Fantastic Mr Fox

October half term and what could be more indulgent, mid afternoon, than to slip into the comfort of a deeply plush cinema seat in the middle of Chelsea in pursuit of the much heralded ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’. Normally wary of the whimsical (and, happily, unfamiliar with the original Roald Dahl book that everyone holds such affection for) I was swayed by a glowing review that I’d heard on Radio 4’s ‘Film Programme’ www.bbc.co.uk. Besides, above all else, I was curious about all I’d read of Wes Anderson’s much lauded stop motion animation and all those famous voice overs. Besides,The ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’, I reassured my comp anion, would be fun.

The jolty, bristling look of stop-motion animation sounded so nostalgically appealing but in reality sometimes made me feel as if the projectionist was having problems, or I was sitting too near the screen. The set up of the story line soon felt suspiciously tedious and from the very outset I found it difficult to abandon myself to the moment and be carried by the film. All too quickly a sense of boredom began to lurk as I got the gist of where the story appeared to be going and I began to begrudge my precious cinema outing being wasted.

There is no doubt that this animation has been painstakingly made, over 30 animators worked for two year at 3 Mills Studios in London and it is technically brilliant. The voices are wonderful and full of rich character. (Though, in the end, George Clooney or not, I’d have preferred British lesser unknown actors adding vocal originality.) I felt repeatedly frustrated that I couldn’t ‘hold the moment’ and relish all the witty detail which is superb. The decor of Mr. Fox’s study, for instance, with the objects lying around it which, in tribute to Roald Dahl, recall Dahl’s real writing den.

I really wanted to engage with the characters but from start to finish they failed to hold my attention and if and when they did, such was the ‘caper’ quality of the storyline, that we weren’t allowed to linger with them for long. The rich and promising quality of their voices made me long for the them to be given a little more time to develop. They looked brilliant but just, for me, had no depth or warmth to their personalities and all too soon I found my mind drifting to thoughts of the 319 bus home and whether ‘Habitat’ might be open when we got out. (So much for complete cinema escapism.) Meantime, somewhere a few rows back there was alot of fidgetting and my heart went out to the poor children, some very small, who were clearly suffering too! I felt relieved that I wasn’t the only one finding it tiresome.

In particular I longed to find Mr Fox fantastic but he looked slightly weird (what fox wouldn’t!) up on his slighty creepy hindlegs. I didn’t mind the idea of him being sly, or mean, I wasn’t looking for Disney schmaltz but he didn’t win me over, nor his family, and at no point did I really empathise or care what happened to them. For all the technical brilliance I was left with an unsatisfactory sense of failure that I didn’t enjoy it. Especially when an afternoon ‘at the pictures’ is such a rare treat.

However, when the hype is all over and a cut price DVD becomes available, I might just watch again, making full use of the ‘pause’ button to savour the really beautiful way the autumnal leaves so endearingly scutter about certain scenes and to watch again as Mrs Fox’s eyes well up with tears – such sweet sad eyes – begging her husband not to return to a life of crime; to see her wonderful ‘fox’ cameo brooch and their son’s homemade sock mask and savour the characterful looks of Boggis, Bunce and Bean. But I’ll be making good use of the ‘fast forward’ button too, for sure.

Posted by Katie Barr-Sim 10 months ago in

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