Is 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' Suitable For Young Children?

Question

Parents debating this as a first Roald Dahl book for a four-year-old. Concerned about animated adaptation's tone vs. the chapter book's classic whimsy and occasional mischief.

veriankenth1 · Answer

The classic original Roald Dahl book is so popular with children and has now been made into a movie too – rather dry in places though, so not really for very young children. It’s always worth reading a few pages first to see if you feel your little ones will be able to cope with it. Another great animal story with a twist is ‘Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?’. This great detective story is set in a fairy tale forest and is a fun, light adventure with great stakes for young readers. It’s been released as a free online serial so far.

Nora · Answer

'Fantastic Mr. Fox' has far more depth to it than is credited. From an educational perspective the conflict of man versus nature gives plenty of opportunities to look at how to be resourceful in trying to live in balance with nature. Children can be shown how Mr. Fox and his animal friends plan and put into action some very ingenious schemes to steal from three very cunning and unfair farmers.

While the farmers in Fantastic Mr. Fox may seem a bit scary at times, their ineptness is generally used for comedic relief. Director Wes Anderson serves children of all ages well in this film as he provides substantial themes such as identity, love and sacrifice in an entertaining package of furry critters and their scams and heroics. For families looking for entertainment with substance, Fantastic Mr. Fox is a valuable gem.

Dylan · Answer

In showing ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ to my five year old niece and her fifth grade class, I saw that it had different resonances with each age group. The under 8s liked the heists and the fun of digging tunnels to outsmart people in order to get food from their farms, like a big game of playground adventure. The 8 – 11 year olds picked up on more jokes and got more of the specific characters such as the very sarcastic Badger and Ash the son of Mrs Fox – a very odd child in some ways. The teenagers liked the style and symmetry of the film and also the choice of the soundtrack for each scene.

Of course there are some lines that Fantastic Mr. Fox walks – and mostly succeeds in crossing – in order to receive a PG rating. The party scene in which Foxes get hammered on cider and proceed to wreak havoc is surely going to shock some kids and parents. But it is a totally absurd and quite humorless (as in, not funny at all) scene. We see very little of Ash in the third act, and his scenes are melancholic in that Fox will admit defeat. But he grows up to be tough. Children’s movies often rely on references to popular culture that are going to date soon. This movie is so intelligent and so full of heart that it will remain a standout. Children with very sensitive natures may be disturbed for a moment or two by Fox’s loss of a tail in a very stylized and very quick scene of physical and psychological woe.

Olivia · Answer

This is a great film for young kids as it is played in a lighthearted style. With very vivid stop-motion animation, young kids will be immediately captivated. The ‘naughty’ behavior in the film consists of some mild chicken stealing but it is all played for laughs and there is no violence or scariness in the film. Children will enjoy the clever humor which is largely physical and will love the antics of the quirky animal characters. Older kids may pick up on some of the visual style missing from the film but for younger kids, it is an exciting and adventurous film that will be loved by kids and parents alike. It is one of the few films where parents can enjoy it without fear of it containing inappropriate material.

Madison Binnie · Answer

There’s been some online debate as to whether the portrayal of the farmers in this version of Jack and the Beanstalk is ‘anti-farmer’. In my view, the farmers are simply portrayed as ‘villains’ in a fairy tale. Boggis, Bunce and Bean are cartoon characters who represent the worst excesses of greed and gluttony. They are not meant to portray ‘real farmers’. They are giants in the beanstalk, the standard ‘other’ against which the hero of the story is measured. The story is told from the animals’ point of view, so we see the farmers through the eyes of rabbits, foxes and chickens. A farmer with a shotgun is a monster. But then, Jack and his family are up against much mighter opposition than that. It’s a tale of underdog against giant, of cleverness against brawn. It’s not a political statement. It’s a simple, and very old, story. The fact that it’s being misread in this way is a thing that has been happening for a long time. We’re missing the point of the whole story in order to concern-trick each other. The foxes are preocupying with the chickens again.

Georgiadis Mbasela · Answer

I love how all the animals in this story retain their basic animal nature. They dig, build dens, smell the air, get distracted by food. The Fox loves chicken above all else. It’s a purely animalistic instinct that he is fighting. But in a way that makes the story more real and fun to read. Children who love animals will enjoy this because the natural behaviors of the different animals are there, but are also getting to act out human-like roles in the story. It’s subtle, but educational to see how foxes, badgers, opossums and weasels act in the wild, even when they are dressed up in clothes and working jobs. The line between a nature documentary and a fairy tale is blurred beautifully.

maritess66 · Answer

Consider the source author of this material. Roald Dahl wrote a number of very dark, twisted, and often morally ambiguous children’s books. Fantastic Mr. Fox is one of Dahl’s more straightforward stories but it does have a particularly nasty bunch of farmers. Wes Anderson has made this Dahl edge only slightly apparent, packaging instead much comic confrontation with a silly, romanticized, somewhat retro eccentricity. The dangers are there, but they are tempered within a singularly strange and idiosyncratic world. Thus it remains largely benign and very, very cute – offering an introduction to the basic themes of adventurous rebelliousness and cleverness in outwitting greater foes that parents intimidated by Dahl’s earlier work might find palatable.

Jennifer Sifford B · Answer

I showed this to my 4 year old. He loved the digging scenes. He then spent a week digging tunnels under the blankets on the couch. He didn’t follow all of the plot but knew there were to be foxes, some farmers, and some food hidden. He loved the slapstick physical comedy, particularly the scenes where all of the characters ran along in a line, their tails swishing behind them. That scene in particular had him in stitches every time. The real test for me is whether it inspires my children to use their imagination and to engage in play. The movie didn’t scare him or have him repeat any bad words. Instead he wanted to be a clever fox. I think that is great.

Mma Agetua · Answer

A warning perhaps for the medium not the message. For a child used to very realistic CGI, stop motion can look ‘old’ and even ‘scary’ (particularly as the fur of the animals looks like felt and the eyes can be ‘dead’). My cousin was very unsettled by this movie at first calling it ‘the puppet movie’. However, after explaining to her that lots of real people were involved in the making of the film moving the puppets frame by frame, she became very interested in it. Children may need to be prepared for the ‘look’ of the stop motion as it is a very different kind of art to ‘Frozen’.

Is 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' Suitable For Young Children?

9 Answers

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