Fantastic Mr. Fox is the newest stop-motion animation movie by Wes Anderson, based on the book by Roald Dahl, starring the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzmann, Michael Gambon, Owen Wilson, Jarvis Cocker and Willem Dafoe.
Plot:
Mr. Fox (George Clooney) is a great thief, but sometimes, he risks too much. When Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep) gets pregnant, he promises her that he would quit stealing.
A few years later, the Foxes move into a new tree, right across the three biggest and meanest farmers around, Boggis, Bunce and Bean (Michael Gambon). And Mr. Fox can’t help himself – he takes up the thieving again, bringing on problems not only for his family but for all the animals around him.
Even though the plot stayed basically the same as in the book, not much of Roald Dahl is left in the movie. Which in itself is not a bad thing (but a pity). Unfortunately, Anderson outwhimsied himself [(c) deadra] and just got way over the top with this film, at least for me.
While I didn’t like this film as much as I liked the other Anderson movies, I do think it’s kind of said that the movie didn’t even get a general release here in Austria. Instead there were two showings at the Viennese Film Museum and at least the one I was at was completely sold out, with people being turned away. So, I guess there was potential for a wider release.
Anyway, I had been looking forward to seeing this movie for quite a while. And I probably expected too much. But in any case, I left the movie and I was disappointed. There was just too much whimsy, for a lack of a better word, and too little of Dahl’s dark humour.
The movie looked absolutely great, though. I really loved the animation and the puppet design was fantastic. And the cast was wonderful, too. [Even though I never expected it with this cast to choose from, I actually had a clear favourite and it was not Meryl Streep but Jason Schwartzmann…]
There was one particular scene, though, that made me feel very uncomfortable. Mrs. Fox is very hurt by Mr. Fox breaking his promise. And she asks him why he would risk his life and the life of his family like he did, even though he promised that he wouldn’t. And Mr. Fox’s reply is that he couldn’t help it, he just is a wild animal. And letting a man say that line (even if it’s meant to be ironic because he actually is a wild animal) to excuse him hurting a woman/not taking responsibility – that just feeds into too many cultural narratives that were actually used to excuse men who raped and beat women to make me feel comfortable with this line.
Summarsing, there is much that can be enjoyed when watching this movie. But ultimately, it falls flat.
kalafudra's Stuff 
But that one line is almost the entire thesis of the movie, the struggle between the animal nature and the civilized, norm-based lives of men. So even though you say it’s just that one scene, maybe that subliminally influenced your opinion. Or something :) . He finally “chooses to be tamed”, though.
I didn’t think there was “too much whimsy” in the movie… but then I haven’t read the book, so I have nothing to compare it to.
I guess that most of the movie revolves around this thesis, and I was bothered by that the whole movie through, you’re right. But in this one scene, this one line, it just distills the theme into the whole “men are wild animals, women are tamed animals and women need to tame the men to make a joint existence possible” thing and there’s so much wrong with that worldview that it would deserve several blogposts on a blog that is dedicated to the desconstruction of cultural narratives.
You didn’t think that there was too much whimsy? Not even the whistling/clicking catchphrase of Mr. Fox? Because that’s totally what crossed the line for me.
You should read the book (it takes about half an hour to read). It’s not perfect, either, but it’s interesting how much Anderson could change the tone and the topic of the story, without really changing the plot. Makes for an interesting comparison.
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