The last memorable image from a Wes Anderson movie was at the conclusion of “The Darjeeling Limited,” with recently reunited, formerly estranged brothers Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson, and Jason Schwartzman tossing aside their father’s bag(gage), which of course in the Andersonsonian school of elegant whimsy was designed by Marc Jacobs and adorned with cartoon monkeys. It was a moment so on-the-nose that you wondered if the director, who had made a solid career out of the marriage of visual formalism with a sort of quiet surrealism (despite the occasionally spotty “The Life Aquatic”) had abandoned it all for blatant, lazy, easily parodied symbolism.
But maybe the end of ‘Darjeeling’ was actually the director letting go of his said impedimenta. He may not have left his hermetically sealed methodology behind for good, but he has allowed himself to do something a little looser, a little bit freer. What’s even more miraculous is that he accomplishes this while playing within the rigid confines of an animated film.
For his first animated enterprise, Wes Anderson has chosen “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” adapted by Anderson and “Life Aquatic” collaborator Noah Baumbach from the Roald Dahl book of the same name. Anderson and Dahl are, clearly, cut from the same impish cloth. The original “Fox” story was a simple one, and Anderson and his collaborators have fleshed out the characters and story.
A snappy and wry George Clooney voices the titular Mr. Fox, who in the opening sequence of the film is seen raiding a farm with his glamorous wife Felicity (Meryl Streep, regal as ever) to the tune of The Beach Boys’ “Heroes and Villains.” When the two are trapped in a giant steel cage, Felicity reveals that she’s pregnant. Mr. Fox concedes that he should leave his life of thievery behind, for the love of his family.
The movie then cuts to two years later, now with Mr. Fox’s young son Ash (Jason Schwartzman) a brooding, frustrated young cub, and Mr. Fox taking on the far less risky job of a newspaper columnist. Mr. Fox is still a wild animal, though, longing for excitement and adventure. So, against the wishes of his lawyer Badger (a wry Bill Murray), Mr. Fox buys a house in a giant tree. The only problem is that the tree is right on the outskirts of three farms, owned by the villainous Boggis, Bunce and Bean (“one fat, one short, one lean”) and that the temptation to indulge in his old ways gets the better of him. Soon enough, he’s creeping around with his inexplicable sidekick Kylie (a possum voiced by the show-stealing Wallace Wolodarsky, he played the alopecia-stricken assistant in ‘Darjeeling’ and is a long-time friend of Anderson’s) and his nimble, clever nephew Kristofferson (Eric Chase Anderson) who has come to stay with the Fox family and is the bane of the grumpy Ash’s existence.
Not only does Fox’s late-night prowling put his marriage and family in jeopardy, but once the farmers get wind of what’s going on and the chickens, apple cider and food they’re missing, they deliver an unexpected and furious reckoning (that’s mildly violent for kids standards and full of bloodthirsty vengeance), and the entire village of animals are forced underground as refugees. But you can’t keep that wily fox down, and he soon formulates a plan to get back at the farmers and give his family and friends a new life.
The story itself is fairly simple, if not slight, and it’s not going to dazzle you by any stretch of the imagination. What will, most likely, charm and enchant you is the look of the movie, achieved by the old-school method of stop motion animation, in a deliberately herky-jerky style that brings to mind the Rankin-Bass Christmas specials of the 1960s. It still retains the delicate look of Wes Anderson’s live action movies (what other animated film would feature characters with tiny, tailored suits?), with perfectly regulated tableaux-shot compositions and long lateral pans, but at the same time it feels like something new with more breathing room. It’s a little shaggier, a little more fun and, largely free of the thematic and emotional underpinnings of Wes Anderson’s earlier works (though of course the father and son issues are still there) and is able to glide along almost solely on its dense and lovely visuals and enjoyable wit.
And while this is incredibly liberating and a joy to watch (we can’t express that enough — there are even neat little title cards with the chapters of the book), it also leaves you wanting more. There is a very touching moment in which Felicity ponies up to the fact that marrying Mr. Fox, a rascal through and trough, maybe wasn’t the best idea. There are, of course, twinges of Anderson’s other obsessions (Ash’s attempts to reconnect with his father, a displaced family unit) but never are they indulged with any of the care or attention administered to the tiny, fur-covered characters and that’s for the best. The emotional beats are short and sweet and speak for themselves (no melancholy or self-important Nuggest-era rock song makes any spoonful weigh a ton).
The cast is absolutely wonderful don’t get us wrong there. As a character, Mr. Fox is kind of a selfish asshole. But with Clooney delivering the dialogue, he’s transformed into a roguish, vaguely heroic figure; a devlish maverick that aggravates, but you can’t help but love. Streep is just great, lending the movie its only emotional resonance, while Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, and Eric Chase Anderson all scamper about amiably. (Anderson recorded the dialogue with the actors running around outside on a Connecticut farm.) Michael Gambon, as farmer Bean (the mastermind of a standoff against the animals) and Willem Dafoe as a villainous rat, also seem to be having a lot of fun in their roles and bring the pieces of foam and cloth to life in a way just as important as any of the animators. Owen Wilson does a small turn as a school coach (the animal game “wackbat” which you might have seen in the trailers) and Adrien Brody is recruited for one line as a tiny field mouse.
Also, it should be noted that Anderson’s choice of songs for the soundtrack (which we’ve already gone into somewhat), are OK, but the twinkly, very-Mark Mothersbaugh score by “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’s” Alexandre Desplat is dynamite. Wes has found a new collaborator he should stick with. The score is incredibly memorable and the Ennio Morricone-theme for Willem Dafoe’s Rat character is, well… fantastic. The new song by Jarvis Cocker of Pulp though, is pretty much a throw-away song, sounding like it was written and recorded in two minutes.
While small and slight overall, through and through, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is Anderson’s most enjoyable film since “The Royal Tenenbaums;” it’s an admirable (and fantastically odd) little movie, one that feels vibrantly, essentially alive. It’s just that, for all its considerable charm, it also seems like a minor effort, light and airy. But if Anderson would continue to noodle around in this format, we wouldn’t hold it against him. At some 86-minutes, it’s also incredibly economic and to the point. Animation suits Anderson like a puppet wearing a tiny, finely tailored suit. [B] — Drew Taylor