Film fans drooled when they heard that quirky live-action director Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore) was doing a stop-motion adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic children's book Fantastic Mr. Fox. Dahl's British sensibility works a lot better with a more off-beat directing style, and Anderson's about as off-beat as one gets while still remaining in the mainstream.
Anderson did not disappoint. Casting George Clooney, Meryl Streep plus mainstays like Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray in the leads, Anderson developed a more organic style of stop-motion animation that's very different from established names like Nick Park (Wallace and Gromit) or Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline).
Does Fantastic Mr. Fox maintain its charms on home video? Need you ask?
Twentieth Century Fox/Indian Paintbrush's Fantastic Mr. Fox, Directed by Wes Anderson
At its heart, Fantastic Mr. Fox is about finding one's identity. Whether it's adolescent Ash (Jason Schwartzman) trying to find his place and step outside of his dad's considerable shadow or Mr. Fox (George Clooney) reconciling his need to prove his 'fantastic-ness' with his promise to his devoted wife Felicity (Meryl Streep) to stop stealing squabs, the search for a place in one's world is the biggest motivation in this film.
"I'm a wild animal," Mr. Fox says when he backslides into barnyard rustling. "It's what I do." However, scripters Anderson and Noah Baumbach take that even farther. Mr. Fox uses his dangerous activities to gain the center of attention, and the awe of all the other animals. It's that insecurity at the heart of the character that gets him into trouble, and brings down the wrath of farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean. Clooney understands that emptiness at the heart of Mr. Fox, and uses it to drive the character forward in a performance that's equally witty and self-mocking.
Any teenager – or anyone who's ever been a teenager – will swiftly identify with Ash's predicament. In his search for an identity, he models himself after his dad but that's not where his talents lie. It doesn't help that his cousin Kristofferson (Eric Anderson) acts more like the son Mr. Fox wishes he had. It's during the course of the film that Ash learns a little more about who he is as a person and to accept that "there's something fantastic about it."
Fantastic Mr. Fox is rated PG for 'action, smoking and slang humour,' possibly for the film's repeated use of 'cuss' as a replacement for other 4-letter words. There's also a death (albeit by one of the antagonists)
Fantastic Mr. Fox Blu-Ray Extras
Fox Home Video was smart enough to add a DVD plus digital copy to this set, for those who haven't upgraded to Blu-Ray yet, and those who want to view this flick on their iPods.
Despite the absence of an audio commentary (a shame because Anderson really had a strong vision for this film and it would have been great to hear him articulate it), there are several 'making-of' featurettes which show Anderson's process of taking the book to the silver screen. A highlight is where Roald Dahl's widow Felicity talks about having Anderson stay with her while he wrote the script, and her reactions to the movie.
On the lighter side, there's a hilarious 'Beginner's Guide to Whack-a-Bat.'
Fantastic Mr. Fox One of 2009's Best Films
It's a measure of how good 2009 was for animated movies that Fantastic Mr. Fox didn't win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film. But, despite the presence of such blue-chip flicks as Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Coraline, Ponyo, The Princess and the Frog and Up, Fantastic Mr. Fox held its own simply through Anderson and Baumbach's wonderful screenplay, the tactile stop-motion work and the excellent vocal performances.
This is a Blu-Ray that deserves a place on any animation lover's shelf, and it gets a 5/5.
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
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