Fantastic Mr. Fox

Mr.and Mrs. Fox live an idyllic home life with their son Ash and visiting young nephew Kristopherson. But after 12 years, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr. Fox’s wild animal instincts. Soon he slips back into his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief and in doing so, endangers not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community. Trapped underground and with not enough food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil Farmers – Boggis, Bunce and Bean – who are determined to capture the audacious, fantastic Mr. Fox at any cost.

Plot:

For his next film, Anderson returned to his childhood tendency of making his favorite stories come alive. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) is a stop-action animated feature based on Roald Dahl’s book of the same name.

When asked about the reason why he decided to make a movie about Dahl’s book, Anderson said:

“It was the first [Roald Dahl book] I ever owned and I particularly thought the digging was something nice for movies. I loved the drawings that were in the book I had. And I do love this character. Beyond that it was just one that hadn’t been done, and it seemed like a great chance. I love stop-motion where the puppets have fur, and with all the animals I thought this would be a good opportunity to explore that.”

Anderson decided that his sixth feature film should be a stop-motion animation, so he called on some of the best names in the puppet-making business to put his characteristically precise vision to life. But despite their experience, they found Anderson’s project to be particularly daunting.

“Wes had a very clear idea of what he wanted, and I think he made us challenge all our preconceptions about what stop-motion puppets are,” says Peter Saunders. “I think the fact that he hadn’t worked a great deal in stop motion pushed us out of our comfort zone, which forced us to try new ideas, new techniques, and new materials.”

Most baffling for the animators and puppet makers alike was Anderson’s insistence on naiveté. He didn’t want his film to look as slick as, say, The Corpse Bride or Coraline, which are so smooth as to look computer-animated. Herky-jerkiness didn’t bother him. On the contrary, he sought it out. He chose to shoot on “twos,” which means that each frame is doubled so that there are effectively 12 frames per second, instead of a more fluid 24. He instead wanted viewers to notice and embrace the medium of stop-motion itself, which had enchanted him as a child.