Analysing Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr Fox

What would you give up, to relive the glory days?

This is the question posed by Fantastic Mr. Fox, which I felt inspired to re-watch after reviewing Wes Anderson’s Roald Dahl Netflix shorts. I believe Fantastic Mr. Fox is a better adaptation. It builds atop the original instead of just reading from the page.

The film follows Fantastic Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney) a renowned chicken thief, now middle aged and stuck living the family life as a newspaper columnist. Fox is suffering a mid-life crisis. He wishes to return to his true purpose: stealing birds. This leads him to steal from the three biggest and meanest farmers around: Bogus, Bunce, and Bean, starting a war that leads to the destruction of his forest home.

The theme of animalistic inhibitions is key to Fox’s character, he does these self-destructive things because he believes it’s his purpose as a fox. This is contrasted by the anthropomorphic nature of the animals: they wear suits, they have jobs, they own possessions and real-estate. they act more human than animal.

Throughout the movie Fox is forced to accept the fact that he isn’t just some wild animal, he’s a family man with responsibilities and he’s getting old. This is best showcased by the wolf encounter where Fox comes face-to-face with a wild wolf on the horizon; it doesn’t speak, it doesn’t wear clothes, and it stands on four legs. In this moment Fox sees the disparity between him and his ideals. While he still respects his animal side, he knows it’s something he can’t fully embrace.

The film ends on this acceptance as the animals have moved away from the forest and into the sewers, living off food sourced from the supermarket. Their lives aren’t particularly exciting but they’re still alive, and they’re happy.

Ultimately, Fantastic Mr. Fox is a great film that takes the original book by Roald Dahl and makes something original out of it through Anderson's charm, wit, and sarcasm. While uncanny to some, I think Anderson’s use of stop motion puppets deliver a unique hand-crafted look which hasn’t really been replicated since his following stop motion piece Isle of Dogs. 

I believe the film’s message about growing up and accepting who you are is a great lesson for people of any age. If you enjoy animation or Wes Anderson’s directing, I’d give this a watch.

 

Have you seen this film? What did you think of it? Tell me in the comments below.

If you liked this review, then don’t forget to share it with someone else.