Cinema Craze: Fantastic Mr. Fox (Anderson, 2009)
- Josh
- Oct 23, 2025
- 4 min read
Director: Wes Anderson
Producer: Allison Abbate, Scott Rudin, Wes Anderson & Jeremy Dawson
Writer: Wes Anderson & Noah Baumbauch
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Trailer 1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers
Maybe it was the autumn feel, or maybe it was my then-growing appreciation for stop-motion in general. But when I was in high school and scrolling through YouTube, I came across a certain Roald Dahl film adaptation from Wes Anderson (a director who, at that point, I wasn’t familiar with) called Fantastic Mr. Fox. Concerning the life of the titular fox, it follows him as he initially promises his pregnant wife to quit stealing from farmers for the sake of their family’s safety, only to fall back into his old thieving ways. However, in doing so, the riled-up farmers decide to take action by destroying the woods where Fox and the other residents live in the hopes of catching and killing him. So now, Fox must figure out a way to set things right in order to ensure the survival of his family and friends. Upon seeing it, I felt that Anderson did far more than just add to the long line of Dahl adaptations, which includes Mel Stuart’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Danny DeVito’s Matilda. He created not only my favorite of his films and one of the best stop-motion animated works ever made, but also one of the best animated films, period. How is that?
To start, Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach use Dahl’s original story as a kind of skeleton to expand upon. Given the source material’s nature as a children’s book and being less than a hundred pages long, its narrative is more akin to that of a fable than a fully fleshed-out story. So, with the film, the filmmakers develop the characters and worldbuilding in ways the author only hinted at but didn’t fully explore. This includes focusing on Fox’s relationship with his family, his midlife crisis, his longing for the thrill of stealing again, the consequences of his selfish actions, and his attempts to fix his mistakes. An example of this is found when Fox is in the process of buying a tree and is asked by the realtor what he does for a living as he looks at the farmers’ barns from across the distance. He responds in a tone indicating his longing for his thieving days, “I used to steal birds, but now I’m a newspaper man.” Helping to bring the characters and dialogue to life is the cast, consisting of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, and others. Recorded in an unorthodox way (being outdoors rather than in a studio), the result is a natural, spontaneous quality to the performances that balances warmth, wit, and emotional moments in an Andersonian kind of way. With changes and additions like these not found in Dahl’s book, the filmmakers pay homage to the source material while interpreting it in their unique way.
And with the screenplay comes the visual style and overall feel of the picture. For a director, making the leap from live-action filmmaking to animation and vice versa sounds like it can be a strange process. Being accustomed to one medium can make the other feel like being lost in uncharted territory. For Anderson, however, he translates his style seamlessly as if he had always done stop-motion, even though Fantastic Mr. Fox is his animation debut. For the film, the puppets and sets are crafted with attention to detail—from the clothing, the props, the landscapes, to even the way the fur on the characters constantly twitches. (Side note: it even inspired me, as a high school student, to get back into stop-motion with my LEGOs.) Also, much like with his collaborations with frequent cinematographer Robert Yeoman, Anderson and cinematographer Tristan Oliver employ symmetrical framing of shots, camera pans, and strong uses of color (in this case, yellows, oranges, and browns for an autumn feel). Helping to tie all these elements together is the music, both in the score and song choices. Alexandre Desplat’s work is both whimsical and rustic and is complemented by songs from bands like The Beach Boys, The Bobby Fuller Four, and others. The music never overshadows the story but instead complements it perfectly, such as with the opening, where we, the audience, meet the world and Fox himself for the first time. All these elements help give the film the off-kilter charm that defines Anderson’s work.
So, with Thanksgiving on the horizon, Fantastic Mr. Fox felt like an especially fitting film to revisit. Its gorgeous animation, direction, characters, and themes of family, gratitude, and finding contentment in what you have fit beautifully with the season, even if the film never explicitly mentions the holiday. In addition, its mixture of Anderson’s trademark visual style, deadpan humor, and storybook-esque feel to the whole production makes for a unique animated experience that can appeal to all ages. Children can find fun in its whimsical story and the characters that reside in its world, while adults can appreciate what the film is trying to say as well as the craft the cast and crew put into it. If you’re looking for a great piece of animation, something to get you in the mood for the season, or even looking for a place to start exploring Wes Anderson’s filmography, I highly recommend giving this one a watch. What else can I say? It’s simply fantastic.