Guys, if you haven't seen The Fantastic Mr. Fox, you've really let us all down. It's easily this year's best film (as far as I've seen), but people just aren't going to see it and it's a shame. So, next time you go to the theater, don't go see 2012 or Old Dogs or A Christmas Carol or Planet 51 or New Moon or any of the other terribly-reviewed films in theaters. Go see Mr. Fox, take the kids, take the neighbors kids, and take Summer and I because we'd love to see it again.
Fantastic Mr. Fox is based on the short children's novel by Roald Dahl, who also wrote many books you're probably more familiar with as movies: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The Witches. Summer and I listened to it on audio book a while ago, and while it's certainly compelling, I was a bit disappointed—and wondering how such a short book could even have enough material to adapt into a movie. Well, this is one of those rare examples where the movie is actually better than the book. Director Wes Anderson expands the world of Mr. Fox in a way that's true to the book when it follows the plot, and is true to Dahl's style when the movie goes beyond the plot—a clever appropriation of part of Danny, The Champion of the World is a good example. Anderson also realizes the world in his own unique style, with which you'll instantly be familiar if you've seen any of his 5 outstanding past films. The characters are a little eccentric and the situations a bit quirky, but underlying it all there's a real story with real emotion.
The way I interpret the film is like this: it's not just about wild animals wondering why they don't fit into a human world. It's about us, as humans, feeling that this moment in history is somehow not what we were made for. It's the feeling that we came from somewhere else and belong somewhere else, and that our modern existence—where we live in small boxes we call houses and apartments, eat heavily processed foods, and rarely get out into nature—is a farce, a construction, maybe an illusion. In any case, it's not who we really are; we long for something more. As Yoda put it, "Luminous beings are we; not this crude matter." And yet, as is so transcendentally expressed in Fantastic Mr. Fox's final scenes in the grocery store and the sewer, we find a way to make this crude existence work. We adapt, and we love, and we build communities together. It's beautiful.
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2 comments:
I also loved this movie. Are you saying that Fantastic Mr. Fox points out the simulation and simulacra in our lives? Perhaps Mr. Baudrillard would have something to say about that.
I was talking with a friend about the movie, and she noticed that it's part of this trend of adults appropriating children's media. But I think kids can enjoy FMF as well.
Yeah, looking at Baudrillard seems to be similar to how I was looking at it—and it could be insightful into all of Wes Anderson's movies, come to think of it. But, you know, having one word for it sorta takes all the fun out of it.
Also, I don't see why adults shouldn't make children's media for themselves also—adults have always been the ones making children's media in the first place, and you can tell when they're just going through the motion. The Pixar directors have always had the philosophy to just make movies that they'd want to see, and I'd say that's working pretty well.
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