Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
★★½ — Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Roald Dahl's 1970 children's novel Fantastic Mr. Fox has been a staple of primary school bookshelves for generations, so when Wes Anderson announced he was adapting it for the screen, the response from film enthusiasts was, to put it mildly, rather excited. The film arrived in 2009, produced through a collaboration between Regency Enterprises, Indian Paintbrush, and Anderson's own American Empirical Pictures, and it came packaged with the kind of critical goodwill that tends to follow Anderson wherever he goes. Running at a trim 87 minutes, it tells the story of Mr. Fox, a reformed chicken thief who can't quite resist one last job against the trio of villainous farmers who surround his home. What followed was a plan, a heist of sorts, and the considerable fallout that comes with poking that particular bear (or rather, those particular farmers).
Anderson chose to shoot the film in stop-motion animation, a technique that suits his notoriously controlled visual sensibility rather well. Every frame is arranged with the kind of precision that his live-action work, including The Grand Budapest Hotel, regularly displays. It was a notable departure from the glossy computer-generated animation that had become the industry default by the late 2000s, and the slightly rough, handmade quality of the puppetry was clearly a deliberate and considered choice on Anderson's part. Whether that choice pays off is, of course, a matter of some debate, and it is exactly the sort of thing worth turning over properly.
The voice cast assembled here is, on paper at least, quite the lineup. George Clooney leads as the irrepressible Mr. Fox, bringing the easy charm he has deployed across a wide range of films (if you want to see him in very different modes, there's always Burn After Reading or, for something altogether more chaotic, From Dusk Till Dawn). Meryl Streep voices Mrs. Fox with characteristic poise, while Jason Schwartzman, a regular Anderson collaborator, voices the Foxes' son Ash. Eric Chase Anderson, the director's own brother, also features among the cast. It is a polished but unremarkable ensemble in terms of the vocal performances themselves, though the film's reception was warm enough that it earned Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Animated Feature.
I get it, I really do. Everyone loves Wes Anderson’s quirky stop-motion charm, the all-star voice cast, the unique visuals and yeah, it’s all very… styled. But for me? It just didn’t land. I just find it all a bit flat. Even my fox-obsessed kid barely looked up from toys. The dialogue is dry, the pacing is deliberate to a fault, and the humor feels like it’s aimed at adults who like mild, witty understatement, which is fine, but not exactly thrilling for its supposed family audience. It’s well-made, no doubt. But under all the style and acclaim? It’s just an average kids’ film, and not even a particularly engaging one for actual kids.
And honestly, that last point is one I keep coming back to. There's a particular kind of praise that attaches itself to films like this, praise that's really about aesthetic admiration rather than genuine entertainment value, and the two aren't always the same thing. A film can be immaculately assembled and still leave you cold, and there's no rule that says critical consensus has to match what actually happens in your living room on a Sunday afternoon. For me, the craft is visible and real, but craft alone doesn't make something enjoyable to sit through. Style without warmth is just decoration. I've had more fun watching far scrappier films.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2009 | Watched: 2025-07-20
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Wes Anderson: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
More with George Clooney: Gravity (2013) · Batman & Robin (1997) · Burn After Reading (2008) · From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More adventure: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · The Eagle (1925) · Louisiana Story (1948) · The General (1926)
More animation: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
