Every Wes Anderson Film Ranked Worst To Best

Roald Dahl is a beloved author for both children and adults worldwide, with Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and The BFG among the many timeless tales that he gave us. So, any adaption of his work has lofty standards to live up to.

And Fantastic Mr. Fox meets those expectations and then some. While the original book is a beloved classic, it is also quite short and so an expansion of its plot was necessary to make sure it warranted a feature-length adaption. Anderson added several bombastic action sequences involving Mr. Fox’s motorbike, but he also gave the title character and his animal friends greater emotional depth.

In the novel, Mr. Fox has four children who are all pretty indistinguishable from one another. In the film, this is reduced to just one son, Ash, and one of the most important emotional subplots concerns Ash’s feelings of alienation and growing distance from his father.

This, along with expanded personalities for the other animals who live alongside Mr. Fox, makes this fantastical world feel alive and ensures these characters are just as relatable as the humans in Anderson’s other films.