Fantastic Mr. Fox

Directed By: Wes Anderson

Written By: Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach

Starring: (The Voices of) George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Billy Murray, Wally Wolodarsky, Eric Anderson, Michael Gambon, and Willem Dafoe

Director of Photography: Tristran Oliver, Editor: Andrew Weisblum, Production Design: Nelson Lowry, Original Music: Alexandre Desplat

Rated: PG for action, smoking and slang humor

    At one point in the new animated film Fantastic Mr. Fox, our titular hero, voiced by George Clooney, sits at his fine home at the breakfast table, complaining about the daily newspaper and the lack of readers for his column. As he sits in his existential crisis, his wife sets down a fresh plate of pancakes. Mr. Fox drops the newspaper and devours them, tearing the battered dough to shreds as he gorges them into his mouth. Despite his very human lifestyle, Mr. Fox is after all, a fox.

    If this sounds like way too much depth for a children’s film, there are two things to note about Fantastic Mr. Fox. The first is that is comes from Wes Anderson, the often highly esteemed director of Rushmore, The Royal Tenumbaums, and The Life Aquatic. Secondly, unlike Mr. Anderson’s previous films that often deal way too much with alienation, familial disconnect, and the search for purpose, Fantastic Mr. Fox keeps itself on a narrative thread tied much closer to its Roald Dahl source material, even if the scenes feel like trademarks of its director.

    Mr. Anderson decided not just to launch into animation for his sixth feature film, but instead of CGI, he opts for stop-motion animation, which provides an almost jolted sense of reality. This not only allows him to use as much clever production design to clearly develop his characters outward personas, but also shoot the film much like he often does his others. This is most apparent in many of the film’s bravura sequences that show off characters acrobatics, as Mr. Anderson tracks his characters across the sets on a tracking shot.

    But as alluded to before, Mr. Anderson does bring very much his stilted sense of character that has often been a detriment in the past. The film essentially begins in a family crisis—Mr. Fox has settled for a quiet life after the pleas of his wife Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep). Their son (Jason Schwartzman) is a whiny brat, vying for the attention of his egotistical father, and constantly being humiliated by his athletic and charming cousin (Eric Anderson), who only wants to live a quiet life. Mr. Fox decides to change his life, and decides to pull heists from the three big farmers in town, but instead starts a war that will change all the critters’ lives forever.

    My largest problem with Mr. Anderson is often how his characters talk—they are often bitter toward each other, and Mr. Anderson thinks we will get laughs out of their spite. Sometimes they can produce a chuckle, but often they fall flat (for children, much of the humor will be lost). Sure, there are plenty of great jokes and laughs, visual and otherwise, but in terms of the dramatic themes that Mr. Anderson and his co-writer Noah Baumbach set up, it feels like too much. Thankfully, the strong narrative and quick pace of the film stop it falling into the same dead territory as The Darjeeling Limited. Make references to Godard through visual chapter titles and Truffaut through the use of the Day for Night theme, Mr. Anderson creates one inventive scene after another in terms of setups. He knows how to shoot a film well, and its part of the joy of Fantastic Mr. Fox in seeing how he will use the animation to create a world once removed from ours.

    And surprisingly, Fantastic Mr. Fox uses A-list actors not for distraction, but for emphasis. Consider Mr. Schwartzman’s performance as Mr. Fox’s son—he speaks like Mr. Schwartzman’s actual 30-year-old self, which gives this wondrous sense of boy who thinks he’s much older than he actual is. Mr. Clooney, Ms. Streep, as well as Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, and Wally Wolodarsky are great as well.

    In a way, Fantastic Mr. Fox is a minor work for Mr. Anderson, but it’s a great minor work. It often is a better reminder of the good traits in the director’s talents much more than the ones that annoy us.