Comparison of Fantastic Mr. Fox Film and Story

After reading the story and watching the film of Fantastic Mr. Fox I see many differences. I believe the movie was geared toward a more mature audience. It involved a lot of humor and funny moments that adults would understand more than children. I caught myself laughing many times during this movie. The film has a modern twist to it making it very relatable and made me as the viewer find humor in the way the animals acted so similar to humans. I really enjoyed this movie and would definitely recommend it.

On to the comparison, the story and film were of course similar because they are they “same” story, but the mood, style, plot and even story line differed. The characters were all the same, from the mean farmers, to Mr. Fox and his wife, and the other animal friends that come along. The mood of the story is more of an innocent, happy, victory of the animals feel. The mood of the film is more humorous, witty, suspenseful feel. I enjoyed both in their different ways.

In the beginning of the story Mr. Fox is living on a hill under a tree with his four children. He goes out to fetch dinner one night and the three mean farmers shoot at him and catch his tail. He survives but soon realizes the farmers are digging toward his underground home trying to kill him. In the beginning of the movie Mr. Fox lives in a hole with his wife and son. He is unhappy with the way that he is living and feels “poor”. Mr. Fox is a newspaper man and is determined to move into a tree to feel less poor. The Badger who is a lawyer warns “Foxy” that moving into this tree is not a good idea due to the danger it would put him and his family in because it is located near Boggis, Bunce and Bean’s farms.

In the middle of the story, Mr. Fox is digging and digging to get away from the farmers. The farmers realize they are not going to reach Mr. Fox by digging so they get mechanical diggers to dig faster. As they are digging they are getting very tired and helpless. Mr. Fox must think of a new idea to save him and his family. In the middle of the movie, Foxy’s nephew arrives to his new home. They get settled in but Foxy is still not satisfied and decides to go out and do “one last job” and steal from the farmers, and he has Opossum as his sidekick. After visiting all three farms, the farmers realize what Foxy is up to and wait outside his house for him and shoot at him but only catch his tail. The famers begin to dig out Foxy’s home and so the fox family digs in the opposite direction to run from the farmers. The farmers go to extreme measures to catch Foxy. They assemble their workforces around his home with guns, they use machinery and also bomb his hole.

In the end of the story, Mr. Fox thinks of a new plan to dig to the three different farms and enter from underneath. This way he can steal the farmers produce without them seeing him and without being in danger. Mr. Fox digs with his sons. He ultimately creates numerous underground trails which allows all of the underground animals to access the food and be able to survive underground without having to go above ground in danger. In the end of the movie, Foxy thinks of an idea to save himself as well as all the underground animals. He decides to dig to the three farms and steal their produce, same as in the story. Unlike in the story, Foxy digs with a huge group of animals underground. They end up succeeding and getting enough food for all of the animals. They assemble a feast underground and meanwhile, the farmers have put a hose down the whole and flood their feast with cider. Before they were all flushed into the sewer, Foxy’s son Ash and nephew Kristopherson go out on their own mission to steal back Foxy’s tail. When Foxy is in the sewer, he decides to surrender himself, white flag and all, in order to allow his friends to live again and stop hiding. The farmers end up kidnapping Foxy’s nephew for ransom and then there is a meeting for exchange for the nephew and Foxy.

The ending of the movie is much more detailed and the main difference between the movie and the story. Ultimately, Foxy and all of the animals live happily underground in the sewer and also find their way underground a trap door leading to the nearest grocery store. Overall, the movie was much more modern, detailed, funny and fresh. There were many twists and detailed scenes that made the movie enjoyable. Also something I really liked were how developed the characters were and how they each had their own personalities. Every animal had a job, Ash was kind of weird and different while Kristopherson was intelligent and almost like the “perfect” kid. This made the characters personable, relatable and more significant in the movie.