Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

[Mark R. Leeper]

                        FANTASTIC MR. FOX
                (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

     CAPSULE: Wes Anderson brings us a thoroughly delightful
     animated film.  With wit, grace, and charm we get the
     story of a fox trying to evade three nasty farmers who
     are trying to kill him.  But the animal characters are
     written very human and at the same time very funny,
     and they are made real by an all-star cast of familiar
     voices.  Add a bunch of clever film references and we
     get a lot of film for the price of a ticket.  Rating:
     low +3 (-4 to +4) or 8/10

I cannot say that I am terribly fond of the Wes Anderson comedies,
films he both writes and directs.  His quirky and disjointed sense
of humor is selective in its appeal and it rarely selects me.
BOTTLE ROCKET and THE ROYAL TANENBAUMS have their moments, but
RUSHMORE, THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU, and THE DARJEELING
LIMITED just seem disjointed and misaimed.  His characters do not
seem to be real people, but more writing exercises.  I expected
little from his animated film FANTASTIC MR. FOX.  Ironically
animated film is just the sub-medium to make his writing sing.
Perhaps real people do not talk in the Anderson style, but animated
animals are not real people and you expect them to be a little
quirky.  It works well.

FANTASTIC MR. FOX is a film in which even the errors work in its
favor.  For example, the animation seems to be done in stop-motion
with fur-covered models.  In KING KONG the models were covered with
real fur and it showed in the animation.  As the models were
repositioned the fur was accidentally re-arranged.  That was
considered a mistake for KING KONG, which was supposed to be
happening in the real world.  The foxes and other animals in
FANTASTIC MR. FOX do not have seemed real, perhaps.  Instead they
come off a little like charming dolls, and that works for the film
better than it would have if they were photo-realistic.  This is a
world that is about at the same level of reality as THE WIND IN THE
WILLOWS or perhaps Pogo.  Further Anderson's film is made more
winning by taking a step backward in technology by being three-
dimensional models built on armatures.  The characters have an
organic feel to them; they seem tactile or even pettable.  They are
not made up of vectors in a computer; they feel like there is
something touchable and solid in front of the viewer.  I will not
talk down Pixar, the animation studio that makes so many good
films, but FANTASTIC MR. FOX shows the tactile feel that is missing
in their films.  It is the same phenomenon that makes the fans
prefer Ray Harryhausen's creations to purely CGI effects.

Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney) and Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep) are
happily married.  Okay, hold it right there.  This is not a film
about young 20-somethings.  In fox years they are probably 40-
somethings.  This is a film aimed at adults as much as it is at
children and the whole spectrum should find this film rewarding.
It is not clear that younger viewers will get some of the allusions
like the opening with "The Ballad of Davy Crocket" or a sound
effect borrowed from THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT or a line borrowed
 from REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE.  But everybody should appreciate the
characters.  And the film has its share of serious issues and of
laugh out loud moments.

Mr. Fox is (incredibly) suave like a George Clooney or a Cary
Grant.  Mrs. Fox is warm and wise and even when the couple has a
falling out, you can feel the love these characters have for each
other.  Perhaps it required good actors to bring that off with
foxes.  I frequently ask why have highly paid stars doing voices in
animated films when the producers could be giving talented unknowns
a shot.  But this film needed good actors, and the acting talent
was there in Clooney and Streep and about eight other familiar
actors.  I will not list the lot of them because that would spoil
the fun of reading the closing credits.

Okay, the plot.  This is an adaptation of the book by Roald Dahl.
It is the story of a turf war between Mr. Fox and three nasty
farmers who are trying to rid their land of the chicken-stealing
fox.  Mr. Fox is actually no longer a chicken-thief and now writes
for a newspaper, but the farmers have long memories and do not
forgive.  The story is a battle of wits between the three farmers
and Mr. Fox.  Frankly the story could have been stronger, but the
viewer cares more for the characters and style more than the plot.

"Wit, grace, and charm" is a lyric for one of the songs in the
film, but it could have been describing the film itself.  Told with
its breezy style, this could be the most charming film of the year.
I rate FANTASTIC MR. FOX a low +3 on the -4 to +4 scale or 8/10.

Film Credits: <http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0432283/>

What others are saying:
<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1197696-fantastic_mr_fox/>


					Mark R. Leeper
					mleeper at optonline.net
					Copyright 2009 Mark R. Leeper