Street Fighting Fox; this is pure Wes Anderson "melted gold"!

Rating: 10/10 (16 March 2012)

I'm writing this after watching FANTASTIC MR. FOX for the, at least, fifth time. Also after reading for the very first time the book by Roald Dalh (I read it at a public library last Thursday – it's very short so I finished it in like an hour – really nice stuff for sure). So I guess you already realized that I'm a huge fan of this movie (and that I will be making some references to the book), but I still want to say this: it's not only one of my favorites from the mighty Wes Anderson but just ever, without a damn doubt.
I refer Anderson as "mighty" just because I have yet not to LOVE one of his films. And I really admire the fact that none of his six feature films (his seventh, MOONRISE KINGDOM, will open the Cannes festival!) feels like a "minor work". They do share a lot with each other (just like, for instance, Woody Allen films), but so far Anderson has created six very memorable pieces and each one really stand out by its own. FANTASTIC MR. FOX was certainly the most interesting and strange project as it was Anderson making an animated picture.
And the animation, I must say, is simply stunning. It's stop motion paradise, actually. Take for instance that scene of the fight between the characters of Mr. Fox (voice of George Clooney!) and the Rat (an unrecognizable Willem Dafoe). It's simply a lesson on stop-motion; I hate the word (due to its overuse) but I'll have to use it for this: creativity. They did such great work full of creativity in scenes like that fight. I cherish that stuff a lot. The character design is also quite the thing! It made me feel like a kid again since each time I saw the movie I was like "I want the toys of all the characters!"
FANTASTIC MR. FOX is as stop-motion paradise as film adaptation paradise. Since the very beginning this is PURE Anderson. It never feels as something strange having chapter titles and stuff because we are used to that with Anderson; just think in his THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS for that. So it's always clear in the tone that this is a Wes Anderson film, and let's not forget that here we also have the Rolling Stones! One of my favorites: "Street Fighting Man"!
So with all of this one could think Roald Dahl's book share things with Anderson's bodywork. But now that I have read the book I know that this is also a lesson on how to make yours, in the best way possible, something previously released; this is film adaptation paradise, like I said. For instance, the book is for kids and none of Anderson's films are, not even this one. For the record, I borrowed my DVD of FANTASTIC MR. FOX to the seven or six-year-old nephew of my girlfriend, thinking he was going to enjoy it. He just said that it was "weird". And I really can't blame him. Actually, just put the word "wonderfully" before "weird" and you have exactly what this film is.
Anderson not only added things to the history from the book -a very simple and ironic story about foxes being smarter than some horrible humans- but also gave to the characters, with those additions, similarities with his very own characters. If Mr. Fox is like a superhero that everybody admires in the book, here there's much more going on around him. I remember thinking during my very first viewing in Clooney's very own character from O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU? while seeing the personality of Mr. Fox (then voice acting of Clooney is a real success), and I also recall the character Dignan from BOTTLE ROCKET thanks to him!
And a character that doesn't appear in the book, Mr. Fox's son Ash (voiced by Jason "Max Fischer himself" Schwartzman), is like the quintessential Wes Anderson character: a small fellow who suffers from being *different* (and who's jealous of his more athletic and attractive cousin Kristofferson – a complete new character as well). So I think, is what filmmakers must do when adapting a book or whatever: remain faithful to the main story but at the same time own the damn thing. Anderson's first adapted film is a true winner, and made of him a much richer filmmaker; it's simply pure "melted gold"!