THE MOVIE PAGES presents MERYL STREEP & GEORGE CLOONEY in FANTASTIC MR FOX fantasticmrfox.htm

What Do The Critics Say?

"With its clever visual jokes and sassy dialogue, Anderson's first foray into animation doesn't seem to be made entirely with children in mind. Maybe that's why it seems so perfect for them."
Rafer Guzman NEWSDAY
"A great film with wonderful voice performances by the entire cast. You have got to see it."
Paul Chambers CNN RADIO
"Heartfelt, never less than pretty, and occasionally effulgent."
Fernando F Croce CINEPASSION
"Despite looking like a children's movie, I don't think kids would like it very much."
Karina Montgomery CINERINA
"Fantastic Mr. Fox is (waves hands around face) different. In a good way. In a great way, actually."
SEACOAST NEWSPAPERS
"Deserves a prominent spot in the run for this year's best-animated feature Oscar."
John Wirt ADVOCATE
Cheeky, original, funny, satisfyingly silly and even a bit profound, Fantastic Mr Fox, like Where the Wild Things Are, is a quirky delight for children and the child hopefully still residing in every adult."
Brandon Fibbs BRANDON FIBBS

"The film has a renegade attitude but is also clearly respectful of the purpose of children's stories: to entertain, to teach, to imagine, and it's a joy to experience."
Mark Dujsik MARK REVIEWS MOVIES
"Witty, quirky, individual: the result is just possibly the most pure fun you'll have at a movie all year."
Ken Hanke MOUNTAIN XPRESS
"Every kid probably won't get "Fantastic Mr. Fox." But then again, not every adult gets a Wes Anderson movie."
Rob Thomas CAPITAL TIMES
"Children, especially, will find things they don't understand, and things that scare them. Excellent."
Roger Ebert CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
"Wes Anderson can tell a tale, and now he has proved a family can appreciate him as well."
Jeff Bayer THE SCORECARD REVIEW
"Anderson's liveliest and most appealing movie...every shot filled with precise and intricate detail."
Nell Minow BELIEFNET
"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."
A.O. Scott NEW YORK TIMES

The Inside Story First published in 1970 by Alfred Knopf in the US and George Allen & Unwin in the UK, with illustrations by Donald Chaffin, Roald Dahl’s beloved book "Fantastic Mr Fox" has enchanted and delighted generations of children and their parents alike for almost fourty years. Now, thanks to the bittersweet, wryly funny vision of award winning filmmaker Wes Anderson and the magic of stop-motion animation, Dahl’s darkly humorous tale of the noble, charming and fantastic Mr Fox is set to enthrall and delight an even wider audience. Dual 1999 Lone Star Film & Television Award winner Anderson (Best Director & Best Screenplay for "Rushmore") first read Dahl’s "Fantastic Mr Fox" as a child growing up in Houston, Texas and was captivated by it. "It was not only the first Roald Dahl book I ever read, it was the first book I ever owned," he says. "I loved the character of Mr Fox, this sort of heroic and slightly vain animal. And I also loved the digging. My brothers and I were obsessed with being underground and with tunnels and forts. He’s a wonderful writer and his personality comes through in the writing so forcefully." Although Roald Dahl died in 1990, his work remains as influential and popular as ever, with many of his celebrated children’s books having been adapted for the big screen, among them "Charlie And The Chocolate Factory" (which was the source of both the 1972 feature, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", and the 2005 film starring Johnny Depp), "James And The Giant Peach", "Matilda", and "The Witches", with several others in various stages of development. Anderson optioned the movie rights to "Fantastic Mr Fox" from Dahl’s widow Felicity Dahl, who runs the late author’s literary estate. "My film agent in Los Angeles approached me nine years ago, saying, 'I’ve had an enquiry from somebody called Wes Anderson, who wants to make a film of Fantastic Mr Fox'. In my ignorance, I hadn’t heard of Wes Anderson then and he’d just made "Rushmore" and "Bottle Rocket". Michael sent me the videos and I looked at them and I thought, this guy has got talent. He was very young then and it wasn’t until about three years later that we met in New York. He asked me to have lunch with him. He took me to a very posh restaurant and he was sitting, waiting for me when I walked in, and he stood up and he immediately looked like Mr Fox, beautifully dressed, immaculate. She remembers asking, "Gosh, Wes, what are we doing here?" And he replied: "the cheese soufflé’s fantastic." "He was in the middle of getting "The Royal Tenebaums" together and we chatted," Dahl's widow said. Her immediate thought was: "This is the guy to make this film." Before he began work on the script, Anderson visited Gipsy House, the Dahl family’s estate in Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire, England, where the late author famously worked in a writing hut in the garden. "He came to Gipsy House and we spent a very wet muddy day walking all over the hills, the woods, the dales, everywhere and we had good fun," Dahl says. "I went to Gipsy House in March, and it was drenched in mud," Anderson said. "Liccy gave me a pair of rubber boots and one of Dahl's old fishing hats and took me around the property." During the visit, Anderson asked Dahl if he and his frequent writing partner, Noah Baumbach ("The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" & "The Squid and the Whale"), could come and stay at Gipsy House to write the script. "I think I’ll feel the atmosphere and everything much better," Anderson said. "I said, I’d be delighted," Dahl recalls. "So a few months later he and Noah moved into our spare bedrooms in the annex and stayed here for two weeks and they wrote the screenplay."

"I think he felt inspired by being there," says 2000 BAFTA Children's Award winning producer Allison Abbate ("The Iron Giant") of Anderson’s time at Gipsy House, "and if you ever go there, it is very inspiring. Just the legacy of Roald Dahl, the writing hut, and the countryside around it, were a huge part of the vision for how to create this film. There are lots of fun bits within the movie that are based on that area and their house." Dahl agrees. "Gipsy House influenced him enormously. I think he felt close to Roald here, and we have all the archives of every book Roald wrote." "Dahl was a very interesting man with many colors," notes Anderson. While Anderson and Baumbach retained the core of the tale, they expanded the story to include not only new scenes, but new characters. "His adaptation is pretty organic to the story," Abbate insists. "And the new characters feel organic, too." "It’s not so much a beat for beat adaptation as it is an adaptation through the mind of a different writer," says producer Jeremy Dawson ("The Darjeeling Limited"). "That being said, almost any line that is in the book, of a character speaking, pretty much ends up in our story. We even tried to use Dahl’s chapter headings." In Roald Dahl’s 1970 story, Mr Fox has four unnamed cubs. "They’re just sort of referred to, essentially," says Anderson who, together with Baumbach, decided to reduce that number to one. And so Mr. Fox now has a son called Ash, a geeky misfit and comic book obsessive who doesn’t relate to his father. "It’s a family dynamic, or, more accurately, a dysfunctional family dynamic that we can recognize from Anderson’s previous films. The story and the way it unfolds, the way he composes a shot and paces a sequence; they are all very Wes Anderson," Abbate notes. One quintessential Anderson addition to the story is whack-bat, an entirely new sport that’s an amalgam of cricket, rounders and baseball and which is played by Ash and his cousin. "People were liking the kids characters," Dawson states. "We thought, let’s try and expand them a little bit, add a few more scenes where the kids are not with the family, and Wes came up with this. Once he’d written the scene, we retroactively decided what the game would look like and how we’d play it." First seen in Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton’s 1898 film "The Humpty Dumpty Circus", stop-motion animation is one of the oldest forms of special effects, and the meticulous, labor-intensive process hasn’t changed much since its introduction more than a century ago. "I've always loved stop-motion," says Anderson. "One of the things Wes likes about stop-motion is that there’s a magic to it," says Dawson. "He likes that it's handmade, and there’s a craft to it." Anderson’s biggest inspiration was Russian stop-motion pioneer Ladislas Starevich’s 1941 feature "Le Roman De Renard" (The Tale Of The Fox), which used puppets made from real animal skins, and which had the handmade quality he was after, as well as a crude, 'herky-jerky' style of animation. "Wes was definitely not looking for a super-polished thing," notes 1999 Annie Award winning animation director Mark Gustafson ("The PJs"). Although Anderson and Baumbach’s script retained the book’s English countryside setting and its English farmers, all the animal characters are American. At the very least they’re voiced by American actors. "No one knows what accent an animal would have if it talked and animals have nationalities," Abbate explained. "We started with George Clooney as Mr Fox and that kind of set the rule to keep them all consistent." Anderson only ever had one actor in mind when it came to the crafty, sly and decidedly roguish antihero Mr Fox: George Clooney.

"George seemed like a natural choice," Anderson stated, "because we needed somebody who was going to be a hero, and I think he is that automatically. I’ve wanted to work with him for a long time. So we sent him the script, and he said he’d do it." "George was born to play this part. He’s the right combination of Cary Grant and Clark Gable," Abbate adds. "He’s got the debonair, gentlemanly quality of Grant as well as the animalistic, sexy side. I really believe he could steal some chickens." As Mr Fox’s pragmatic, artistic and resolutely faithful wife Felicity, Anderson cast two-time Oscar® winner Meryl Streep ("Kramer vs Kramer" & "Sophie's Choice"). "When else am I going to be Mrs George Clooney?" laughs Streep of accepting the role. "There is no better actress and she completely brought to life a character," says Anderson. "She was an amazing choice," says Abbate. "She’s the moral center of the movie in many ways. She can be strong, she can be funny, and she is definitely wifely. She stands by her man and helps him get out of scrapes. She’s got a great relationship with Mr Fox. She keeps him honest." "She’s the one person he can’t lie to," muses two time Independent Spirit Award winner Bill Murray (1999 for "Rushmore" & 2004 for "Lost in Translation" ), who voices Mr Fox’s lawyer Badger. "I mean, he can sort of try to deceive her but she knows who he is. She is sort of a magical creature." Murray originally wanted to give his character a Wisconsin accent. Why? "Because the badger is the mascot of the University of Wisconsin and it’s badger country." But Anderson had a different take. He wanted Badger as sort of, a Saville Row-lawyer. "Bill Murray took a part that was originally very small and made it something really funny," Abbate says. "He has so much personality he anchors the movie right from the very start." Filling out the rest of the voice cast were many who had worked with Anderson before, and who form part of his unofficial company of actors. "Wes likes to use a lot of his friends and family," Abbate revealed. "Jeremy’s the voice of the Beaver’s son. His live action prop master is the Mole." Anderson’s younger brother, Eric, who worked as an illustrator on the film, was enlisted to play Ash’s cousin Kristofferson. "I think he is really a revelation," says Murray of Eric Anderson. As Franklin Bean, the meanest and most ruthless of the three farmers, Anderson cast acclaimed British actor and four time BAFTA TV Award winner (1987, 2000, '01 & '02) Michael Gambon. "I think Michael is perfect casting for Mr Bean," says Murray. "You don’t really see that dark side of Michael much, although he’s got a lot of power." In his film, Director Anderson plays Weasel, the real estate agent who sells Mr Fox the beech tree at the beginning. When it comes to the look of his films, Anderson takes a complete hands-on approach to art direction and design; the result is amazing, inimitable confections of meticulously crafted nostalgia and intricate set dressing. Inspiration, it seems, can strike him anywhere, anytime. The look of one background farm worker was based on a 17th century oil painting Anderson saw in a restaurant in Germany. "We were on the way to Prague and Wes saw a painting in the back," Dawson recalls. "We took pictures and that was the inspiration for the design of Earl Malloy." "Wes is very reference-based," notes production designer Nelson Lowry (Tim Burton's "Corpse Bride"). He found Anderson’s method a refreshing change of pace. "It’s the opposite of what you’re usually faced with, a director who doesn’t know what they want. Wes knows what he wants. He knows what spoon he wants. Or if he doesn’t, he knows what spoon he doesn’t want." Synopsis

Mr and Mrs Fox live an idyllic home life with their son Ash and visiting young nephew Kristofferson. But after twelve years of quiet domesticity, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr Fox’s wild animal instincts. The purchase of a new home, close to local chicken farms, tests his ability to stay 'straight'. Before long, the 'Fantastic' Mr Fox is up to his old tricks: sneaking into the farms and stealing chickens. Now, not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community is under siege. Before you can pluck a chook, the chicken farmers have retaliated. Banding together, they finally have Mr Fox where they want him. Trapped underground without enough food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil Farmers : Boggis, Bunce and Bean, who are determined to capture the audacious, Mr Fox at any cost. Mr fox must use his natural instincts if he's to save his family and friends.

The Verdict "The big question everyone wants answered is, 'will the kids love it?' The best advice I can give is that "Fantastic Mr Fox" is very aligned to adults and that the majority of youngsters will find this a little bit to old for them and that much of the dialogue will go over their head. I sat in with a cinema packed with adults who had brought kids. Let me note: the young viewers were restless and fidgeted throughout much of the screening. I'm sure there's some junior cinemagoers who will love it, but that doesn't mean they took notice of what the characters were saying. Wes Anderson (think "Rushmore" 1998, "The Royal Tenenbaums" 2001 & "The Darjeeling Limited" 2007) presents audiences with an imaginative interpretation: one that truly impressed Roald Dahl's widow, Felicity 'Liccy' Dahl. "Fantastic Mr Fox" is a very colorful, eye-catching experience and one that deserves to be praised. In many ways, the Mr Fox character, 'is' the George Clooney of the animal world. He's colorful, talented and for the opposite sex, a real head-turner. Streep, who will next be seen in "It's Complicated", and who provides the voice of Mrs Fox, is the ideal foil for Clooney's character. The two quickly convince that as a couple, their characters not only compliment each other, they also ooze chemistry. With an invigorating, humorous storyline and an excellent voice cast, "Fantastic Mr Fox" is definately good fare and good value for adults. Highly recommended. 4 STARS." Who's Voice Is That?

George Clooney
Meryl Streep
Jason Schwartzman
Bill Murray
Wally Wolodarsky
Eric Anderson
Michael Gambon
Helen McCrory
Willem Dafoe
Owen Wilson
Jarvis Cocker
Wes Anderson
Karen Duffy
Robin Hurlstone
Hugo Guinness
Roman Coppola
Juman Malouf
Jeremy Dawson
Garth Jennings
Brian Cox
Tristan Oliver
James Hamilton
Steven M. Rales
Rob Hersov
Jennifer Furches
Allison Abbate
Molly Cooper
Adrien Brody
Mario Batali
Martin Ballard

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Mr Fox
Mrs Fox
Ash
Badger
Kylie
Kristofferson
Franklin Bean
Mrs Bean
Rat
Coach Skip
Petey
Weasel
Linda Otter
Walter Boggis
Nathan Bunce
Squirrel Contractor
Agnes
Beaver's Son
Bean's Son
Action 12 Reporter
Explosives Man
Mole
Beaver
Pilot
Dr Badger
Rabbit's Ex-girlfriend
Rabbit Girl
Field Mouse
Rabbit
Fire Chief

The Crew

Director
Adapted from the
Screenplay
Producers
Original Music
Cinematography
Supervising editor
Production Designer

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Wes Anderson
novel by Roald Dahl
Wes Anderson & Noah Baumbach
Allison Abbate/Wes Anderson/Jeremy Dawson/Scott Rudin
Alexandre Desplat
Tristan Oliver
Andrew Weisblum
Nelson Lowry