The hero of Wes Anderson’s animated film Fantastic Mr Fox gazes into his wife’s eyes. ‘I’m just dying to tell you the truth about myself,’ he says, apologising for the trouble he’s caused. ‘I’m a wild animal.’ That this ‘wild animal’ tends to dress in an immaculately tailored double-breasted tan corduroy suit and shares the suave delivery of George Clooney will be no surprise to fans of Anderson’s work, in which an immaculately tailored deadpan tone is often used to depict the playfully ludicrous.
Adapted from Roald Dahl’s classic children’s tale, Fantastic Mr Fox tells the story of the relentless human persecution Mr Fox brings down upon his family when, bored of his quiet life as a local newspaper columnist, he answers the call of the wild. With the help of his visiting nephew Kristofferson, enigmatic son Ash and sidekick vole Kylie, Mr Fox raids the storehouses of Boggis, Bunce and Bean, three farmers who pride themselves on their superlative chickens, smoked meat, cider – and security systems.
Stop-motion animation first appeared in Anderson’s work in 2004’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, for which Henry Selick produced a number of brief, witty touches of underwater life (a sea horse in a champagne glass and various fantastical fish). In conversation, Anderson happily expands on the technical possibilities it creates: ‘Animation allows a certain kind of blocking of scenes that I like. You can have someone enter sideways if it’s animated. The puppet is on a stand and he’s actually entering the shot sideways or upside down directly, or exiting in the foreground and re-entering deep in the background all in one. Things like that appeal to me.’
Equally, the need to create an entire world from scratch, right down to the finest detail, was something that suited Anderson. ‘It requires that you manufacture anything you think of, so when you say, “What would be funny is such-and-such a detail,” that thing has to be made,’ he explains. ‘Then you can say: “It can look exactly like this, and it would be nice if printed across it is that and it should have a lightning bolt on it.” Someone’s going to make everything, so everything’s an opportunity to add detail. You get to manufacture your own skies… I’ve rarely had that opportunity in movies.’
The result is an autumnal world teeming with exquisitely realised details, such as the bristle of genuine hair on each fox model, all captured with Nikon D3 digital cameras, whose resolution exceeds High Definition. Some touches may go unnoticed by the audience: Mr Fox’s study, for example, minutely replicates objects and decor from Roald Dahl’s own writing den at his home in the Buckinghamshire village of Great Missenden. Anderson and his screenwriting partner Noah Baumbach (better known as writer-director of 2005’s The Squid and the Whale) even stayed in the Dahl house as they worked on the screenplay, while Dahl’s widow pointed out local features that the author was thinking of when he wrote the original.
In his determination to bottle elusive but authentic atmospheres, Anderson even went to the trouble of recording his cast outside or inside, according to the scene’s setting. In the end the cast – featuring Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray and Michael Gambon, as well as George Clooney – were recorded ‘in every conceivable sort of setting,’ says Anderson: ‘in an apartment in New York, in a recording studio in France, outdoors next to a lake in Italy and all over the world.’ It’s the kind of quixotic effort that feels entirely appropriate to the painstaking process of stop-motion animation, a technique which might yield a mere three seconds of footage on a productive day.
While Anderson went to extraordinary lengths to reproduce the rural idyll in which Dahl set the book, accents were one significant, if inevitable, change. ‘I think Noah and I are funnier if we’re just trying to keep it American,’ he argues. ‘For us it’s a bit of a stunt to try to write for British voices, so we decided that the animals can have American accents – I don’t feel that’s a violation of any particular reality, since animals don’t have accents of any kind. We just give the humans British accents.’
But Anderson and Baumbach were also intrigued by adapting the author as much as the text. ‘The character of Mr Fox is inspired by the book, but it’s equally based on Dahl himself,’ he explains. ‘When Noah and I were writing, we were considering him to be Roald Dahl as a fox.’ Anderson’s previous films Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic all feature seriously flawed father figures, and here Mr Fox’s casual negligence of his son Ash becomes an important plot point. Does this create a certain continuity? ‘Sometimes I think, This is too similar to something I’ve already done,’ Anderson admits. ‘But sometimes I just want to do it anyway. I think, I don’t care, it’s the best thing for the movie.’
Anderson insists he put all thoughts of audience from his mind while making Mr Fox. ‘But I certainly thought of it in the context of children’s movies that I still like to watch,’ he says. ‘The two that I particularly love are Watership Down [1978] and The Plague Dogs [1982]. Plague Dogs is more disturbing, and I think was less seen, but it’s very good. It has the most awful ending.’ Both films were animations directed by Martin Rosen and adapted from Richard Adams novels. Fantastic Mr Fox ends on a vision that is as happy as Plague Dogs’ is hopeless.
Returning to these films fostered a determination to be true to a certain kind of wildness. ‘One of the farmers, a villain, smokes cigarettes,’ Anderson explains. ‘The amount of static you get about having a puppet smoking a cigarette which is in fact not even a real cigarette – people don’t want smoking in a kids’ film. Any kind of violence is highly dubious… It’s a bit of a struggle. I did want to make a movie where we wouldn’t ask parents what we ought to do differently and change it for them – that is how I think it’s done these days.’
For all its poise and finish, from Mr Fox’s sartorial choices to the Rothko-referencing skies and clouds, Anderson’s film remains true to its hero’s inextinguishable hankering to be wild. In its final moments it even pulls off an enigmatic encounter with a wolf – something many directors might have excised as a non sequitur. But Anderson is clear about the moment’s importance. ‘It became the whole theme of the movie,’ he says. ‘It wasn’t that we planned that it should be. As we wrote it, we thought, “This is what the movie’s about!” The movie should be allowed to be a bit of a wild animal and not be too… domesticated.’
Sam Davies, Sight and Sound, November 2009
FANTASTIC MR FOX
Directed by: Wes Anderson
©: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, Indian Paintbrush, Monarchy Enterprises S.a.r.l.
an American Empirical picture
Presented by: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
In association with: Indian Paintbrush, Regency Enterprises
Executive Producers: Steven Rales, Arnon Milchan
Produced by: Allison Abbate, Scott Rudin, Wes Anderson, Jeremy Dawson
Co-producer: Molly Cooper
Line Producer: Simon Quinn
Production Manager: Charlotte Owen
Production Supervisor: Fred De Bradeny
Production Co-ordinator: Jules Collings
Accountant: Jeffrey Broom
Post-production Supervisor: Jeannine Berger
Production Consultant: Susan Blanchard
1st Assistant Director: Kev Harwood
2nd Assistant Directors: Ben Barrowman, Dan Pascall
Continuity: Claire Watson
Written for the screen by: Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach
Based on the book by: Roald Dahl
Lead Storyboard Artist Story Department: Christian De Vita
Story Co-ordinator: Zoe Radford
Director of Photography: Tristan Oliver
Practical Lighting Specialist: Gary Welch
Lighting Camera: Toby Howell, Graham Pettit, James Lewis, Jeremy Hogg
Gaffer: Toby Farrar
Visual Effects Supervisor: Tim Ledbury
Compositing Supervisor: Rupert Davies
Visual Effects Producer: Liz Chan
CG Supervisor: Nic Birmingham
Visual Effects Editor: Daryl Jordan
Additional Visual Effects by: LipSync Post
Animation Director: Mark Gustafson
Animation Supervisor: Mark Waring
Key Animators: Jason Stalman, Kim Keukeleire, Dan Alderson, Brian Hansen, Brad Schiff, Anthony Farquhar-Smith, Andy Biddle, Will Hodge, Chuck Duke, Jens Gulliksen, Tobias Fouracre, Payton Curtis, Malcolm Lamont, Jeff Riley, Pete Dodd, Chris Tichbourne, Trey Thomas
2D Animator: Ray Lewis
Motion Control Supervisor: Andy Bowman
Head Motion Control Operator: Bobby Logan
Motion Control Operator: Christophe Leignel
Supervising Editor: Andrew Weisblum
Editors: Ralph Foster, Stephen Perkins
Editorial Co-ordinator: Zoe Radford
Production Designer: Nelson Lowry
Design Consultant: Alex McDowell
Art Director: Francesca Maxwell
Lead Character Designer: Felicie Haymoz
Character Designers: Victor Georgiev, Huy Vu
Art Department Supervisor: Roddy MacDonald
Art Department Co-ordinator: Mark Woollard
Environment Designers: Chris Appelhans, Alan Case, Turlo Griffin, Todd van Hulzen, Andy Roper
Mrs Fox’s Paintings by: Turlo Griffin
Puppets Fabricated by: MacKinnon & Saunders
Puppet Fabrication Supervisor: Andy Gent
Puppet/Art Department Co-ordinator: Melissa Rogers
Puppet Wrangler: Richard Lake
Titles by: Look! Effects Inc
Music Composed/Conducted by: Alexandre Desplat
Music Performed by: Traffic Quintet (Dominique Lemonnier, Christophe Morin, Philippe Noharet, Anne Vilette, Estelle Vilotte)
Mandolin Soloist: Alison Stephens
Celeste Soloist: Dave Arch
Banjo/Ukulele/Guitar/Mandolin Soloist: John Parricelli
Guitar Soloist: Mitch Dalton
Guitars/Banjo/Mandolin Soloist: Nigel Woodhouse
Jew’s Harp/Spoons Soloist: Paul Clarvis
Toy Percussions Soloist: Paul Clarvis
Trumpet/Piccolo Trumpet Soloist: Maurice Murphy
Piccolo, Recorder Soloist: Helen Keen
Keyboard Percussions Soloist: Frank Ricotti
Drum Kit Soloist: Ralph Salmins
Timpani Soloist: Tristan Fry
Recorder Soloists: Piers Adams, Jill Kemp, Annabel Knight
Double Bass Soloist: Chris Laurence
Boy’s Choir: The London Oratory School Schola
Choirmaster: Lee Ward
Solo Boy Vocalist: Felix Wareing
Location Sound Recordists: Noah Timan, Stuart Wilson
Re-recording Mixers: Sven Taits, Steve Browell
Re-recording Engineers: Paul Jarvis, Mike King, Jeff Dalmaine, Joe Maher
Supervising Sound Editors: David Evans, Jacob Ribicoff
Sound Effects Editors: Andy Kennedy, Stefan Henrix, Steve Browell, Brian Emrich
Voice cast
George Clooney (Mr Fox)
Meryl Streep (Mrs Felicity Fox)
Jason Schwartzman (Ash)
Bill Murray (badger)
Wally Wolodarsky (Kylie)
Eric Anderson (Kristofferson)
Michael Gambon (Franklin Bean)
Willem Dafoe (rat)
Owen Wilson (Coach Skip)
Jarvis Cocker (Petey performing ‘Petey’s Song’)
Wes Anderson (weasel)
Karen Duffy (Linda Otter)
Robin Hurlstone (Walter Boggis)
Hugo Guinness (Nathan Bunce)
Helen McCrory (Mrs Bean)
Roman Coppola (squirrel contractor)
Juman Malouf (Agnes)
Jeremy Dawson (beaver’s son)
Garth Jennings (Bean’s son)
Brian Cox (Action 12 reporter)
Tristan Oliver (explosives man)
James Hamilton (mole)
Steven Rales (beaver)
Rob Hersov (pilot)
Jennifer Furches (Dr Badger)
Allison Abbate (rabbit’s ex-girlfriend)
Molly Cooper (rabbit girl)
Adrien Brody (field mouse)
Mario Batali (rabbit)
Martin Ballard (fire chief)
USA 2009
86 mins
Digital
STOP MOTION: CELEBRATING HANDMADE ANIMATION ON THE BIG SCREEN
Fantastic Mr Fox
Thu 1 Aug 12:30; Fri 2 Aug 20:30; Sun 25 Aug 16:15
The Tale of the Fox Le Roman de Renard
Fri 2 Aug 18:15; Tue 13 Aug 20:30
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas
Sat 3 Aug 14:00; Thu 29 Aug 20:50
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
Sat 3 Aug 15:50; Sun 25 Aug 14:30 BFI IMAX; Fri 30 Aug 18:20
Frankenweenie
Sat 3 Aug 18:00; Sun 11 Aug 14:30 BFI IMAX; Fri 30 Aug 20:30
Jason and the Argonauts
Sun 4 Aug 12:10 (+ intro by Alan Friswell, conserver and restorer of Ray Harryhausen’s models); Wed 14 Aug 18:00
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
Sun 4 Aug 14:50 (+ intro by Alan Friswell, conserver and restorer of Ray Harryhausen’s models); Wed 14 Aug 20:30
Chicken Run
Sun 4 Aug 13:00; Sat 24 Aug 11:40
The Emperor’s Nightingale Císaruv slavík
Sun 4 Aug 20:30; Tue 13 Aug 18:20
ParaNorman
Mon 5 Aug 12:20; Thu 15 Aug 12:10; Wed 28 Aug 12:20
The Boxtrolls
Tue 6 Aug 12:20; Mon 12 Aug 14:10; Sat 17 Aug 12:00
Journey to the Beginning of Time Cesta do praveku
Tue 6 Aug 20:30; Thu 22 Aug 18:30
Isle of Dogs
Wed 7 Aug 12:10; Sat 10 Aug 20:30; Sun 25 Aug 18:30
Kubo and the Two Strings
Thu 8 Aug 12:20; Sat 10 Aug 18:15 (+ Q&A with Travis Knight, director and President & CEO of LAIKA); Fri 30 Aug 12:20
Missing Link
Fri 9 Aug 12:30; Mon 26 Aug 15:20
Coraline
Fri 16 Aug 12:30; Sat 17 Aug 15:30; Wed 21 Aug 12:15; Thu 22 Aug 14:20
Stop-Motion Shorts Scene – BFI Backed + Q&A
Fri 16 Aug 18:10
Funday: Stop-Motion Children’s Favourites
Sun 18 Aug 12:20
Stopmotion + Q&A with director Robert Morgan
Wed 21 Aug 20:40
Aardman Shorts
Sat 24 Aug 14:30
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Tue 27 Aug 20:40
LAIKA: Frame x Frame
Embark on a journey behind the scenes of LAIKA, one of the world’s foremost pioneers in stop-motion animation. This immersive new exhibition will transport you into the boundary-pushing art and science behind every one of the nearly one million meticulously constructed frames that bring each of LAIKA’s five groundbreaking feature films to life.
Opens Mon 12 Aug
Thanks to Jez Stewart, BFI National Archive
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Programme notes and credits compiled by Sight and Sound and the BFI Documentation Unit
Notes may be edited or abridged
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