Customer Reviews

Fantastic Mr. Fox (Original Soundtrack)

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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I grew up reading and loving Roald Dahl's stories; everything from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches and The Twits to The BFG, James and the Giant Peach and Matilda, his words (as well as Quentin Blake's incomparable illustrations) were an indelible part of my childhood, and remain beloved to this day. Strangely, the one Roald Dahl story I don't think I ever read was Fantastic Mr. Fox, written by Dahl in 1970 and which has now been turned into an animated feature film by directed Wes Anderson with a voice cast that includes such luminaries as George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, Owen Wilson, Willem Dafoe, and Jarvis Cocker from the English rock band Pulp. The story - as is always the case with Dahl's work - is a dark morality tale dressed up as an innocent children's story. The plot concerns Mr. and Mrs. Fox, a pair of wily and cunning animals who feed their family by stealing chickens, ducks and cider from under the noses of three despicable farmers named Boggis, Bunce and Bean.

The music for Fantastic Mr. Fox is a wild amalgam of styles and influences that places songs by everyone from The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones to Burl Ives, two old Georges Delerue pieces, and a new score from French composer Alexandre Desplat, writing music for his second animated film after Le Château des Singes in 1999. In many ways, Fantastic Mr. Fox is the perfect response to those who criticize Desplat for being a one-trick pony, who can only write pretty little waltzes and clinical orchestral lines with no heart and soul. Fantastic Mr. Fox is about as zany as mainstream film music gets, and will certainly surprise those whose opinion of Desplat's is based only around his work on his more successful Hollywood scores - Lust Caution, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Painted Veil, and so on. Rather than being a restrained and romantic, Fantastic Mr. Fox is raucous and ebullient, and takes a great deal of inspiration from Ennio Morricone's more offbeat works.

Once again, the thing that stands out of Desplat's work here is the attention to detail, the orchestration, and the compositional technique. Time and again, Desplat impresses with his interesting use of unexpected instrumental combinations, and this score of no exception; the difference here, however, is the instruments themselves: rather than a traditional orchestral complement, Desplat uses banjos, guitars, fiddles, and all manner of unusual percussion to create a child-like atmosphere of fun and innocence, while rooting the film in a kind of mixed-up aural location that seems to span the American west, the Deep South, ad the English countryside. It's a very, very peculiar jumble, but one which works despite itself, mainly because of Desplat's brilliance at bringing all these elements together into an enjoyable whole.

The opening cue, "Mr. Fox in the Fields", establishes the general conventions of the score, with bouncy country rhythms, picked banjos, pizzicato strings and glockenspiels overlaying an unexpectedly lovely orchestral melody led by a cello. Later, "Boggis, Bunce and Bean" is a pompous, self-important march, while the "Jimmy Squirrel and Co." and "High-Speed French Train" feature dainty, flighty woodwind themes and elegant little chimes, while "Whack-Bat Majorette" is a perfect pastiche of a John Philip Sousa march played by a high school football band, all pomp and pageantry. This is the most un-Desplat music imaginable, filled as it is with child-like inquisitiveness, playful melodies, and a charming innocent that is immediately beguiling. Anyone with an aversion to whimsical orchestrations or scores which could be construed as being painfully cute will find themselves retching immediately upon hearing these cues, but I found them to be wonderfully appealing and a refreshing change from the seriousness Desplat's work has contained of late.

Ennio Morricone is a clear influence on "Bean's Secret Cider Cellar", which sees Desplat combining bold snare and timpani rhythms with a twanging Jew's harp, elaborate acoustic guitars, fluttering bass flutes, and even a few moments in which Desplat himself whistles in a manner that would have made Alessandro Alessandroni proud. It's not quite action music, but it's certainly uniquely dramatic, and would have been quite at home in a Sergio Leone spaghetti western, Clint Eastwood squinting into the sun, rather than scoring the kleptomaniac antics of an animated fox. This cue also features the first appearance of the Farmer's theme, albeit in a deconstructed form, that features heavily in the score's second half. The style is revisited in the wonderfully named "Just Another Dead Rat in a Garbage Pail Behind a Chinese Restaurant", albeit with a little bittersweet touch in the cue's second half, with the Farmer's theme played somberly on a glockenspiel accompanied by emotional, funereal string chords.

After a brooding opening minute, "Great Harrowsford Square" takes the thematic fragment first introduced in "Bean's Secret Cider Cellar" and finally fleshes it out into a full-fledged theme for the nefarious farmers, complete with lyrics ("Boggis, Bunce and Bean/One fat, one short, one lean/These horrible crooks/So different in looks/Were none the less equally mean") taken directly from the book and sung by a vivacious children's chorus. It's this kind of enthusiasm and expressiveness which makes this score such a delight to experience; Desplat really got into the film's character. The orchestral recapitulation of the Farmer's march, and subsequent restatement of the choral version in "Stunt Expo 2004", is simply delightful. The finale, "Canis Lupus", is an unexpectedly beautiful piece for a boy soprano of the farmer's fragmented theme, and is nothing short of sublime.

Unless you're a fan of the Beach Boys the songs are nothing to write home about, and will likely be of little interest to score fans. The two Delerue pieces are "Une Petite Île" from the 1971 film Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent, and "Le Grand Chorale" from the 1973 film La Nuit Américaine. The former is a typically lovely, slightly baroque-sounding romance theme for harpsichord and strings, while the latter is a heraldic piece clearly inspired by the non-vocal parts of Handel's coronation anthem Zadok the Priest. They actually fit in quite nicely with the stylistics of Desplat's original score, and add to the overall listening experience.

One thing which will stand in the way of many listeners to this score is its quirkiness. Fantastic Mr. Fox is not a typical film score in any way, and the orchestrations are designed to present an overall feeling of old-fashioned whimsy and mischievousness. If you don't like banjos and fiddles, if you don't like intentionally childish-sounding rhythms and bounciness, and if you never appreciated Ennio Morricone's more unusual efforts in the western genre, then this is most definitely not the score for you. However, personally - and perhaps a little predictably - I thought it was entirely wonderful, showing a completely different side to Desplat's musical personality, and showcasing his wonderful touch with an entirely different instrumental setup, as well as his theme-writing prowess. Including the two Delerue pieces, the score comprises must 24 minutes of a 46 minute album; and works best when programmed out-of-sequence apart from the songs which comprise the rest of the album.

I am a great fan of Wes Anderson's films and the music he uses in them. This soundtrack features some very fun Burl Ives classics as well as the beautiful score by Desplat. This score sounds like something that Anderson's previous collaborator Mark Mothersbaugh would have composed but more sophisticated and orchestral. Fun, nostalgic and lovely.

Amazingly well done and heart-warming movie. I just Had to have the soundtrack, which helped make this movie so impressive.

I absolutely loved the movie ad the music is also very pretty. Make sure you love the music because I personally do not listen to it as much as I thought I would. It was sent on time and carefully wrapped as well. Honestly, it is just better to buy the movie. All the songs from the movie are on this CD.

When a sentimental, tearful Georges Delerue melody is followed by the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man," you know the album in question is going to be like nothing you've ever heard before. Walking out of "Fantastic Mr. Fox" at the end (and, yes, I was one of the five people to actually see it in theaters), the first thing I thought was, "I wonder if I could get the soundtrack." And while it's not exactly perfection, it's about the best thing to come out of Hollywood's original soundtrack factory since... well, since that ellipsis. Roughly twenty minutes of Alexandre Desplat's ingenious, dazzlingly quirky score (an Oscar nominee!) are interspersed with the most fascinatingly random collection of existing tunes, including three old-timey Burl Ives ditties, two by Delerue, some Beach Boys, the Wellingtons' "Ballad of Davy Crockett," and Jarvis Cocker's hilarious "Fantastic Mr. Fox AKA Petey's Song." By far the best recycle on the album is "Love," Nancy Adams' perfectly sweet ballad from Disney's animated classic "Robin Hood." Since the "Robin Hood" soundtrack is basically a no-show in all marketplaces I've seen, it's just great to be able to get this one track! The score is really the best part of the album as a whole, though. Desplat more than proves his gifts, showing the influence of Ennio Morricone, Maurice Jarre, and of course, Georges Delerue but creating truly unique and effective cues. The opening segue between his brief "American Empirical Pictures" and "Davey Crockett" is astonishingly clean. I can't imagine anybody disliking this movie, and I must say, anyone who enjoys the movie should definitely give this soundtrack a listen.

A sparkling, whimsical gem of a score from the lovely Monsieur Desplat. One of my favorites from one of my favorites!

I loved the movie, and the music goes right along with the movie. With the short and lively, it fits the life of a mischievious fox. The arrangements are light and fun and nothing short of amazing. It was awesome seeing the singer Petey actually illustrated into the movie but for him to sing his song too was so cute. The movie was one of the highlights of my summer. I am thankful Roald Dahl created such whimsical characters!

This is a fabulous movie soundtrack. I think even people who haven't seen the movie will like it! It's got a delicious mix of all kinds of music. Believe it or not, it was great to hear Burl Ives' seemingly silly folk songs from the 50s, after all these years. How can you not like an album that starts off with The Ballad of Davy Crockett?

After I saw the movie, I wanted to continue listening to the music, so I bought this soundtrack. The score by Alexandre Desplat is playful, joyous and nostalgic at the same time. Combined with the tunes by the Beach Boys, Jarvis Cocker and Burl Yves, this soundtrack managed to do what other records couldn't: making me play it again, and again and again. Great work!

I'm going to be honest. I never actually saw the movie "Fantastic Mr. Fox" due to taking a keen interest in the said film at too late a date, (was removed from theaters at the last second in my area.) But seeing as how the release for this movie on DVD is just over the horizon, I thought to check out the soundtrack in preperation and anticipation. And it did not disappoint! This CD (or MP3 album) has a little bit of everything that sure to please the ears and appeal to a wide variety of tastes!

The composers and bands range from The long-since-heard-of french musician Alexandre Desplat. The always upbeat and catchy Beach Boys. The group with a south aesthetic, The Wellingtons. The late but still nevertheless kicking musically, Burl Ives. The occasionally docile and beautifully played Georges Delerue. The unmistakable Rolling Stones. The colorful banjo player, Jarvis Cocker. The classic Art Tatum. And the simply superb Bobby Fuller Four. There's even a song in there sung back Nancy Adams that's reminiscent of another film starring foxes.

Each of these many groups and lone wolves play an important factor in the overall end product by contributing something truly special of their own! Whether it be the "Ol' Man River" piece that puts the mind at ease, or the rousing orchestral score that is "Stunt Expo 2004," or even the brisk but undeniably refreshing "Mr. Fox In The Fields" that elegantly paints a canvas in one's head of broad green acres spanning miles amid a clear blue sky. Every song offered feels like something different; making for an irresistibly unique list that is nothing short of a pleasure to hear!

Bottom line, if your curious about this one then don't hesitate to give it a listen. With the numurious styles from a hefty quantity of wonderful artists, there's certain to be something that will stick out to the listener as both immensely enjoyable and unquestionably memorable!

And if the movie is as good as it's score, then March 23rd couldn't come faster!