Wes Anderson is just nuts, isn’t he? Until Fantastic Mr. Fox came around, no one would have ever seen an animated movie even close to his radar.
Before this, he was known for big, ensemble comedy pieces, such as The Darjeeling Limited, The Royal Tenenbaums, and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still known for that type of movie. Since 2009, he’s had a smash hit with The Grand Budapest Hotel, critical acclaim with Moonrise Kingdom, and has an upcoming feature on the way in The French Dispatch. All of these things are in-keeping with the ensemble comedy pieces that I mentioned before.
Of course, he’s followed up with one other animated film in Isle of Dogs, but who would have ever thought he’d go down this path before Mr. Fox came along? He’s an utter weirdo, but he’s highly stylised and unlike any other director around.
So how does Mr. Anderson fare with his first animated feature? In fairness, the stop motion is spot on. Stop motion is something that will never fail to impress me when done well, and I especially love the way in which the fire extinguisher foam was animated in this movie. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before and it’s super creative.
The dialogue within the film is just like any other Wes movie and it’s blindingly obvious. The script is so smart, so snappy, and keeps the plot moving forward at a good pace throughout. One of my favourite lines was ”here, put this bandit hat on”, which resulted in a hearty snigger from me. Another highlight was the use of omitting swear words and having the characters say “cuss” instead. Comedy genius.
Something I’m obsessed with looking for in animation (or in any film, for that matter) is little fun things in the background. For example, there’s a sequence set on a sports field, which is similar to a baseball diamond. The scoreboard in the background doesn’t just merely exist there, it reads “home/stray”. These little details in the background are almost Easter eggs within the movie itself, and Fantastic Mr. Fox completely won me over by fuelling my obsession for background details.
What I didn’t expect was for the cinematography to be so good. It’s almost as though Disney invented animated cinema sometimes, so other studios often have to be more creative in finding different ways to record the action. This movie didn’t disappoint on that front.
On top of that, there’s an insane cast. Mr. George Clooney plays the title role, and Meryl Streep herself plays his disapproving fox wife, plus others. There are also musical moments embedded within the story which were simply perfection. Jarvis Cocker and Alexandre Desplat (The King’s Speech, Little Women, The Shape of Water) really came together and made the music part of the overall fabric of this film, and I can only thank them for that.
Would I watch this again? To be honest, probably not. However, it’s a special type of animated movie that is almost aimed at adults more than children, and I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Fantastic Mr. Fox is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video in the UK.
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