Fantastic Mr. Fox
Year: 2009
Rating: PG
Length: 87 minutes / 1.45 hours
There’s a point in a famous director’s filmography that may make you scratch your head and wonder why they pivoted into something so different. Hindsight is always an interesting way to see how the change in genre or form eventually brought on the full realization of the director’s style. For Wes Anderson, his previous films had begun to develop into his distinctive style, but Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) seemed to cement its aesthetic for all future Anderson movies.
Hearkening back to the original stop-motion effects from the early years of cinema, Fantastic Mr. Fox is full of frenetic energy—partly from the fur covered creatures voiced by plenty of famous actors. These aren’t clay molded stop-motion models like something from Aardman or Laika. Instead, there’s a sort of jointed stiffness that is played to great effect by Anderson’s love of straight lines and centering on the frame. That Anderson would eventually return to this form in Isle of Dogs (2018)—along with smaller stop-motion bits in his other films—shows how influential it was in defining what a Wes Anderson film should be.
Dialogue has always been a particular high point in Anderson films, and this is no different. Sure, the fast-talking characters may have lines that will go over kids’ heads, but the adults will definitely get a chuckle from. However, the kids are not necessarily there for the witty banter. The kids will like the animation of these silly little creatures, and the chosen medium of animation lessens some of the violent impact that comes with the constant battle between a fox and the humans he’s trying to steal from. And even if I don’t consider this Anderson’s best film, it definitely put him on that path.
A curious but well-executed pivot for Wes Anderson, I give Fantastic Mr. Fox 4.0 stars out of 5.
