Fantastic Mr Fox - Wikipedia Fantastic Mr Fox From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search 1970 children's book by Roald Dahl For other uses, see Fantastic Mr Fox (disambiguation). Fantastic Mr Fox Hardcover first edition cover Author Roald Dahl Illustrator Donald Chaffin (original) Jill Bennett (first 1974 U.K. Puffin paperback edition) Tony Ross Quentin Blake Country United Kingdom Language English Genre Children's Publisher George Allen & Unwin (original U.K.) Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (original U.S.) Penguin Books (current) Publication date June 1, 1970 (1970-06-01) Media type Hardcover Pages 96 ISBN 0-394-80497-X Fantastic Mr Fox is a children's novel written by British author Roald Dahl. It was published in 1970, by George Allen & Unwin in the UK and Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S., with illustrations by Donald Chaffin. The first U.K. Puffin paperback, first issued in 1974, featured illustrations by Jill Bennett. Later editions have featured illustrations by Tony Ross (1988) and Quentin Blake (1996). The story is about Mr. Fox and how he outwits his farmer neighbours to steal their food from right under their noses. In 2009, it was adapted into a stop-motion animated film by Wes Anderson. Two audio readings were released, one with the author narrating ( ISBN 0-060-53627-6) and another with Martin Jarvis narrating ( ISBN 0-141-80787-3). Contents 1 Plot 2 Awards 3 Adaptations 3.1 Film adaptation 3.2 Stage adaptations 3.3 Opera 4 References Plot[edit] Mr. Fox is an anthropomorphic, tricky, and clever fox who lives underground beside a tree with his wife and four children. In order to feed his family, he makes nightly visits to farms owned by three wicked, rude, cruel and dim-witted farmers named Boggis, Bunce and Bean, whereupon he seizes the livestock available on each man's farm. Tired of being outsmarted by Mr. Fox, the triumvirate devise a plan to ambush him as he leaves his burrow, but they succeed only in shooting off his tail. The three then dig up the Foxes' burrow using spades and then excavators. The Foxes manage to escape by burrowing further beneath the ground to safety. The trio are ridiculed for their persistence, but they refuse to give up and vow not to return to their farms until they have caught Mr. Fox. They then choose to lay siege to the fox, surrounding Mr. Fox's hole and waiting until he is hungry enough to come out. Cornered by their enemies, Mr. Fox and his family, and all the other underground creatures that live around the hill, begin to starve. After three days trapped underground, Mr. Fox devises a plot to acquire food. Working from his memory of the routes he has taken above ground, he and his children tunnel through the ground and wind up burrowing to one of Boggis' four chicken houses. Mr. Fox kills several chickens and sends his eldest son to carry the animals back home to Mrs. Fox. On the way to their next destination, Mr. Fox runs into his friend Badger and asks him to accompany him on his mission, as well as to extend an invitation to the feast to the other burrowing animals - Badger and his family, as well as the Moles, the Rabbits and the Weasels - to apologize for getting them caught up in the farmers' hunt. Aided by Badger, the animals tunnel to Bunce's storehouse for ducks, geese, hams, bacon and carrots (as noted by one of the Small Foxes, the Rabbits will require vegetables) and then to Bean's secret cider cellar. Here, they are nearly caught by the Beans' servant Mabel, and have an unpleasant confrontation with the cellar's resident, Rat. They carry their loot back home, where Mrs. Fox has prepared a great celebratory banquet for the starving underground animals and their families. At the table, Mr. Fox invites everyone to live in a secret underground neighbourhood with him and his family, where he will hunt for them daily and where none of them will need to worry about the farmers any more. Everyone joyfully cheers for this idea, while Boggis, Bunce, and Bean are left waiting in vain for the fox to emerge from his hole. The book ends with the words "And so far as I know, they are still waiting." Awards[edit] In 1994, Fantastic Mr Fox was awarded the Read Aloud BILBY Award from the Children's Book Council of Australia.[1] Adaptations[edit] Film adaptation[edit] Main article: Fantastic Mr. Fox (film) The book was adapted into a stop-motion animated film by director Wes Anderson. It was released in 2009 and features the voices of George Clooney as Mr. Fox, Meryl Streep as Mrs. Fox, Bill Murray as Badger, Robert Hurlstone as Boggis, Hugo Guinness as Bunce and Michael Gambon as Bean. The movie's plot focuses more on Mr. Fox's relationship to Mrs. Fox and his son, which is pitted against Mr. Fox's desire to steal chickens as a means of feeling like his natural self. The movie adds scenes before Mr. Fox attacks the three farmers and after their bulldozing of the hill, as well as a slightly altered ending and more background on Mr. Fox's past life as a thief of food. The Foxes' four children are replaced by Ash, a small and insecure fox who seeks his father's approval and Mr. Fox's nephew Kristofferson, who excels in athletics and is a source of jealousy for Ash. Stage adaptations[edit] The book was adapted into a play of the same name by David Wood and was first performed at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry in 2001. The play is licensed (in the U.K. only) through Casarotto Ramsay Ltd. for repertory performances and Samuel French Ltd. for amateur performances.[2] A musical adaptation of the book ran at the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton during Christmas 2016 before touring the U.K. in early 2017.[3][4] Opera[edit] Main article: Fantastic Mr. Fox (opera) Tobias Picker adapted the book into an opera which had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Opera performing 9–22 December in 1998.[5][6] the Opera starred Gerald Finley as Mr Fox and Suzanna Guzman as Mrs Fox.[5] A specially commissioned new version of this opera by Opera Holland Park was performed in the gardens and natural scenery of Holland Park in the summer of 2010 staged by Stephen Barlow. This version starred Grant Doyle as Mr. Fox, Olivia Ray as Mrs. Fox, Henry Grant Kerswell, Peter Kent and John Lofthouse as Farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean.[7] References[edit] Novels portal Children's literature portal United Kingdom portal ^ "Previous Winners of the BILBY Awards: 1990 – 96" (PDF). CBCA – Qld Branch. The Children's Book Council of Australia, Queensland Branch. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 November 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2015. ^ "Fantastic Mr Fox – Adapted for the stage by David Wood". Davidwood.org.uk. Retrieved 19 February 2011. ^ "Fantastic Mr Fox musical to premiere at Southampton's Nuffield | News | The Stage". The Stage. 7 March 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016. ^ "The Fantastic Mr Fox UK Tour". britishtheatre.com. Retrieved 22 October 2016. ^ a b "Larmore, Domingo to Open L.A. Opera Season". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 30 May 2012 ^ "The Los Angeles Opera's Fantastic Mr Fox". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 30 May 2012 ^ Fantastic Mr. Fox at Holland Park Theatre. Time Out London. Retrieved 30 May 2012 v t e Roald Dahl Children's fiction The Gremlins (1943) James and the Giant Peach (1961) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) The Magic Finger (1966) Fantastic Mr Fox (1970) Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972) Danny, the Champion of the World (1975) The Enormous Crocodile (1978) The Twits (1980) George's Marvellous Medicine (1981) The BFG (1982) The Witches (1983) The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me (1985) Matilda (1988) Esio Trot (1990) The Vicar of Nibbleswicke (1991) The Minpins (1991) Children's poetry Revolting Rhymes (1982) Dirty Beasts (1983) Rhyme Stew (1989) Adult novels Some Time Never: A Fable for Supermen (1948) My Uncle Oswald (1979) Adult short story collections Over to You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying (1946) Someone Like You (1953) Lamb to the Slaughter (1953) Kiss Kiss (1960) Twenty-Nine Kisses from Roald Dahl (1969) Switch Bitch (1974) The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More (1977) The Best of Roald Dahl (1978) Tales of the Unexpected (1979) More Tales of the Unexpected (1980) The Roald Dahl Omnibus (1986) Two Fables (1986) Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life: The Country Stories of Roald Dahl (1989) The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl (1991) The Roald Dahl Treasury (1997) The Great Automatic Grammatizator (1998) Skin and Other Stories (2000) Roald Dahl: Collected Stories (2006) Non-fiction The Mildenhall Treasure (1946) Boy: Tales of Childhood (1984) Going Solo (1986) Memories with Food at Gipsy House (1991) Roald Dahl's Guide to Railway Safety (1991) My Year (1993) Film adaptations 36 Hours (1965) Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) Danny, the Champion of the World (1989) The BFG (1989) Breaking Point (1989) The Witches (1990) Four Rooms (1995) James and the Giant Peach (1996) Matilda (1996) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Roald Dahl's Esio Trot (2015) The BFG (2016) Revolting Rhymes (2016) Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (2017) The Witches (2020) Film scripts The Bells of Hell Go Ting-a-ling-a-ling (1966, unfinished) You Only Live Twice (1967) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) The Night Digger (1971) Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) Television series 'Way Out (1961) Tales of the Unexpected (1979–88) episodes Musicals and plays The Honeys (1955) Fantastic Mr. Fox (1998) The Witches (2008) James and the Giant Peach (2010) Matilda (2010) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013) Fantastic Mr Fox (2016) See also Bibliography Short stories bibliography Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories (1983) Gipsy House Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre Roald Dahl Children's Gallery Patricia Neal (wife) Olivia Dahl (daughter) Tessa Dahl (daughter) Ophelia Dahl (daughter) Lucy Dahl (daughter) Sophie Dahl (granddaughter) Phoebe Dahl (granddaughter) Felicity Dahl (second wife) Quentin Blake Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse (2020) v t e Books I Love Best Yearly: Younger Readers Award Matilda by Roald Dahl (1990) The BFG by Roald Dahl (1991) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (1992) Blabber Mouth by Morris Gleitzman (1993) Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl (1994) The Pagemaster by David Kirschner (1995) When the Wind Changed by Ruth Park (1996) Matilda by Roald Dahl (1997) Polar the Titanic Bear by Daisy Corning Stone Spedder (1998) Detective Donut and the Wild Goose Chase by Bruce Whatley and R. Smith (1999) Just Stupid! by Andy Griffiths (2000) Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling (2001) Just Crazy! by Andy Griffiths (2002) The Saddle Club series by Bonnie Bryant (2003) Just Disgusting! by Andy Griffiths (2004) The Bad Book by Andy Griffiths (2005) Just Crazy! by Andy Griffiths (2006) Authority control BNF: cb12531639v (data) GND: 1194190987 MBW work: 51495c62-aa7a-42aa-84c5-b503a7e03869 VIAF: 293613236 WorldCat Identities (via VIAF): 293613236 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fantastic_Mr_Fox&oldid=1001337040" Categories: 1970 British novels 1970 children's books British novellas British children's novels British novels adapted into films British novels adapted into plays Novels adapted into operas Alfred A. 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