Review of Fantastic Mr. Fox, directed by Wes Anderson

Something I’ve been doing lately is this: I’ve been on such a Wes Anderson kick. I’d already seen the vast majority of his movies even now, but I’ve been feeling like I need to go back and revisit the ones I’ve seen, and then go watch the ones I haven’t seen, including Bottle Rocket.

But what kickstarted this new obsession, you ask? Well, on one boring Monday afternoon, I decided to put on Fantastic Mr. Fox, which was one of the Anderson movies I hadn’t actually seen before. I don’t know how I haven’t seen this movie until this point in my life’s story, but here we were.

Instead of doing my homework, I ended up sitting down to watch Fantastic Mr. Fox. And man, I really ended up enjoying watching this for the first time, which sent me down into this Wes Anderson spiral.

I’m not the biggest fan of some of his movies, but they’re pretty well made. I will admit that. This film is a unique addition into his filmography as well, which is why I was curious enough to watch it in the first place.

Alright, I’ve rambled enough already. Let’s get into the blog post, shall we?

Mr. Fox resorts to stealing in order to provide for his family, which eventually catches up to him.

Our main character in this film is Mr. Fox, who, at the beginning of the movie, manages to get himself stuck inside of a fox cage with his wife Felicity.

It’s in this not so romantic moment that she reveals to him that she’s pregnant, and that this kind of situation really isn’t ideal for their future. Mr. Fox decides to agree to her demands, and that he will quit this way of living once they get out of there.

Two years pass, which is the equivalent of twelve in fox years, and they have a somewhat grown up son now named Ash.

They have a cute little hole they live inside of, but Mr. Fox and Felicity are trying to find a new home inside of a tree. Mr. Fox took up a job at a newspaper, and has been warned about living inside of this area, but he ignores everything.

It turns out the area where their new tree home is happens to be the cornerstone of three different farmers living in the area, which comes to back to bite the family in the butt later on.

Felicity’s nephew resides with them after moving in, and Ash decides he really doesn’t like his cousin, who is seen as someone that’s well liked by everyone around.

Mr. Fox also has some repression going on, as he misses the thrill of stealing things from the people living near them. With a buddy, he decides to go out on one last expedition stealing goods from the town, and they get some really good produce and poultry from the farmers surrounding them.

They take Felicity’s nephew with them, which pisses Ash off even more in the process, and Felicity has no idea about any of this.

However, the farmers are aware of everything going on, and they decide to track down Mr. Fox and eliminate him for good. First, they hang out near his hole and shoot off of his tail, but when that fails, they decide to get rid of the tree. The foxes dig a tunnel to escape, but they now have no home.

There’s going to be a time they have to emerge from the tunnels, starved, the farmers decide to wait for that moment. Felicity is obviously very upset when she finds out why this is happening to them.

But, as it turns out, the other animals living in the neighborhood have also lost their homes. They dig the tunnels deeper to the farms, stealing everything the farmers hold beloved. When the farmers discover this, they flood the tunnels, and the animals find themselves in the sewers. Ash and the nephew end up at one of the farms, where they’re caught by a farmer’s wife.

Mr. Fox decides it’s time to surrender and retire his ways, but then one of the security guards, Rat, confronts him, Mr. Fox ends up killing Rat after he ends up inside of the generator. In the process, Mr. Fox learns where the kids are being held, and decides to make an entirely new mission to rescue them.

The farmers are asked to meet, under the guise of surrendering. The farmers distrust the animals and plan for something bigger, but the animals were smart enough to see this happening.

They end up attacking back, the kids are freed, and the animals tear up the one farmer’s fox tail. They then decide to live in the sewers with other animals, Mr. Fox clips his tail, and raids the farmers’ supermarket with the other animals.

Overall Thoughts

The animation and stop motion style of this movie is what drew me into it from the very beginning, and I was intrigued by it throughout the course of the movie. I’ve seen how he uses this style later in his filmography and career, but Fantastic Mr. Fox was a full blown expedition into this. I don’t think I could watch a ton of movies in this style, but I liked it overall in this one.

It’s also a really fun story, if we’re going to be honest. The thought of the animals rising up against the farmers is hilarious, but also something that makes you think about the impacts of what we’re doing on the environment. This is a movie that proposes this question: what if animals were just like us?

So by making the humans the antagonists, there’s quite a statement to be made. Anyways, watch this film if you haven’t already. It’s certainly a fun one at the end of the day.

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