Kate Solomon

Fantastic Mr Fox is absolutely going to be the film of October for me. I have sky-high expectations and the vague possibility that the film will fail to meet them is a thought I push from my mind any time it dares to venture in.

As a film, Fantastic Mr Fox ticks pretty much every box available: there’s a special place in my heart reserved for all Roald Dahl stories and the tale of foxes vs farmers is no exception; stop motion animation is one of my favourite filmic formats; and I have a deep love for director Wes Anderson and his clique-y cast.

And after reading the interview with Anderson in November’s Sight and Sound my expectations are practically stratospheric. Anderson and his writing partner Noah Baumbach actually stayed in Roald Dahl’s house whilst working on the screenplay, ingraining a sense of the local life that Dahl experienced as he wrote the original story. Mr Fox’s study in the film is even full of bits and pieces from the writer’s own writing room in the house in Buckinghamshire. And to ensure the perfect sound and ambience for every scene, actors recorded their parts inside, outside, “in an apartment in New York, a recording studio in Frace, outdoors next to a lake in Italy…”

Now that’s the kind of effort I want to know has gone into making a film completely perfect. How can it not be brilliant?

You get to manufacture your own skies… I’ve rarely had that opportunity in movies.

Quotes: Wes Anderson – from November issue of Sight and Sound