April 19, 2010
How Fantastic is Mr. Fox?

“Boggis and Bunce and Bean
One fat, one short, one lean
Those horrible crooks
So different in looks
Were nonetheless equally mean.”
Forgive me but this song is on the brain these days. Both Wiley and I find ourselves humming the melody or mumbling the lyrics under our breath several times a day.
Wiley has come to know Roald Dahl’s stories through his movies. Like 99% of American children he has seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at least 15 times. And our new favorite is now Fantastic Mr. Fox. After renting it from the local movie store the other evening, we decided it was one DVD we had to add to our collection. Wes Anderson’s stop-motion picture version of the book really is, fantastic!
I am not a movie critic, but if I had to sum it up in just a few “critic-esque” phrases I’d say things like: visually stunning, deliciously imaginative, an artistic adventure. (If you are so inclined, I think this critic has a wonderful piece on the film, although the comments are a varied and nasty lot.
Walk a Mile in His Shoes
Watching the film I really thought that Anderson was true to Dahl’s book and after watching a promo video for the movie on amazon.com Dahl’s widow confirms that sentiment, saying that the film “took her breath away.” Apparently, Anderson lived at Dahl’s home in the English countryside and wrote the screenplay there. I know just a little bit about Dahl and am have just started his biography–Boy: Tales of Childhood–but the character of Mr. Fox is based on the author himself. His own childhood obviously shaped many of his stories. He witnessed horrible forms of corporal punishment (child abuse by contemporary standards) in his youth at boarding school. And interestingly the Cadbury Chocolate Company would often send samples of chocolate to the students to solicit feedback. Surely the precursor to the world famous Wonka Bar!
I am not usually a fan of films featuring Hollywood’s A-List because I find it distracting but I didn’t find that to be the case with the narration in the film. George Clooney’s voice as Mr. Fox is positively hypnotic. If there was ever a model for reading aloud, he is IT!
To be honest, I would have been hard pressed to recall the plot before watching the film. But as I watched the movie, there was a reassuring feeling of familiarity. I began recalling certain details about the characters and the incidents that must have been filed in the vast archives of my brain. I don’t recall when I read the book as a child– I suspect I was probably seven or eight years old. (My childhood home was just three houses down from a smaller branch of the city library and I was a regular fixture there after school.)
Anyway, the movie stirred up a nostalgia for a childhood now decades past. To say watching it “took me back” is a gross understatement, but I am at a loss to better articulate the feelings the movie conjured up for me but to say: I found a happy place.
Now I am desperate to find a first edition printing of the book like the one I remember reading so that I can read it with Wiley. Apparently, I am not the only parent who shares this sentiment! A Google search revealed that first edition hardcover copies ranged from $68 to $10,000 for a copy signed by the author! So I think I’ll settle for the borrowing from the library. Unless you have a copy you could loan me?
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The bottom line is whether you read the book or watch the movie, you are in for a delightful adventure!


One of the first subscriptions I ever received was for Cricket magazine as a child. Oh how I loved receiving the issues of Cricket in the mail and savoring each issue’s variety of stories, illustrations and poems. 


















