The Wes Anderson Series - Fantastic Mr Fox(2009)

There is only one thing to say about this show


I love this show!

There, I said it. Fantastic Mr Fox remains to be a select few shows I can watch over and over again without feeling too bored.

This film is based on the Roald Dahl book, Fantastic Mr Fox. Although this book was written for kids, but its depth and issues it spells out makes it no different from the adult books he has written. Unlike this show, there is a villian.

It's the humans.

Why do I say that? In a typical context, we are always presented with the side of humans in the constant battle of humans vs Nature. We are told that no matter what happens, we are to take the side of our fellow human race. Why should we care about the environment? Leave it to the tree huggers! What Dahl did in his book was to present the classic situation in the context of the animals instead of the humans, effectively turning the tables on the situation we thought was all too the same.

Another breakthrough of this film was the use of stop-motion animation, which takes an insanely long time to produce. The fluidity of movements, illustrated in this one:

The twitching movement of Ash is quite reminiscent of animal reaction behaivour, the lighting speed of which nerves work to react to. Animals portrayed in this context have human-like personalities and belongings, most significantly in this picture:

"The local human  schoolchildren sing an eerie little rhyme, here, listen to this" -- Badger

OHMIGOD I just realised there was an apple computer in the back of the room behind badger. And a dicta-sonic player on the table. No longer animals are creatures that lack behind humans in terms of brainpower or sophistication (In the show, the animals have jobs. Yes, they work for their keep),  but they are equal to humans, just that they are animals. Isn't that respect?

There are many reasons why I like this show, although the situation paints something we all know very well, but Dahl can't resist but turn the tables on the story once again.

We all know how the story ends. Nevertheless, the painstaking detail to all of its characters makes it a joy to watch.

Read more: Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic of Steven Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Moonrise Kingdom