By Marie Straub
"
Boggis, Bunce and Bean
One fat, one short, one lean
These horrible crooks
So different in looks
Are nonetheless equally mean..."
A film-maker already has one foot in the door when their film starts with one of the best-known and most beloved limericks of all time. If they don’t deliver on said limerick, however, that door is going to hit them hard on the nose. The stakes are high when one takes on a classic like Roald Dahl’s, but as for Wes Anderson – his nose will remain intact following his triumph with
Fantastic Mr Fox. I, for one, would like to shake his hand.
It seems as though films for adults from children’s tales are the order of the day, with Anderson’s offering following hot on the heels of
Where The Wild Things Are – that
other furry tale for the older generation, from that other visionary director, Spike Jonze. Like Jonze, Anderson has created something stylistically unique from a famous children’s book with furry puppets part of the mix, but that’s where the similarities end. While Jonze was using human-sized puppets with actors inside them, Anderson reverted to old-school stop animation techniques to tell the story of the fox who out-foxes even the foxiest of characters. I probably don’t need to tell you the story, but just in case you were deprived as a child, and because there are a few changes for the film version, here is the rundown:
Mr Fox (voiced by George Clooney) is a reformed chicken-thief who has set aside his life of crime when he finds out that Mrs Fox (voiced by Meryl Streep) is pregnant. Two years (twelve fox years) later, he lives with his family in less-than-prosperous but safe circumstances. His son, Ash, is trying to figure out who he is in the world – which translates into a wardrobe of pants tucked into socks, with a towel as a cape. However, while Mrs Fox is content with being poor but happy, Mr Fox is feeling the full force of his mid-life crisis. He buys his family a home in a beech tree out of their price range, and in an area considered “most dangerous” for his species – meaning it overlooks the farms of Boggis, Bunce and Bean. This, as fans of the book will know, is where all the trouble will begin (see limerick above). It’s not long before Mr Fox is back to his thieving ways, but this time, it will put his family and the rest of the animal community at risk, as the farmers go on the offensive.
There are too many reasons for you to go and see this film for me to list them, but it is my job to convince you, so I’m going to give it a go. Not only is the film visually stunning, but the old-school feel of animation that Anderson has embraced makes it like nothing you have seen in a long time. Anderson is, as always, meticulous – never faltering from the autumnal colour palate and using every detail to tell the story. When Ash goes swimming with his visiting cousin Kristofferson, he is using a hotel towel to dry off, a reminder that Mr Fox will sneak more than just chickens if he gets the chance. While this film can be enjoyed by all ages, the wit is primarily adult. Your kids will love watching this fox get himself in and out of trouble, but the priceless look on his face when he finds out his wife is pregnant, moments after being caught in a fox trap, will slip straight over their heads and have you laughing into your popcorn. Anderson has made the animals uncannily human, down to their swearing – he got around the fact that this is a children’s story by using the word “cuss” as a “swear-word” in the animal world. What this means is that the film remains child-friendly in the real world while still allowing Mr Fox to “cuss with their heads” and reflect on a “cluster-cuss” – which is, incidentally, my new favourite non-swear word of choice. The result is that the animal characters read truthfully, and will reflect if not yourself, then people you know – the stakes seem somehow higher. Just to remind you that they are, in fact, animals, Anderson adds in requisite doses of wildness – watching Mr Fox devour his toast, for example, in between other extreme civilities, serves as a reminder of the wildness in all of us.
The cast includes the likes of Bill Murray (voicing Badger); Willem Dafoe (voicing the rat that guards Bean’s apple cider); and Jason Schwartzmann (voicing Ash) – not to mention the work of
Academy Award-winner, Adrien Brody and long-time Anderson collaborator, Owen Wilson in bit parts, the wealth of talent on display in this film is staggering. The music is as pitch-perfect as one could want a score to be, and my fingers will be crossed that Alexander Desplat takes the
Academy Award he has been nominated for. The only mystery is how Anderson and Noah Baumbach managed to miss-out on a nod for Best Adapted Screenplay, but that’s the Academy for you.
In short, it’s refreshing; it’s fantastic; it’s a must-watch. I give it four-and-a-half stars and suggest you get to the cussing cinema to see this movie.
Fantastic Mr Fox is on at Nu Metro cinemas from 12 February.
All pics: ©2009 TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.