Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) is an Animal Movie about Human Nature

This movie is one of the few examples of true cinema

My family has loved The Fantastic Mr. Fox since it came out in 2009. In fact, one year for our annual gingerbread competition, me and my brother recreated their tree house using gingerbread and some wire and sparklers. Disclaimer: it was an artistic rendition of the events of the movie, and not meant to perfectly capture the actual scene. And unlike the one year our creation caught fire due to use of cotton balls and sparklers, this one didn’t (go us!)

Our FMF Gingerbread Creation. We only placed second somehow...

All this to say, that I’ve seen this movie many times, and now, I’m going to trap you in a blog post while I talk about it. Second disclaimer: I’ve never read the book, I know I should, this post is entirely about the movie version and you must go into it assuming I know absolutely nothing of the book’s contents. Good? Good. Third disclaimer: if you haven't seen the movie yet, I will be spoiling it, so I'd recommend a watch first.

We have come to expect anthropomorphic characters in children’s media for the sake of cute, not-race-or-culture-specific characters. But Fantastic Mr. Fox’s (FMF) use of animal characters is a specific and intentional choice that leads directly into its theme that we (as people) would be happier if we rejected society’s expectations of what we needed to be, and embraced who we wanted and were meant to be. And we do this through the idea of domestication—both in animals, and in the idea of what humans need to do.

This would not, and could not be the same movie if Mr. Fox were in fact, just a human. I mean, it’s literally in his name, but also because this story uses the idea of domesticating animals and draws a comparison to the domestic life in humans—as in, settling down, getting married, etc. as an interplay between who we were meant to be, versus what society expects of us.

Domestication is defined as “the action of taming wild animals” as well as “adaptation to intimate association with human beings.”

Thus, this story revolves around Mr. Fox having to give up his wild, free youth when his partner gets pregnant, and settle down with her into a domestic life. He is both the animal giving up typical fox animal nature—shown through his tendency towards stealing--as well as a man giving up his wild youth through marriage. Domestication.

Jump forward in time and Mr. Fox has a successful career in journalism, a cozy fox hole that his wife is happy in, a weird kid, and he wants more. He sees an ad for a beautiful tree house outside of their budget, and goes to his lawyer to make the deal. Mr. Badger warns him that the house is in close proximity to three dangerous farmers called Boggis, Bunce, and Bean.

“Boggis, Bunce and Bean,

One fat, one short, one lean!

These horrible crooks,

So diff’rent in looks,

Were nonetheless equally mean!”

Any normal person would be scared away from the property, but Mr. Fox sees it as an opportunity to do “one last job”. To return, however briefly, to his wild youth—or his animal nature. There is a developing theme here that Mr. Fox wants at once to be the wild animal he was born to be, while also wanting to be above said wild nature--seen through his determination to not "live in a hole anymore", to which his wife says, "foxes live in holes for a reason.” In a subtle way, his life in the fox hole was more aligned with both true fox nature, but greater human domesticity. Throughout the story, Mr. Fox is attempting to balance both these “lives”.

We’ve all seen enough movies to know that one last job is never one last job, and Mr. Fox quickly gets caught up in a new life of stealing from the farmers with the help of his friend (and later, his nephew). When the farmers learn where Mr. Fox lives, they are forced to flee their homes doing the thing that foxes do best—dig.

This portion of the movie is the break from the domestic and the return back to “wild nature” for not only Mr. Fox’s family, but many of the animals impacted by his actions. They are never more natural as animals than they are acting as prey.

However, eventually, it is through utilizing what each species is known for best that the group creates a plan to fight back against the farmers and free themselves.

"In a way, I'm almost glad that flood interrupted us because I don't like the toast I was giving. I'm gonna start over. [pause] When I look down this table, with the exquisite feast set before us, I see: two terrific lawyers, a skilled pediatrician, a wonderful chef, a savvy real estate agent, an excellent tailor, a crack accountant, a gifted musician, pretty good minnow fisherman, and possibly the best landscape painter working on the scene today. Maybe a few of you might even read my column from time to time, Who knows? I tend to doubt it. [pause] I also see a room full of wild animals. Wild animals, with true natures and pure talents. Wild animals with scientific-sounding Latin names that mean something about our DNA. Wild animals each with his own strengths and weaknesses due to his or her species. Anyway, I think it may very well be all the beautiful differences among us that might just give us the tiniest glimmer of a chance of saving my nephew, and letting me make it up to you for getting us into this, this crazy... whatever it is."

The end of every story is always where theme is revealed. Through the embrace of animal nature, and a rejection of what society has determined as ‘right’, the Foxes are able to live peaceful lives in an underground network, still technically stealing, but now through their access to a grocery store stocked by Boggis, Bunce, and Bean (and honestly, what’s more domestic than a grocery store?) This theme is echoed in Mr. Fox’s son’s arc, about accepting that he is weird, that their family is weird, and that’s okay—that he still belongs and is accepted.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is a discussion on what it means to be domesticated—as an animal and as a human. When we take the second definition of domestication, “adaptation to intimate association with human beings” we can see how FMF plays with this ‘intimate association’ as societal rules and expectations. Are we humans not all, in a way, domesticated towards how society believes we should act? And when we’re not, we’re labelled weird?

But wouldn’t we be much happier if we took from that what we want, and rejected what we don’t, and lived more truly as who we were meant to be?