Fantastic Mr. FoxMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 83 out of 100 Universal acclaim Metascore^® based on all critic reviews

Information for Parents:

OK for kids 7+

Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

100

Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman
With its virtuoso tomfoolery, Fantastic Mr. Fox is like a homegrown Wallace and Gromit caper. To Wes Anderson: More, please! Read full review
90

The Hollywood Reporter | Sheri Linden
Anderson has created a world as stylized and inventive as anything he's done... "Fox" is a visual delight. Read full review
90

Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan
A pleasantly cerebral experience, exhilarating and fizzy, that goes to your head like too much Champagne. Read full review
90

The New York Times | A.O. Scott
In some ways his (Anderson) most fully realized and satisfying film. Once you adjust to its stop-and-start rhythms and its scruffy looks, you can appreciate its wit, its beauty and the sly gravity of its emotional undercurrents. Read full review
88

Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert
These animals aren't catering to anyone in the audience. We get the feeling they're intensely leading their own lives without slowing down for ours. Read full review
88

Rolling Stone | Peter Travers
An adventure in pure imagination that plays to the smart kid in all of us. Read full review
80

Variety | Todd McCarthy
The film's style, paradoxically both precious and rough-hewn, positions this as the season's defiantly anti-CGI toon, and its retro charms will likely appeal more strongly to grown-ups than to moppets; it's a picture for people who would rather drive a 1953 Jaguar XK 120 than a new one. Read full review
75

Washington Post | Ann Hornaday
Fantastic Mr. Fox imparts lessons as profound as "The Road's" about love and gratitude and awareness of others. It just has more fun doing it. Read full review
75

San Francisco Chronicle |
Anderson injects such charm and wit, such personality and nostalgia - evident in the old-school animation, storybook settings and pitch-perfect use of Burl Ives - that it's easy to forgive his self-conscious touches. Read full review
75

USA Today | Claudia Puig
It's an intriguing match of material and filmmaker. Dahl's distinctive, edgy storytelling seems to fit well with Anderson's idiosyncratic worldview and visuals. Read full review

Metacritic link View more reviews for Fantastic Mr. Fox on Metacritic

Information for Parents

Common Sense Media says OK for kids 7+ Offbeat family adventure may charm adults more than kids.

What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that director Wes Anderson's dry, offbeat adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic children's story Fantastic Mr. Fox is fine for most grade-schoolers but also has some themes and humor that will go over kids' head. The story features a lot of scheming and violence, as three farmers plot to kill Mr. Fox  for stealing from them. There are explosions, guns, a knife-wielding rat, a rabid dog, and a secondary character's death, but none of it is graphic or too scary (just a bit startling and/or tense in spots). The farmers smoke and drink, as do the adult animals, who tend to drink with dinner. Aside from a couple of kisses between Mr. and Mrs. Fox, there's no sexuality to speak of, and the language is limited to the word "cuss" being used as a substitute for stronger words (as in "what the cuss?").

Families can talk about whether Mr. Fox is right to indulge in his "wild animal" instincts. Should hehave honored his promise to Mrs. Fox? What motivates Mr. Fox to stealfrom the farmers?
What can you learn from Kristofferson and Ash's relationship? How arethey different, and when does Ash finally become self-confident?
How is this movie's style different from other animated movies? What'sthe effect of stop-action animation compared to the slickercomputer-animated animation?
How does the movie compare to the book? Is this what you pictured when you read the story?

The good stuff

Educational value: Kids might pick up a few of the animals' Latin names (which Mr. Fox enthusiastically uses in one scene).
Positive messages: The animals band together, despite their many differences, to keep the malicious farmers from killing them. Father-and-son relationships are portrayed positively as Mr. Fox discovers Ash's worth, even though at first he seemed to doubt him. Mrs. Fox's attitude about what makes a person fantastic demonstrates that everyone has something that makes them extraordinary. There's a running theme about the animals' wilder instincts conflicting with their more people-like responsibilities.
Positive role models: Although Mr. Fox steals from the three farmers -- and lies to his wife about doing it -- he ultimately mends his ways so that his family and the other animals can settle down in peace. Mrs. Fox encourages her son by saying that it's what's different about him that makes him special; she also supports her husband, even when she's disappointed in him. Kristofferson is a model child who forgives Ash for being jealous of him and getting him into trouble. Ash matures from trying to live up to his father's expecations and envying Kristofferson doing something exceptional on his own. The farmers are thoroughly nasty (particularly Bean), but they're also clearly the bad guys.

What to watch for

Violence and scariness: The farmers use all sorts of methods to try to kill Mr. Fox: guns, explosives, drowning with hard cider, kidnapping, etc.; the animals eventually fight back. Mr. Fox's tail is shot off and treated as a trophy. A bad-guy character starts a knife fight and eventually dies. The animals kill a few chickens, but nothing grisly is shown. A stand-off scene with a rabid dog is a little tense/scary, as are a few other fight/chase sequences.
Sexy stuff: Mr. and Mrs. Fox embrace and kiss, and Rat alludes to the fact that Mrs. Fox was a "tart" before she married Mr. Fox. Kristofferson and an adolescent female fox flirt and "go steady," making Ash jealous.
Language: Strong language is replaced with frequent use of the word "cuss" -- as in "What the cuss are you doing?" and "cluster cuss."
Consumerism: Not an issue
Drinking, drugs and smoking: The adult animals drink hard cider, wine, and champagne, but not to excess. One of the farmers makes his own hard cider (and enjoys several jugs per day). Some pipe and cigarette smoking.

Common Sense Media An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.