This film based on Roald Dahl's children's story focuses on Mr. Fox, the fox who promises his wife faithfully that he will stay on the straight and narrow path. However, a fox does lose its hairs, but never its tricks. The evil farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean want to take their revenge after someone has broken into the house. Mr. Fox feels it's necessary not only for himself, but also for all the animals in the forest, to go to all ends to fend off the attacks.
Wes Anderson's first full-length feature in a tactile stop-motion animation technique has many similarities to previous work. However, you don't need to know this to enjoy the subversive, bizarre jokes, the colourful, charismatic characters, the deceptively simple yet playful metaphorical plot and the fantastic sets, which conjure up a unique universe in autumnal colours. The voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray and others complete the picture.
PROGRAMMER NOTES
A lot has been written - and many good things - about Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox. And many more approving texts will follow when the film is released - in Belgium in February, two months earlier than in the Netherlands. But for visitors to this Festival I am eager to point out the excellent texts by Kent Jones in the November/December issue of Film Comment (which you will have to buy), and the following link to an interview with the director, made by Dave Calhoun of Time Out, in which Anderson looks at the practical and technical aspects of making a feature about the person who is 12 inches tall: http://www.timeout.com/film/features/show-feature/8872/wes-anderson-interview.html
EH