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Fantastic Mr. Fox
Official poster
Directed by	Wes Anderson
Produced by	Wes Anderson Scott Rudin Allison Abbate Steven M. Rales
Written by	Wes Anderson Noah Baumbach (screenplay) Roald Dahl (book)
Starring	George Clooney Meryl Streep Jason Schwartzman Bill Murray Michael Gambon Jarvis Cocker Owen Wilson Willem Dafoe Helen McCrory
Music by	Alexandre Desplat
Cinematography	Tristan Oliver
Editing by	Andrew Weisblum
Studio	20th Century Fox Animation Indian Paintbrush Regency Enterprises American Empirical Pictures
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	14 October 2009 (2009-10-14) (London) 02009-10-23 23 October 2009 (United Kingdom) 02009-11-13 13 November 2009 (United States)
Running time	87 minutes
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$40 million[1]
Gross revenue	$41,059,069[1]

Fantastic Mr. Fox is a 2009 stop-motion animated film based on the Roald Dahl children's novel of the same name. Released in the autumn of 2009, it was produced by Regency Enterprises and Indian Paintbrush, and features the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, and Bill Murray. It is the first animated film directed by Wes Anderson, and the first stop-motion animated film to be distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Development on the project began in 2004 as collaboration between Anderson and Henry Selick (who worked with Anderson on the 2004 film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) under Revolution Studios. In 2006 Revolution folded, Selick left to direct Coraline, and work on the film moved to 20th Century Fox. Production began in London in 2007.

Plot

While raiding a squab farm, Mr. Fox (George Clooney) and his wife Felicity (Meryl Streep) trigger a fox trap and become caged. Felicity reveals to Fox that she is pregnant and pleads with him to find a safer job should they escape.

Two years later, the Foxes and their sullen son Ash (Jason Schwartzman), are living in a hole. Fox, now a newspaper columnist, decides to move the family into a better home and buys one in the base of a tree, ignoring the warnings of his lawyer Badger (Bill Murray). The tree is located very close to the enormous facilities run by farmers Walter Boggis, Nathan Bunce, and Franklin Bean (Michael Gambon). Soon after the Foxes move in, Felicity's nephew Kristofferson (Eric Chase Anderson) comes to live with them, as his father has become very ill. Ash finds this situation intolerable considering his soft-spoken cousin is apparently superior to him in every possible aspect and seemingly everyone, including his own father, is charmed by Kristofferson at Ash's expense.

Fox and the opossum building superintendent, Kylie (Wallace Wolodarsky), make plans to steal various types of produce and poultry from the three farms, one by one. After all three heists are a success, the farmers decide to camp out near the Fox family's tree and kill Fox. When he emerges, the farmers open fire, only managing to shoot off his tail before he retreats back into his home. The farmers then attempt to dig Fox out, first by hand and then with three excavators. After tearing the hill site of the tree into a massive crater, the farmers discover that the Foxes have dug an escape tunnel deep underground.

Reasoning that the Foxes will eventually have to surface in search of food and water, the farmers lie in wait at the tunnel mouth. Underground, Fox encounters Badger and many of the other local animal residents whose homes have also been destroyed. As the animals begin to fear starvation, Fox leads a digging expedition to the three nearby farms, robbing them clean of Boggis' chickens, Bunce's ducks and geese, and Bean's turkeys, apples, and alcoholic cider. While the other animals feast, Ash and Kristofferson, beginning to reconcile after Kristofferson defended his cousin from a bully, return to Bean's farm, intending to reclaim Fox's tail, only to find that Bean has taken to wearing it as a necktie. When they are interrupted by the arrival of Bean's wife, Ash escapes but Kristofferson is captured.

After discovering that Fox has stolen all of their produce, the farmers decide to flood the animals' tunnel network by pumping it full of cider. The animals are forced to retreat into the sewers, and Fox learns that the farmers plan to use Kristofferson as bait to lure him into an ambush. They are soon confronted by Rat (Willem Dafoe), Bean's security guard. After a struggle with Fox that leaves him mortally wounded, Rat divulges Kristofferson's location.

Fox sends a message to the farmers, asking for a meeting in a town near the sewer hub wherein he will surrender in exchange for Kristofferson's freedom. The farmers set up an ambush, but Fox and the others anticipate it and launch a counterattack. Fox, Ash, and Kylie escape the scene at the town and slip into Bean’s farm. In the operation, a much matured Ash frees Kristofferson and later deeply impresses his father and the gang by braving enemy fire to release a rabid beagle loose to keep the farmers at bay while the group escapes back to the sewers. Meanwhile, Ash and Kristofferson have completely settled their differences and have become good friends, sharing meditation time together among other activities.

Though the animals are still trapped in the sewers, Fox leads them to a drain opening that is built into the floor of a large supermarket, which unbeknownst to them (but known to the viewing audience) is owned by the three farmers. Celebrating their abundant new food source and the news that Felicity is pregnant again, the animals dance in the aisles.

Cast

• George Clooney as Mr. Fox^[2]
• Meryl Streep^[3] as Mrs. Felicity Fox^[4] (Cate Blanchett was prearranged to voice Mrs. Fox but she left the role for undisclosed reasons)^[5]
• Jason Schwartzman^[2] as Ash Fox
• Eric Chase Anderson as Kristofferson Silverfox
• Wallace Wolodarsky as Kylie Sven Opossum
• Bill Murray as Clive Badger^[6]
• Willem Dafoe as Rat
• Owen Wilson as Coach Skip
• Michael Gambon as Franklin Bean
• Robin Hurlstone as Walter Boggis
• Hugo Guinness as Nathan Bunce
• Helen McCrory as Mrs. Bean
• Jarvis Cocker as Petey

Production

Joe Roth and Revolution Studios bought the film rights to Fantastic Mr Fox in 2004. Wes Anderson signed on as director with Henry Selick, who worked with Anderson on The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, as animation director. Anderson stated that he signed on because Roald Dahl was one of his heroes.^[7] In adapting the novel, the story the novel covers would amount to the second act of the film. Anderson added new scenes to serve for the film's beginning and end.^[8] The new scenes precede Mr. Fox's plan to steal from the three farmers and follow the farmers' bulldozing of the hill, beginning with the flooding of the tunnel. Selick left the project to work on the Neil Gaiman story Coraline in early 2006.^[9] Mark Gustafson is his replacement.^[10] 20th Century Fox became the project's home in October 2006 after Revolution folded.^[11]

In September 2007, Anderson announced voice work would begin.^[2] The director chose to record the voices outside rather than in a studio: "We went out in a forest, [..] went in an attic, [and] went in a stable. We went underground for some things. There was a great spontaneity in the recordings because of that."^[10] He said of the production design, "We want to use real trees and real sand, but it's all miniature."^[2] Great Missenden, where Roald Dahl lived, has a major influence on the film's look.^[7] The film mixes several forms of animation but consists primarily of stop motion.^[11] Animation took place in London,^[10] on stage C at 3 Mills Studio^[12], with Anderson directing the crew, many of whom animated Tim Burton's Corpse Bride.^[13] Selick, who kept in contact with Anderson, said the director would act out scenes while in Paris and send them to the animators via iPhone.^[14]

Fantastic Mr. Fox is Regency Enterprises' first completely animated film.

Soundtrack

Fantastic Mr. Fox
Soundtrack by various artists
Released	November 3, 2009
Genre	Film score Rock
Length	43:41
Label	ABKCO
Professional reviews
Allmusic link
Wes Anderson film soundtrack chronology
The Darjeeling Limited (2007) Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

The score for the film was composed by Alexandre Desplat. Jarvis Cocker commented that he wrote "three, four" songs for the film, one of which was included on the soundtrack.^[15] The soundtrack also contains a selection of songs by The Beach Boys, The Bobby Fuller Four, Burl Ives, Georges Delerue, The Rolling Stones, and other artists.

A soundtrack album for the film was released on November 3, 2009. It contains the following tracks:^[16]

Release

The film had its world premiere as the opening film of the 53rd edition of the London Film Festival on October 14, 2009.^[17] It went on general UK release on October 23, 2009, distributed by 20th Century Fox. A limited US release of the film began on November 13, 2009, followed by a nationwide release on November 25, 2009. As of January 28, 2010 the film has made $20,226,767 in the United States.

The DVD release is planned for March 23, 2010.^[18]

Reception

Fantastic Mr. Fox has received positive reviews from critics,^[19] with the film currently having a 93% 'Certified Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 190 reviews, becoming the second highest-rated animation film in 2009 in the site, behind Up.^[20] Also, it has an 83 "universal acclaim" average review score from review aggregator Metacritic, which includes positive reviews from publications such as Rolling Stone and The New York Times.^[21]

Awards

The film was nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score at the 82nd Academy Awards but lost both to Up. The film has been nominated for the 2010 Critics Choice Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Animated Feature.^[22] The film was also nominated for The 2010 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film^[23], but lost to Up.

On January 14, 2010, the National Board of Review awarded Anderson a Special Filmmaking Achievement award^[24]. After giving his acceptance speech, the audio of the speech was used in a short animation of Anderson's character (Weasel) giving the speech, animated by Payton Curtis, a key stop-motion animator on the film.^[25]

References

External links

• Official website
• Fantastic Mr. Fox at the Internet Movie Database
• Fantastic Mr. Fox at Rotten Tomatoes
• Fantastic Mr. Fox at Allmovie
• George Clooney, Bill Murray and Wes Anderson Interview for Fantastic Mr. Fox