"The Fantastic Mr. Fox"

By Matt Duncan
Coastal View News

Of the many animated films that have and will draw hoards of merry moviegoers this holiday season, Wes Anderson’s retro, stop-action movie called “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” may be the only animated film that is a must-see. Nearly every moment of this movie is breathtakingly beautiful and immensely entertaining.

By nature, Mr. Fox (George Clooney) is a daring scavenger—a voracious burglar—who moves quickly and acts on instinct. In other words, Mr. Fox is a wild animal. But like many things that are wild, Mr. Fox has a gentlemanly side to him as well. He is often thoughtful and reflective, and he cares deeply about the welfare of those he loves. So when Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep) announces that she is pregnant, Mr. Fox agrees to give up his regular practice of raiding the chicken coops of nearby farms. Mr. Fox properly gentrifies; he becomes the kind of fox that is family-oriented. Despite the persisting glint of adventure in his eyes and occasional displays of untamed behavior, Mr. Fox pursues all of the humdrum virtues appropriate to the middle class: a new tree to call home, a stable economic portfolio (as handled by Badger (Bill Murray)), and a good education for his son, Ash (Jason Schwartzman). As is, Mr. Fox’s new life is just satisfying enough to keep him from reacting to the unrest and slightly neutered feeling that inevitably inheres in a wild animal that has been tamed.

However, when he learns of the local success of three ruthless and calculating tycoon farmers, Mr. Fox cannot resist the temptation to revisit the wild, liberated days of old. With an opossum named Kylie (Wally Wolodarsky) as an accomplice, Mr. Fox hatches new schemes to thieve and plunder the ample stocks of the farmers. At first, all goes according to plan. The farmers are unable to protect their products, and the Fox family is richer and happier than ever.

The well conceived plans of Mr. Fox come to an end, though, as the farmers find the Fox home and lay siege to it. Mr. Fox and his family are only able to escape certain death by burrowing deep under ground, and there ensues a point/counterpoint between the furry of the farmers and the wiles of their animal opponents. Each time Mr. Fox and his family and friends (who are also objects of the farmers’ ire) seem to elude the clutches of their foes, new perils await them. In this battle between man and animal, Mr. Fox must learn to balance his instincts and his intelligence—his wildness and his tameness—in order to prove equal to the might and resources of the farmers.

“The Fantastic Mr. Fox” has the same beauty and flare as other of Wes Anderson’s masterstrokes (e.g. “The Royal Tenenbaums”, “The Darjeeling Limited”); however, “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” is somehow alone among Anderson’s films in its appeal with respect to a very wide range of viewers. While Anderson’s “The Royal Tenenbaums”, for example, is surely a work of art, it is also quirky, idiosyncratic—an acquired taste. “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” is also quirky, but its charm is immediate, self-evident and irresistible for anyone save Ebenezer Scrooge. One reason for this universal appeal is the fact that Anderson turns what moviegoers have come to know as grotesque and ugly animation—that is, stop-action animation—into a dancing, vivacious presentation. The artistic execution of this movie approaches the very limits of the medium in which it was created.

What is perhaps even more impressive than the look of this movie is how well Anderson’s signature vernacular translates into the animal world. The language in all of Anderson’s films is characterized by quickness, understated honesty, and a certain existential profundity that has an absurd but unmistakably hilarious quality to it. This quality is somehow enhanced when instantiated in animal dolls. Just imagine a well-dressed and intelligent fox who, while looking deep into the eyes of another such fox, utters in a confessional tone, “The truth about me is, I’m a wild animal,” and then goes on to admit that he is still dealing with what exactly that means. In short, “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” is a masterpiece; the best movie of the season, if not the year.