October 26, 2009
We’ve all seen children's films sprinkled with self-consciously sophisticated jokes and asides designed to amuse parents and go sailing over children's heads. At times it seems as if the kids and the adults are watching two different films. Fantastic Mr Fox is the first one I've seen in which it all comes together. Adventure, daring exploits, well-drawn characters and a whip-smart, funny script add up to something with real depth.
The reason is director Wes Anderson, who also scripted the film based on Roald Dahl's novel. Anyone who's seen his other films – for example, The Royal Tenenbaums or The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou – will recognise the Foxes, a very real family with tensions and love, self-doubt, communication failures and thwarted ambitions. I particularly liked Mr Fox's disregarded son Ash (Jason Schwartzman), longing for recognition as an athlete and his very own bandit hat. Mr Fox, arrogant but likeable, is voiced by George Clooney. He has given up stealing fowl to be a newspaper columnist but longs for one last great chicken heist. This sets events in motion as he clashes with the three mean farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean, leaving the whole community of animals fighting and digging for their lives.
The animals have a whole society out of sight of the humans, featuring a badger lawyer (Bill Murray), a weasel estate agent (Anderson himself), and many others, torn between being modern, neurotic creatures with mobile phones and being wild animals with instinctive urges and Latin names. It's all done in slightly jerky but endearing stop-motion animation which cracks along at a fast pace – perhaps too fast to take in all the details of the animals' lovingly rendered world. The sets are gorgeous and full of rich, funny detail. I kept wishing for a pause button.
What kept the book from being one of my favourites as a child was the ending. Without giving too much away, I found it unsatisfying and not a real solution to the problems the animals faced. The film improves on this somewhat, but still ends on an ambivalent note. A straightforward happy ending would probably not ring true from this director in any case.
In the end, what we're left with is a children's movie with more brains and heart than many supposedly grown-up ones – something that parents can really enjoy taking their kids to this half-term.
The reason is director Wes Anderson, who also scripted the film based on Roald Dahl's novel. Anyone who's seen his other films – for example, The Royal Tenenbaums or The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou – will recognise the Foxes, a very real family with tensions and love, self-doubt, communication failures and thwarted ambitions. I particularly liked Mr Fox's disregarded son Ash (Jason Schwartzman), longing for recognition as an athlete and his very own bandit hat. Mr Fox, arrogant but likeable, is voiced by George Clooney. He has given up stealing fowl to be a newspaper columnist but longs for one last great chicken heist. This sets events in motion as he clashes with the three mean farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean, leaving the whole community of animals fighting and digging for their lives.
The animals have a whole society out of sight of the humans, featuring a badger lawyer (Bill Murray), a weasel estate agent (Anderson himself), and many others, torn between being modern, neurotic creatures with mobile phones and being wild animals with instinctive urges and Latin names. It's all done in slightly jerky but endearing stop-motion animation which cracks along at a fast pace – perhaps too fast to take in all the details of the animals' lovingly rendered world. The sets are gorgeous and full of rich, funny detail. I kept wishing for a pause button.
What kept the book from being one of my favourites as a child was the ending. Without giving too much away, I found it unsatisfying and not a real solution to the problems the animals faced. The film improves on this somewhat, but still ends on an ambivalent note. A straightforward happy ending would probably not ring true from this director in any case.
In the end, what we're left with is a children's movie with more brains and heart than many supposedly grown-up ones – something that parents can really enjoy taking their kids to this half-term.