean farmers know that Mr. Fox is behind their loss. The farmers go after Mr. Fox and his family and all of the underground animals with a vengeance.
Its subplot, the most humorous aspect of the movie, is the age old story of a boy trying to win his father’s respect and admiration. In the movie, Mr. Fox’s feisty son, Ash, continually tries to prove his athleticism to his father, only to be one-upped by his visiting cousin, Kristofferson.
The story is about trying to move beyond one’s true nature — in Mr. Fox’s case his wildness. No matter how hard he tries for his family to be an upright newspaper man, he can’t resist stealing poultry. Fox’s wife violently chastises him for endangering his family — for not remembering that he is a husband and a father — and she tells him, “We will all die unless you change.”
Mr. Fox ends up showing his willingness to sacrifice for his family and the other animals when he offers to turn himself over to the farmers. But that’s not the ending.
The movie is appropriate for the whole family (there’s a PG-rating for violence), but I suspect that adults will like it much better. Its subtle humor may be lost on younger viewers. If you liked the animation style of Fantastic Mr. Fox, then check out Peter and the Wolf (2006) available on Netflix’s Watch Now.
—Senior writer Lori Hadacek Chaplin is a wife and mother of three.
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