Fantastic Mr. Fox

Introduction

The Fantastic Mr. Fox is a 2009 stop-motion feature film from director Wes Anderson. It follows the charismatic and cunning family man Mr. Fox, who turns back to his old thieving ways. Despite promising his wife he’d stop his old way of life, he hatches a plan to steal from three notoriously dangerous farmers. His act eventually catches up to him, and he is faced with a decision between his family and his life of crime. The film is visually stunning with many stylistic aesthetics to go along with it.

Wes Anderson at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival

Animation

Wes Anderson had dipped his toes into stop-motion before with his 2004 feature film “Life Aquatic with Steve Zessou”. The production design of the film plays a major part when people describe how the movie made them “feel”. The setting was based on Great Misenden, where the original author Roald Dahl lived. Even though the film is highly stylized, it is still based on a real location. This gives the film a real homey feel, it’s organic in its location. The film’s production designer states in an interview, “I was just noting on the drive in here, there is a radio tower across the street, and that’s in the movie”. Wes Anderson was intentional on solidifying the look of the characters in 2D form, the artists would not begin sculpting until Anderson approved of the sketches. Difficulties were found in trying to translate 2D to 3D and furthermore making the characters anthropomorphic.

Stop Motion

Well-known movies that previously used stop motion like “Corpse Bride” and “Coraline” are famous for how smooth the stop motion looked. Anderson was intentional in wanting to avoid this computer-generated look instead, he and his team would embrace the median of stop motion. He wanted the choppy, rough look that is akin to classics like Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer and other stop-motion classics of the time. In fact, “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”. It not only feels like a totally unique style but also evokes a feeling of nostalgia that furthermore adds to the “homey feel”. The imperfections within the puppets add to the emotions of the characters, when the eyes slightly move or a character barely twitches a muscle you see it with ease. The characters are able to unlock different, unique emotions that you wouldn’t get filming stop motion in a more traditional way.

Symmetry

Wes Anderson is no stranger to using symmetry within his work in fact, he is the first director many people think of when the technique is brought up. Fantastic Mr. Fox is no different. Adding in the median of stop motion, and then laying symmetry on top of it balances out the film. It feels layered out like one of those pop-up 3D books, which itself has irony being the film is an adaption of a children’s book. There is visual harmony in the use of symmetry, our eyes are guided to the center of the frame. The house being constantly in the center of the frame relates to the message of family and home in the film. Composition reflects other themes of control and order present in the film. Mirroring Mr. Fox’s control over his life and the challenges he faces trying to balance the chaos.

Color

The look of the film started with color. “We started by developing a color theory for the film,” explains Nelson Lowery, the film’s production designer”. The color theory of the film would follow an analogous color palette, with a heavy focus on warm colors. The intention of using an analogous palette would prove to be difficult since using a cooler color or a grey could look out of place. If a frame is filled with red, oranges, and yellows including a little bit of blue would cause our eyes to focus on that color specifically. The bold colors evoke emotion in the characters, can set a mood for the viewer, and reveal themes in the story.

Autumn

Fewer films remind people of a specific season more than The Fantastic Mr. Fox with autumn. The film is unapologetically painted with red, orange, yellow, and brown. Anderson wanted a muddier palette with different shades of brown but eventually settled on the now-famous autumn colors. Cozy is a word the viewer would use to describe how the film makes them feel in relation to the colors. The warm feeling of nostalgia is rooted in the aesthetic Wes Anderson has captured. The meticulously designed sets create a lived-in environment, which is thanks to Anderson's intent on using real props. The warmness is not just an aesthetic choice but also plays into the narrative of home and change. Autumn brings change and just like the characters in the film, change is constantly driving the story forward.