A fox's tale of charm, wit and non-stop motion.

Rating: 8/10 (23 October 2009)

Roald Dahl (1916 - 1990) wrote some truly beautiful children's stories, for example: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach and Matilda (and who scripted films as You Only Live Twice (1967) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)), all made into film, and this too, now includes his 1970 creation "Fantastic Mr. Fox".
It is the story of one Mr. Fox and his wild-ways of hen heckling, turkey taking and cider sipping, nocturnal, instinctive adventures. Now married and with cub, he has to put his wild days behind him and do what fathers do best: be responsible. He is too rebellious, he is too wild and he is going to try "just one more raid" on the three nastiest, meanest and fox hating farmers that are Boggis (Brian Cox), Bunce (Hugo Guinness) and Bean (Michael Gambon).
The direction here is suburb, extremely humorous characters and personalities that project a warm, charismatic, optimistic adventure for all ages. There are chuckle-out-loud as there are certainly laugh-out-loud moments here, the close-ups of Mr. Fox's "grin" and his tiny friends "vacant staring eyes" are worth their weight in gold. This too, is a visually interesting film that has been done with a Nikon D3 35mm digital single-lens reflex camera and stop-motion techniques that give a wonderful cinema experience. It is a far away cry from the classic and golden days of Charles -Émile Reynaud (1844 - 1918), the pioneer of animated film, and Ray Harryhausen (b. 1920) et al, and it works a treat.
Okay, only Mr. Dahl's story, apparently, is used during what we can call the "middle section" of the film and with added new parts both front and rear, this may just explain why, with the final "toast" by Mr. Fox, there seems to be a serious note, or message, that concerns "survival". This may seem too pessimistic, too out of place for this narrative, this may be the director telling his audience the contemporary message, that it really is a dog-eat-dog world and that we have to do what needs to be done to "survive".
Take away the gloss, and all Mr. Fox is, and lives by, are his basic instincts to kill and steal in order to survive. A cynical, and possibly, a pessimistic approach, but I do believe that this may be the narratives undercurrent message here. Also, there seems to be a very "un-Englishness" feel about this film, from the very start we are delving into a high-octane cast, and soundtrack, that is all too obvious in its origins, yes, the farmers are from the other side of the pond, but it is not they who are the selling point. On the positive, this alone cannot distract from the charming, rich and freshness feel of Fantastic Mr. Fox, it is a breath of fresh air, literally, and it is also one more credit to the writing of one Mr. Fantastic Roald Dahl.