Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett

A crafty fox finds himself and his family targeted for death by the three dumb, plug-ugly farmers who tire of sharing their chickens with the critter.

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67% liked it

41,874 ratings

Critics

91% liked it

91 critics

PG, 1 hr. 27 min.

Directed by: Wes Anderson

Release Date: November 13, 2009

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Flixster Reviews (1,308)


  • November 15, 2009
    "I don't trust this guy. Anyway, set up the ambush!"

    Doubtless, a family film that appeals equally to children and grown-ups is probably not the easiest thing in the world to make. It has to be smart enough to amuse the adults without being so clever that it disenchants t...( read more)he kids. Having stumbled upon the winning formula with Toy Story, Pixar has been churning out exactly this kind of movie for the past fifteen years. Unfortunately, Wes Anderson does not strike the right balance here; his movie is much too clever for its own good and there simply isn't enough in it for the kids. I can't recall exactly what I was interested in seeing when I was seven or eight years old but it almost certainly it wasn't knife fights, ugly death scenes and foxes talking about existentialism! Fantastic? Not really. On the plus side, this is exquisitely animated, the voices are excellent and there are one or two surprisingly touching moments along the way. In particular, I thought the fox cubs mesmerised by the train set and the mystical late appearance of the wolf were beautifully done.
  • October 22, 2009
    There's a fondly remembered Steve Bell cartoon for the Guardian in which, over a couple of pitch black panels, the strains of the Beach Boys' 'I Get Around' mysteriously float up from the darkness - until the lights are suddenly switched on to reveal the punchline: a bunch of sin...( read more)ging sewer rats turd-surfing on an ocean of urine.

    This brilliantly horrible image springs to mind while watching Wes Anderson's adaptation of Fantastic Mr Fox, which also uses The Beach Boys song in a film about endangered wildlife, some rodent-shaped. If we tell you that the soundtrack also features 'Heroes and Villains', 'Ol' Man River', and 'The Ballad Of Davy Crockett', and that the film has been voice cast almost exclusively with American actors, you might begin to appreciate how far this one's strayed from its leafy Buckinghamshire origins.

    Up to this point, Dahl has been unusually well served by Hollywood, from Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (both flavours), to The Witches, Matilda and Henry 'Coraline' Selick's James And The Giant Peach; a rare misstep being Quentin Tarantino's segment of Four Rooms, adapted from 'Man From The South', an original Dahl screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

    It's nigh unheard of, then, for controversy to attach itself to a Roald Dahl project, but during the lead up to this release, reports emerged suggesting Anderson and the crew hadn't seen eye to eye ? literally: Anderson choosing to 'direct by email' from Paris while his animators toiled away for two years at east London's Three Mills Studios. "I think he's a little sociopathic" DoP Tristan Oliver told the press. "I think he's a little OCD. Contact with people disturbs him." While director of animation Mark Gustafson added, "He has made our lives miserable. I probably shouldn't say that." In Anderson's defence, this writer spent the early noughties working in Bromley-by-Bow, where Three Mills is situated, and frankly can't fault him in the least for wanting to steer clear of the place.

    Moreover, in the absence of Anderson's corporeal presence, these grumpy animators have actually produced some sweetly nuanced stuff, filled with well-crafted little details and homages, such as Mr Fox's study being a meticulous recreation in miniature of Mr Dahl's garden hut, and the urbane Mr Fox, like the director, being quite the snappy dresser. While Mrs Fox, voiced by Meryl Streep, is indeed most foxy. "You're as fine looking as a crème brulee" leers Farmer Bean's sole security detail, Rat (Willem Dafoe), a finger-popping, flickknife-wielding Dennis-Hopper-with-a-tail from some 1950s B-picture. "Am I being flirted with by a psychotic rat?" is the wry response.

    Suspiciously wry, some might say. If we reveal this film also features a Buddhist-chanting, yoga-practicing fox cub called Kristofferson, the least welcome new addition to a Roald Dahl story - or a canine family since Scrappy Doo; assorted critters who talk like American co-ed hipsters; laconic musings on existentialism; and lines like "You really are a kind of quote unquote fantastic fox", then alarm bells might just start taking your eardrums apart, piece by jagged piece.

    Watching this, we're reminded of the game in which you pair entirely unsuitable directors with other people's films: think 'Eli Roth's The Full Monty', 'Sam Peckinpah's Bambi', or 'Neil LaBute's The Wicker Man.' (Can you imagine how embarrassing that might be for everyone if the latter were actually made? Ah.)

    This is a Wes Anderson joint first and foremost, with Dahl - and indeed Britain and Britishness - running an extremely poor second. Naturally, only those nasty old farmers have British voices, c/o Michael Gambon and Brian Cox, while even that most English of icons, Jarvis Cocker, contributes a forgettable bluegrass-style number. Turning AA Milne's creations into baffled little rednecks was bad enough. But dear old Foxy?

    In the big scheme of things, this shouldn't really matter - but somehow it does. It jars tremendously. The counter-argument runs that story always wins out; that story crosses genre and geographical boundaries. Which would be fine if Anderson had bothered to even slightly subjugate his singular style in its service. If Dahl is all about the story, Anderson's films are all about the attitude. Again, fine. But you'd hardly turn The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore or The Darjeeling Limited into bedtime stories for your children. Not unless you were feeling particularly sadistic.

    It's also a stretch to imagine today's kids responding positively to the deliberately retro stop-animation, an earthier European-style familiar to elder generations, but which might seem abrasive to those suckled on Dreamworks and Pixar. By tying thousands of helium balloons to it, the latter has also raised the bar for family films to vertiginous heights. It's hard to see how Anderson's film, with its bafflingly charmless leading fox, could garner as much goodwill as Up, except among those who still think it's incredibly big and clever to subvert family fare with some tiresomely idiosyncratic shtick.

    The best children's stories find magic in the trash. They seek to elevate the everyday. In their droll, archly detached way, Anderson and his co-writer Noah Baumbach seek to reduce. When all's said and done, Mr Fox acknowledges that he's just a "wild animal". Felicity Fox says that, although she loves him, "I shouldn't have married you". Bean's cider-craving Rat may have ultimately redeemed himself, but in the end "he's just another dead rat in a garbage pail behind a Chinese restaurant." Way to go, Wes and Noah. Hope that babysitting gig works out for you.

    Honestly, this really isn't some kind of Transatlantic stand-off on our part. But how much longer are we expected to stand impotently by while Hollywood arrogantly Americanises our every British children's icon, from Winnie the Pooh to Peter Pan? Who's next - Paddington Bear? (Yes, we know he's technically South American, but you get the drift). Clearly, it's time to fight back, starting with an all-new adaptation of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Starring Ant and Dec.
  • November 14, 2009
    If this film had come out when I was a little kid, I probably would have watched it a few dozen times by now. Anderson's style melds very well with Dahl's story and characters. I really liked the "old school" stop-motion in this film (although the stuff Selick does is amazing...( read more)). You can really feel the hand-made quality of it. Another thing I enjoyed was it didn't feel so sanitized for kids the way many children's films have become. Character's smoke (gasp!), steal, and (sort of) curse, so it's more of a throwback to Bugs Bunny type sensibilities than the PC stuff that comes out today. Clooney, Schwartzman, and Gambon are perfectly cast. And Anderson and Noah Baumbach But mainly, it was just plain fun to watch and had a lot of laughs...
  • November 4, 2009
    I'm not sure if Rohald Dahl would like the over americanism of his quintissential English tale, but i think he would of liked Gambon in his role.
    It's a shame it's been so long since i read the book as i can't fully remember how it actually unfolded, but on the whole it was a dec...( read more)ent retelling of the classic tale, even though some parts felt rushed and others were rather muddled, it just about made it to the finish line.
    The animation however was top draw (pun intended) and some of the scenes were just fantastic.

    This maybe a PG but it certainly isn't a kids film, apart from the fact the're talking animals, nothing else will really appeal to anyone under the age of 10, well it seemed that way in my screening as kids were fidgeting after about 15 minutes.....

    Definately an improvement on the cinematic abortion that was Darjheeling Limited.
  • October 24, 2009
    It takes a special type of director to fuck up a Dahl-based stop-motion. Very few directors could do it. Wes Anderson is one of them. He's taken the much-loved story and characters and made it into another shitty Wes Anderson movie with those irritating photoframe edits, the usua...( read more)l family melodrama, and crap music. Granted, it has moments of charm but I'm putting those down to Dahl and the medium.
  • November 20, 2009
    fantastic! really enjoyed it :)
  • November 19, 2009
    how is this not on anyone i knows radar?! improper grammar and mother flippin' all!
  • November 18, 2009
    Good simple animations whitch makes it differant. I've always like this book when i was a little girl.
  • November 18, 2009
    took godson to see this. He really enjoyed it but it was different from the book and i thought it was ok.
  • November 17, 2009

Critic Reviews


November 13, 2009
Claudia Puig, USA Today

These weirdly effective shifts in tempo, combined with an attention to detail and distinctive dialogue, make for the best moments in this offbeat adventure. full review

November 13, 2009
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

Life is full of surprises. The best one I've had in a good while is Fantastic Mr. Fox. full review

November 13, 2009
A.O. Scott, The New York Times

Fantastic Mr. Fox, which Mr. Anderson wrote with Noah Baumbach, and which he has been hoping to make for many years, is in some ways his most fully realized and satisfying film. full review

November 12, 2009
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

An adventure in pure imagination that plays to the smart kid in all of us. full review

November 12, 2009
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

Fantastic Mr. Fox is possibly the finest picture about family, community and poultry thievery ever made. full review

November 11, 2009
Armond White, The New York Press

Fantastic Mr. Fox renews one's sense of animation's possibilities. full review

November 11, 2009
Marcy Dermansky, About.com

Cinema-candy for grown-ups. I left the screening room thinking, I want to see this movie again. full review

November 9, 2009
Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

Anderson prizes the funny over the profound to an extent that keeps the proceedings a tad too light and jovial to register as anything more than a lightweight aside to his more acute, earnest work. full review

November 9, 2009
David Edelstein, New York Magazine

The additions are okay; but it's the look that keeps you buoyed up, your eyes roaming the frames, laughing in surprise at the visual jokes and flourishes and textures. It's a dandy's movie, but that a... full review

October 16, 2009
Pete Hammond, Boxoffice Magazine

Fantastic Mr. Fox is indeed fantastic in every way. full review

View more Fantastic Mr. Fox reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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