Watching animated films or reading children story as a so-called grown-up is not at all demeaning, as I tend to come across layers of meaning I couldn't have decoded as a kid. The Fantastic Mr. Fox falls a bit outside this frame, as I am sure it had a wider target audience, also explained by Wes Anderson's appeal for social freaks and darker humour revealed in The Royal Tennebaums and The Drajeeling Limited.
With no assumed intention to spoil the fun, here's Roald Dahl's story as shown on the big screen a bit outside the actual story, and more inside the details.
Mr. Fox is a modestly accomplished family fox who apparently moved on his outlaw past of highly skilled and sneaky chicken thief, a past which he shared with his partner in crime and now in life. He fairly gathered enough admiration to pose by his newspaper column, he has the right vocabulary to mobilise inferior animals with inspirational speeches, but he hasn't completed the full process of self-improvement. He therefore goes through a profound change, as he learns from his mistakes and reflections in others, well, the obvious really, that he is a wild animal. A slight moralising metaphor for the current personal improvement movement, focused on psychological revelations. I enforce my argument mentioning the scene in which Fox faces his freudian wolf phobia and comes to terms with it as he raises his arm to salute the wolf and receives a similar response from him.
Fox's initially neglected son, Ash, is his generation's outsider, for reasons of being a grumpy, bullied, failed athlete who finds refuge in and tries to capture attention by identifying himself with White Cape, the hero of the comics he reads. Which mostly results in him wearing a funny outfit. As Ash undergoes his personal change, he manages to turn his complex or deficiency into a superpower: 'I am little', he gloriously recites before saving his cousin with no technique outside his regained weird fox nature. Finally, he is acknowleged as extraordinary by his mother and accepted by his father by the symbolic gesture of receiving a hood and therefore becoming part of the gang.
An important character to balance the family and encourage Ash's change is Kristofferson, the over-achieving cousin, the refined white neck trained in martial arts and yoga, succesful in sports as well as romance. His lesson is in taking risks and opening up.
On the same side we have the rather blunt character of the mother, entrusted with supporting the family. Another female character, Kris's girl Agnes, barely does more than fleaping her eyelashes. And then there are the less gifted animals, still each with its own power to contribute, under the supervision of their leaders.
On the other side of the moral axis, we have the wealthy decadent three farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean, the latter being the evil genius mad leader, owner of an immense and coordinated artilery. Bean is especially ridiculous when he has his stereotipical fury outburst, a scene which usually presents a turned upside down table at most, while here he demolishes the whole room and padio. Of course, his son's intelligence is a bit behind, and their relationship lies on the son's silly contemplation of daddy on the news, while the wife and mother is to busy facing the oven.
And yes, the news. The inexpressive 'objective' journalist reporting live even if 'it's yet unclear' how the 'events continue to unfold', charming samples of professional yet empty linguistical devices.
An undeclared complice of evil is the mob rat with vicious accent, who asks for the cider he stood up for during his life as he takes his last breath, making his redemption futile.
In the end, the whole animal society which managed to function in its diversity has to settle underground, but luckly with access to a supermarket. They wrap up the story by beautifully raising the consumerism symbolic boxes to their survival.
I enjoyed Mr. Fox has an adorable, yet not inocent story. I guess it's up to every viewer's choice and personal ability whether this story will end up enforcing or mocking stereotypes. As for me, chapeau!...
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