Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox
was one of my favourite books as a child - probably the first book I read independently and certainly one that I read many times from cover to cover by torchlight before going to sleep - so I was genuinely excited by the prospect of a stop-motion animated version. The book itself is not substantial enough to fill 90 minutes, so it was obvious that the screenplay would have to expand on the original story and Wes Anderson’s transatlantic location enables him to retain the core Englishness of the book while adding enough US cultural/film references (high-school, heist-movie, westerns) to make it attractive to adults raised on Dahl’s original and their offspring raised on a diet of US tv shows and cinema.
was one of my favourite books as a child - probably the first book I read independently and certainly one that I read many times from cover to cover by torchlight before going to sleep - so I was genuinely excited by the prospect of a stop-motion animated version. The book itself is not substantial enough to fill 90 minutes, so it was obvious that the screenplay would have to expand on the original story and Wes Anderson’s transatlantic location enables him to retain the core Englishness of the book while adding enough US cultural/film references (high-school, heist-movie, westerns) to make it attractive to adults raised on Dahl’s original and their offspring raised on a diet of US tv shows and cinema.Fast-paced and with amazing attention to detail, this is definitely inspired by the book rather wedded to it – and none the worse for that. Eminently enjoyable while on the screen, this is not a film that lingers in the memory.
onewordreview :: diverting
