Oh, Wes Anderson, I just can’t quit you. No matter how many good reasons you give me to go.
I loved Fantastic Mr. Fox as a kid, although I can’t remember much of it now – other than the geese, chickens, cider and apples. So, I’m not sure how faithful Anderson’s film adaptation is, but I think Roald Dahl would be happy with it. It’s not surprising that Anderson’s typical mood and style translate well into stop motion animation, and his usual company (headed by guest big names Clooney and Streep) does a great job channeling their understated emotional nuances through a variety of cartoon burrowing animals.
The main thrust of the plot involves Mr. Fox, Fox family patriarch and former chicken thief, attempting to pull one last heist on the three local farming tycoons, without getting his family killed in the process. But the heart of the plot involves Mr. Fox’s short, scruffy, maladjusted teenage son, Ash, whose desperate desire to be admired by his dashing father is compounded by the summertime visit of his athletic, attractive, even-tempered cousin, Kristofferson. The shifting relationship between the Fox cousins is the sort of slow-simmering, internal conflict that Anderson excels at dramatizing; and as his characters are foxes this time, and thus must demonstrate their species’ behavioral tendencies, he has a whole fresh cache of details to play with. The jerky stop motion, along with the mostly orange-and-yellow color scheme, twangy score, and periodic tableaux of burrowing, dancing animals give the movie a vintage feel that is classic Anderson.
