Fantastic Mr. Fox (Story)

Fantastic Mr. Fox begins by introducing the three mean farmers of the town. There is farmer Boggis, farmer Bunce and farmer Bean. Farmer Bunce owns a duck and goose farm, Boggis owns a chicken farm, and Bean brews cider. All the farmers are extremely nasty and not well liked in town. Each farmer takes great pride in their farm and their worst enemy is the fox that comes and steals their produce from them; this fox being Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Mr. Fox lives in a hill with his wife and four small foxes. Every night his wife tells Mr. Fox what she would like for dinner, and to provide for his family, Mr. Fox goes out to one of the farms owned by Bunce, Boggis and Bean to retrieve dinner. Although this is a tricky task seeing as how the farmers all want to kill Mr. Fox, he is very clever and knows how to not get caught. He places himself in certain areas so that the wind blows toward him and he can smell the farmers if they are near. This has become a tradition with Mr. Fox and the farmers have had enough and are going to do whatever they can to catch him!

One day, the farmers went to Mr. Fox’s house and waited for him to crawl out of the hole to kill him. Mr. Fox again outsmarted the farmers by realizing they were waiting for him to kill him. Although they clipped his tail, they did not kill Mr. Fox. Mr. Fox went back into his home and waited with his family for the farmers to leave. The farmers were getting impatient waiting for Mr. Fox to leave so they began to dig into Mr. Fox’s home. The fox family began to dig in the opposite direction to escape from the farmers. After about an hour they thought they were far enough and safe, but the farmers did not stop. After a couple of days of being down in the tunnel, they were getting hungry and the farmers were not budging so Mr. Fox had to think of a new plan. While Mr. Fox thought of a new plan, the farmes got mechanical diggers to dig faster deep into Mr. Fox’s tunnel. They were determined to catch Mr. Fox. “‘Did you hear that, Mr. Fox!” yelled Bean, bending low and shouting down the hole. ‘It’s not over yet, Mr. Fox! We’re not going home till we’ve strung you up dead as a dingbat!’” (p. 22)

Mr. Fox thought of an idea but did not share it with his family in case it did not work he did not want them to be disappointed. Mrs. Fox had become ill from lack of food and from digging so Mr. Fox and his four kids left her behind as they went out to pursue Mr. Fox’s new plan. They dug and dug and finally reached a wood floor board. Mr. Fox lifted it up and celebrated because his plan had worked. “’I’ve done it!’ he yelled. ’I’ve done it first time! I’ve done it! I’ve done it!’ He pulled himself up through the gap in the floor and started prancing and dancing with joy.” (p. 30) He made it to Boggie’s Chicken House Number One. He grabbed some chickens and had one of his children run them back to his wife as he was on to his next undertaking.

He again, dug and dug and along the way ran into an upset Mr. Badger. Mr. Badger explained that all of the underground animals had to hide underground and were starving all due to Mr. Fox. “’I know it’s your fault!’ said Badger furiously. ‘And the farmers are not going to give up till they’ve got you. Unfortunatley that means us as well. It means everyone on the hill.’” (p. 38) Mr. Fox filled Mr. Badger in on his news about the chickens and asked him to help finish off the mission. Mr. Badger joined and in no time they arrived at their second stop, Bunce’s duck and geese farm. They grabbed ducks, geese, carrots and bacon without leaving a trace and went on to their last stop, Bean’s Cider Cellar.

When they arrived to Bean’s Cider Cellar, they were not the first ones there. Rat was there, upset that Mr. Fox and Mr. Badger had arrived. “’Go away!’ shreiked Rat. ‘Go on, beat it! This is my private pitch!’” (p. 48) They of course went in instead, grabbed some cider and were so excited to return to their families and friends for the great feast.

At the feast, Mr. Fox announced that now that they had these underground ways to get food, there was no reason for anyone to go above ground anymore. He explained “’We will make,’ said Mr. Fox, ‘a little underground villiage, with streets and houses on each side – separate houses for Badgers and Moles and Rabbits and Weasels and Foxes. And every day I will go shopping for you all. And every day we weill eat like kings.” (p. 60) As they enjoyed their meal, the farmers still waited and waited and “as far as I know, they are still waiting.” (p. 62)

Overall this story  revolves around a witty, clever fox who outsmarts three farmers and ends up benefiting all of the animals that live underground by creating tunnels that take them directly to the farmers produce and none of the underground animals will ever have to live in fear above ground again. I really liked the way this story was written. I loved the imigary and how although it was a short story it was broken down into chapters. I overall really enjoyed reading this and I am excited to see how the film differs from the story.