A charming, yet thoughtful, story that made my heart stop-motion
Upon it’s release during late 2009 you would’ve been hard pressed to find something that even remotely resembled Fantastic Mr Fox. Director Wes Anderson seems to make no distinction between the realms of animation and live-action as he slyly composes a deft and engaging indie heist comedy.
Immediately distinguishing itself from cheaper, more sanitised, animated films with it’s earthly tones and an almost direct translation of Anderson’s centric cinematographic style into a stop motion film; we are introduced to the eponymous Fox (George Clooney) whose charisma, self-aggrandizement and devil-may-care attitude act as both his greatest strength and weakness. Now a blue collar worker entering his twilight years tempered by the cooling influence of his level-headed wife (Meryl Streep) and rambunctious son, his sights are firmly set on the glory days of his past, as well as the three wealthy and despicable farmers: Boggis, Bunce and Bean (Michael Gambon). Fox’s desire to enact a series of heists to prove his skill quickly spiral out of control when the farmers wrath ends up aimed at him, his community and his family, forcing him to prove his ‘fantastic’ moniker in order to ensue their collective survival. As one may be able to infer, the film begins and ends with Fox and Clooney’s performance has surprising nuance in the quieter scenes that helps to portray him as a man (er, fox?) that’s worthy of sympathy despite his arrogance. Whereas the supporting cast do a fine job of making this world feel lived in, and authentic to a community that could hypothetically exist at the time, with Bill Murray’s Badger being a a particular favourite of mine.
Anderson’s commitment to honour the legacy of creator, Roald Dahl, is matched only by his own patented subdued absurdity that permeates every facet of this film. Owing a great deal of it’s aesthetic to 1970’s memorabilia and fashion, this film is definitely more Beatles than Toy Story. This is most apparent via it’s animation, which is unafraid to show minute imperfections like ruffling of hair of it’s animal characters and the vaguely uncanny valley-esque appearance of it’s human ones. So refreshing it is to find an animation that continually reminds one one of it’s artificiality yet remains engaging thanks to it’s wonderfully unique characters and settings, that it can be partially excused for it’s adherence to it’s source material. It can often feel like the film is too shy to step out of the narrative beats that defined the book, with the story that Dahl crafted at times feeling like a shackle on Anderson’s desire to stretch his creative muscles and expand on the blueprint in any meaningful way.
Yet, when the film finally achieves a synthesis between each of their visions, you feel like giddy youngster taken aback by all the snappy dialogue and animals with a fully functioning society in the meadows. The whole impression of this movie is like a fever dream that you’re grateful to have had the pleasure of viewing, and anything that can achieve that feeling is, without a doubt, truly fantastic.
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