The film adaptation of author Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox demonstrates the current state of animated films, which just may be at its peak.  Although the animation arena certainly has its fair share of talented directors and some, like John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton, could easily be in the conversation about our best modern directors, few to none of the top-notch live-action film directors have made the move to animation.  With Fox, director Wes Anderson makes the move that just may be the beginning of a trend.

Anderson and his co-screenwriter Noah Baumbach have created a new beginning and end and placed them around Dahl’s story of a humanistic fox who unites his family and friends of all different species to go on the offensive against the three neighboring farmers: Boggis, Bunce, and Bean.  The opening has the thieving Mr. Fox forced to reevaluate his life and find a safer career now that a little fox is on the way.  Years later, however, he has a bit of a midlife crisis and devises a plan to return to his old thieving ways.  The plan works fine for a bit, but once he robs Mr. Bean of his famous cider, he finds himself up against a man who will stop at nothing short of vengeance.

As a result, Mr. Fox finds himself and his friends and family trapped under the ground, with no food.  To make matters worse, in an attempt to impress his father, Ash Fox manages to get his popular cousin in danger.  It’s okay, though, as Mr. Fox has himself another master plan.

The big question I had going into the film was how Wes Anderson was going to bring his signature style to an animated children’s story.  His style is arguably the most distinct and recognizable of filmmakers working today, having basically redefined the word “quirky” with films like The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and Rushmore.  My question was answered within seconds of the lights dimming.  From frame one through the end credits, there is never a doubt that this is a Wes Anderson film.  It’s the way he frames his characters, the detail and colors of his sets, and how he often chooses to shoot action using long tracking shots as if he were viewing a cross-section of whatever the location.

Still, while making the film his own and inventing some new material, Anderson does not fail to keep in mind that he is making a film based on a children’s story.  Although this will probably be different than anything they’ve ever seen, I think kids could really gravitate to this.  Like most of the best of recent animation hits—such as anything from Pixar—Fox has enough accessible humor and silly action to keep the tots interested, while providing characters and a story that will keep adults happy as well.  Anderson even manages to get some language into the film, by having his characters actually use the word “cuss” as a substitute for, well, cuss words.

I saw this exactly a week after seeing Robert Zemeckis’s A Christmas Carol and it is interesting to compare the two as far as their animation processes.  Whereas Zemeckis (another popular live-action director who made the move to animation) attempts to pioneer a new form of animation, Anderson chose to use one of the oldest techniques in the book, stop-motion.  Although an argument could be made that Zemeckis’ technique creates more realistic-looking characters, the characters in Fox seem more alive.  While watching something like A Christmas Carol, I find myself wondering why they are attempting to digitally create completely life-like humans instead of using actual humans; when I watch a movie like Fox, I just naturally get sucked into the world that is presented to me.  I even love the small details, like the movement of the character’s fur or blades of grass.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is just a fun, enjoyable, and fascinating movie in terms of both its style and substance.  While certainly providing the stylistic flourishes his fans expect of his films, Anderson still manages to create his most accessible film.  The trend of live-action directors making the move to animation will continue next year when none other than Steven Spielberg releases his first animated effort.  Here’s hoping it’s half as fun as this.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is rated PG for “action, smoking and slang humor.”  The PG rating seems appropriate, but be advised that there’s also some suggestion of language, but the word “cuss” is substituted for every, well, cuss word. 

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of Fantastic Mr. Fox.