By Katelan Cunningham

I had high expectations for “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” It has high credentials: A Wes Anderson stop motion film starring George Clooney, Meryl Streep and Jason Schwartzman. It has to be good right? No, it is better than good; one might even say fantastic.

This stop-motion masterpiece is adapted from a book by Roald Dahl with the same title. The storybook, nostalgic animation, from the composition of the shots to the consistently warm color palette is carefully planned and effortless on screen—reminiscent of all of Anderson’s work. Of course, the script was not overlooked either. Wes Anderson wrote the script with Noah Baumbach (a
writer of “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” and “The Squid and the Whale”).

Mr. Fox (Clooney) swears to his wife (Streep) that with the upcoming birth of his first cub (Schwartzman), he will give up his dangerous occupation as a bird thief and lead a respectable suit-and-tie life. But, Mr. Fox has a sense of adventure and a reputation to live up to. He later plans to take on the three meanest farmers of the land to live the life of wealth and excitement he feels he deserves.

Each of the characters adapted for the screen have heart beyond their celebrity voices. Unlike the characters of “Shark Tale” and “Kung Fu Panda,” the characters of this film aren’t animated versions of the celebrities behind them.

Every line is timed flawlessly and the humor is delightfully subtle, but leaves you roaring. The audience in the theater was small and mostly people of the R-rated age. This film certainly applied some adult humor by showing some real marital bickering between Mr. and Mrs. Fox and inserting “cuss” where someone might say a curse word. Unfortunately, the use of cuss seems a bit too forward at times, and with this, the film occasionally comes close to sacrificing its innocence.

With the recently revamped children’s books hitting the big screen with different animation styles (“Where the Wild Things Are” and “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”), one might wonder if Anderson fell into a fad. That’s up to the viewer, but the heartfelt character in this film and the cinematography make you feel like you’re being read the pages by Dahl himself. The title cards of places and elapsed time (in people and fox units of time) especially lend to the storybook theme.

There are no Billboard hits on the soundtrack. There is no need for 3D glasses. Like any Wes Anderson film, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is gorgeous and witty, but not without a moral: be different, play to your strengths and embrace the wild animal inside.

Contact Katelan Cunningham

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