Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Veteran chicken-stealer Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney) has been forced to a life of crime-free domesticity by his wife (voiced by Meryl Streep) as they raise their son. Their nephew is also staying with them. Eventually the Fox family move into a new house in a tree, however with a perfect view of the farms run by farmers Boggis, Bunce, and Bean (the latter voiced by Michael Gambon), temptation proves too much for Mr. Fox and he plots his latest scheme to raid the farms of their chickens, ducks, and even cider.

This 2009 adaptation of one of the first Roald Dahl books I ever read isn’t perfect, in fact I think the mostly American voice cast is completely wrong. However, so far as Wes Anderson (“Rushmore”, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”) films go, well this is the only one I’ve liked since his debut “Bottle Rocket”.

So that counts for something. What I love about this film is the use of stop-motion animation, which is completely charming. The film looks absolutely terrific, it’s probably one of the prettiest animated movies I’ve seen in the last couple of decades along with “Finding Nemo” and “Rango”. There’s even a nice use of shadow throughout, this must’ve been pretty pain-staking to have made. I also liked the music score by Alexandre Desplat (“The Ghost Writer”, “Godzilla”) . In terms of plot and character meanwhile, it’s a fairly easy watch and not remotely off-putting like I’ve found Anderson’s previous films to be in terms of tone. It’s not smugly quirky or heavy-handed for a change. It doesn’t feel 100% Roald Dahl to me, but at least there’s not too much Wes Anderson in it, either. It’s a really nice, cute movie with pretty likeable characters for the most part.

From memory, the book didn’t even have all that much plot, so it makes sense that Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach (writer-director of “Kicking and Screaming”) needed to deviate from the book from time to time, so that’s fine. The basic elements are still pretty much here as best as I remember (I was a kid. I’m old), especially in the first half. It’s also quite amusing at times, as you’d expect of a Dahl story. There’s a funny, if morbid bit where Kylie the opossum sidekick is instructed to eat a chicken in one bite, and an even funnier cameo by a knife-wielding rat security guard (voiced by Willem Dafoe). So there’s definitely some fun to be had here, and to be honest the closest the film gets to any Anderson touches would be the costuming, perhaps.

It’s not all sunshine and roses, however. In fact, one big thing holding this back from being even better is the voice casting, particularly the largely American voice cast. George Clooney and Meryl Streep are in my view absolutely, 100% wrong for Mr & Mrs. Fox. It’s always felt like a very English story to me, so casting Americans for the majority of the voices feels wrong to me, with even Bill Murray not entirely right as a badger. However, in the specific cases of Streep and particularly Clooney, they give very low-key, entirely flat line readings. They’re dull and lethargic, and as silly as it might sound, Clooney just doesn’t sound like a Mr. Fox to me for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on. It’s a shame that the three farmers are pretty much the only Brits in the cast, with Michael Gambon in particular being pitch-perfect. In other aspects I don’t feel Anderson has especially Americanised the thing, but certainly in terms of voice casting it does stand out like a sore thumb. Perhaps Anderson should’ve ventured even more outside his usual acting troupe and crossed the pond. I mean, the author and story are very British, the animation studio is English, so why hire so many Americans in the cast? Were Jude Law and Emily Watson busy?

A slight, but nice and cute film with wonderful stop-motion animation. A less Americanised voice cast might’ve helped make this one even better. A little bit more energy might’ve helped, too. It’s a tad low-key. Still, while I didn’t react so much for this film, for a Wes Anderson film at least I wasn’t reacting against it. It’s nice. I liked it. I just wished I liked it even more.

Rating: B-