Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Welcome to another addition of Animation Bang. Let’s talk about Wes Anderson. Known for his distinct and visual style when it comes to movies, Anderson spends most of his time making movies that focus mostly on fast-paced comedy with melancholic elements and themes that center around loss, grief, sibling rivalry, and unlikely friendships. Over the years, his movies have been overlooked but praised by fans, critics, and writers for being thought-provoking, creative, and even existing in their own self-contained world that you get pulled into. One of his most overlooked movies that comes to my mind is The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Based off the Roald Dahl’s children’s novel from the 70s, this was Anderson’s first dive into stop-motion animation. The movie was released in 2009 where it got mediocre reviews from fans and critics. While nobody said it was bad most audiences just didn’t get the message or theme of the movie. Over the years, people have come around to appreciate the movie with some even calling it an underrated classic with good characters and themes. I admit that when I first watched it I wasn’t really all that into it, so is this really an underrated classic that I didn’t get when I was younger? Well let’s find out. This is The Fantastic Mr. Fox.
So the movie starts with our main character Mr. Fox voiced by George Clooney (https://youtu.be/J_lmD3oCQAE?t=26), waiting by a tree for his girlfriend/future wife Felicity voiced by Meryl Steep. These two are bird thieves and spend most of their days sneaking into farms and stealing birds (like thieves in the night). While raiding a squab farm, Fox triggers a trap caging him and Felicity. Felicity drops the bomb that she’s pregnant and begs Fox to find a safer job when they escape. Fox reluctantly agrees to do so for the good of his family (and because if he doesn’t she’ll kick him in the groin). We fast forward 2 years later (or 12 years in fox time) where Fox is now a newspaper columnist and has a son named Ash voiced by Jason Schwartzman (who is just a bundle of laughs throughout this movie) who comes across as strange in the eyes of Fox (scene here: https://youtu.be/TYDA9-pA0hU, now one of the things I do like about this movie is despite the animals having some level of human intelligence and clearly being domesticated, they still have animal instincts. Such as Fox gouging on his food like a wild animal and Ash twitching his ear. It honestly reminds me of Yin-Yang and Yume whenever I toss a ball. (Yume): Oh please, we are sophisticated creatures. We can control our animal instincts. (Yin-Yang): Yeah! *Nitsuj tosses a shining ball which Yume and Yin-Yang chase after* (Yume): This means nothing~). Despite Fox’s new life which is safer, he feels unhappy and decides he wants to move his family from underground to inside a tree (an upgrade?). He goes to check out the tree and notices it’s neighbored by three farms which according to his lawyer Clive are owned by three mean farmers and urges Fox not to buy the tree (scene here: https://youtu.be/L4XjM097Tm8). Despite Clive’s warning, Fox ignores his advice, gets into a cuss off with him and settles on buying the tree (scene here: https://youtu.be/5l5JxFGevig, *laughs* another thing I like about this movie is they replace every swear word with the word cuss. It’s actually a good way to get pass the censors and fun to fill in the blanks on what they really want to say). So, Fox moves his family into the tree and just in time as Kristofferson aka Kris, his nephew from Felicity’s side of the family has come to stay with them as his father recovers from sickness. He’s voiced by Eric Anderson.
Now Kris and Ash’s relationship is one of the highlights of this movie as Kris just comes in and just steals all of Ash’s thunder (if he had any) and just can’t stand him. Despite being slightly younger than Ash, he’s bigger, better, faster, and just all-around better than Ash in every way possible (scene here: https://youtu.be/Ksev5GOpA40). But, the best part about his character is you really can’t hate the kid. It’s not like he’s going out of his way to upstage Ash at every turn, he’s just going through life trying to deal with his ill father, hoping for the best, and just trying to live a normal life. Ash isn’t a bad guy either. Let’s face it, at some point in our life we’ve had a family member or friend we were jealous of. At the end we’re not trying to be that person, we just want to be recognized for our talents as well. Ash doesn’t want to hurt Kris in anyway (as we see in this scene here when he tries to help Kris in his own little way. Scene here: https://youtu.be/vsF9jNE8F88), he just wants his dad’s approval and the approval of others. Anyway, despite moving into the tree Fox still feels unhappy with his life and decides he’s going to steal from each of the farmers with the help of his friend Kylie voiced by Wallace Wolodarsky (scenes here: https://youtu.be/glUwShkW-5g and https://youtu.be/mD9dpzvdKyo). The two set their plan into motion and hit Boggis’s farm where they bypass his dogs and escape with two chickens (scenes here: https://youtu.be/I7cFV_6NFm8 and https://youtu.be/Jp8WgRJBrwM). They hit Bunce’s farm the next night and that plan goes off without a hitch as Felicity starts to become suspicious with all the poultry in their kitchen. Meanwhile, Kris continues to be a pain in Ash’s cuss at school (scenes here: https://youtu.be/FhVA4NBWbC4 and https://youtu.be/HNPyZsPH8TI, even after all these years I still have no idea how to play whackbat. *Yin-Yang comes running back in with the ball* (Yin-Yang): I win! (Yume): You suck! *Nitsuj tosses the ball again and the girls go chasing after it*). Fox then hits up Bean’s apple cider barn where this time he gets Kris to help him out (bringing him into the family business). Once inside they run into Fox’s old acquaintance Rat who is serving as security. They manage to beat him, outsmart the Beans and escape with the cider (scene here: https://youtu.be/cfEh_yXbTGI).
The farmers finally have enough of Fox and decide to hunt him down. They find out where he lives, wait for him to emerge and take their shots at him. Even though they miss him, they managed to shoot off his tail (Naruto, lend him one of your tails. Scenes here: https://youtu.be/BfrToayKcLc and https://youtu.be/2b4gD8UVfJk). The farmers begin digging up around the tree as well as the forest to find Fox and kill him. Fox and his family dig underground to hide where they come across the other animals who aren’t happy and are mad as cuss at Fox (scene here: https://youtu.be/VuxjUxaawpg). In order to save everyone, Fox and other male animals dig their way into the farms to steal all of their birds and cider (scene here: https://youtu.be/W460QxYQgh4, I thought it was good). As everyone celebrates their victory, Ash and Kris sneak into Bean’s house in the hopes of stealing back Fox’s tail. The plan fails however, and Kris gets captured. Back with the other animals, they get washed into the sewers where they’re stuck, and Fox decides to hand himself over to save the others. Before leaving he does have a moment with Ash where he says he’s proud that he’s his son (even if he is a little different). Rat soon reappears to let everyone know where Kris is and tries to kidnap Ash only to get stopped by Fox who comes in to fight Rat once again and kill him (scene here: https://youtu.be/gRI1D3-Gz6w, I’m strangely going to miss this character. Out of all the characters he seemed like he was having the most fun). Fox rallies the animals together to save Kris and they attack the town (scene here: https://youtu.be/JFb0xS9_rOY). Fox, Kylie, and Ash head to Bean’s farm where they rescue Kris, but get pinned down by the farmers where Ash saves them and they escape (scene here: https://youtu.be/GP9pDt8W0xY). As they ride away we get possibly the best scene in the movie. They come across a wolf who unlike the other animals is all animal and it’s here that Fox realizes that as much as he would like to be a wild animal he never truly will be one and he’s okay with that now (scene here: https://youtu.be/V7wzXtpKsas). 3 days go by and the farmers are still waiting by the sewers waiting for Fox to come up for food as he can’t survive down there for long (or can he). Fox and Kylie find a way into a supermarket to get food for everyone, Felicity tells Fox she’s pregnant again, Fox gives a toast, and they dance to end the movie (scene here: https://youtu.be/LOELUjnwM4M).
Final Thoughts
This movie is a lot better than I remember it being. In fact, I think Anderson’s storytelling actually works a lot better with stop-motion then live action. The stop-motion is very good. Stop-motion was never really my thing, but it looks good here. The story and the characters work off each other excellently. Speaking of characters, the voice acting is really on point throughout the movie. Everybody manages to kill their roles here and bring the characters to life. I also liked the music in this movie. I was shocked, I didn’t think I was going to like the music for this movie, but they choose a lot of good songs and matched them up really well with the scenes. Like I said before I like how even though the animals have a level of human intelligence, they still have animal instincts and behave like animals at time. We get some good funny moments, some heartwarming moments, and even some deep and philosophical themes that can be interpreted in many ways as well as makes this movie worth watching again.
Final Score
The Fantastic Mr. Fox earns a fantastic 7.5/10. Is this movie an underrated classic? Yes, and definitely deserves to be watched if you get a chance. It’s a movie that really does get better the older you get.
*Yume comes running in with the ball and hands it back to Nitsuj*
(Yume): I won!
(Yin-Yang): You cheater! You used your eyes to trick me.
(Nitsuj): Alright, time for the tiebreaker.
*Nitsuj tosses the ball and the girls go running after it*
(Nitsuj): Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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