Kid movies made for grownups that can be appreciated by both kids and grownups: does it get any better? Wes Anderson's The Fantastic Mr. Fox was recommended to me by my niece and I had nothing to see yesterday evening so I figured I'd check it out. And much to my content surprise did I discover that not only is it the new Wes Anderson film, but it's also my favourite Wes Anderson film since Bottle Rocket. All the trademark Wes Anderson motifs are present: a family experiencing difficulty as they learn and grow together; a cunning, sly, and exceptional traditional patriarch frustrated by the routine trappings of domestic life; a dynamic cast of colourful characters each with their own endearing idiosyncrasies; and a complementary fantasy landscape full of robust depth and life, detail after detail, potentially as envisioned by novelist Roald Dahl. Mr. Fox (George Clooney) suffers a mid-life crisis and decides to once again engage in the act of thievery to overcome his troubled financial situation and regain a taste of the good life. In order to do this he must rob three affluent farmers, Boggis (Robin Hurlstone), Bunce (Hugo Guiness), and Bean (Michael Gambon), while hiding his clandestine nightly activities from the disapproving Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep). Bean proves to be a formidable adversary and sets out to hunt down the courageous Mr. Fox once and for all. And the only way Mr. Fox's forest community can survive in the aftermath is to objectively support his rash, subjective behaviour.
On the one hand, the film is saying "don't fuck around," for if you do, you're fucked, because the powers that be are going to squash your little rebellion and uproot your traditional order of things. But on the other, it states "give 'em hell," for that's what they do, and the resultant transformed world is accepted enthusiastically (eventually) by its inhabitants. Then again, said inhabitants only enthusiastically accept their newly transformed world because they had no other choice. But they accept it so well and are so happy within that it's tough to criticize Mr. Fox to severely.
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