Fantastic Mr. Fox (Original Soundtrack)

Review 3 1/2 STARS Director Wes Anderson's whimsical style is just as present musically as it is visually, and "Fox" is one of his finest showcases on both fronts. Anchored by tender but sprightly sketches from Alexandre Desplat, the soundtrack veers into familiar but still fruitful territory with a version of "Ol' Man River" from the Beach Boys and a few charmers from Burl Ives. In this playful mix, Jarvis Cocker's twangy banjo ditty fits right in. -- Los Angeles Times, Todd Martens, December 26, 2009 Sounding Fantastic. If the trailers for Wes Anderson's stop-motion-animation adaptation of the Roald Dahl children's book Fantastic Mr. Fox aren't enough to suggest great stuff ahead (the film opens Nov. 20), the sound track should clinch the deal. An integral component of the writer/director's movies thus far (think John Lennon's "Oh Yoko!" in Rushmore, Nick Drake's "Fly" in The Royal Tenenbaums), the collection of songs and tunes for Fantastic Mr. Fox includes such furry numbers as "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" from the Wellingtons, two from the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man," and a handful of Burl Ives incantations - yes, Burl Ives! - guaranteed to spark a Burl revival. Throw in some Art Tatum, Jarvis Cocker, and Bobby Fuller Four, plus beautiful instrumental sketches from French composer Alexandre Desplat, and you have one of the loveliest, most eccentric sound tracks to come along since - well, since Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited. -- The Philadelphia Inquirer, Steven Rea, October 25, 2009 FOUR STARS Nearly all of Wes Anderson's films have had a strong sense of childlike wonder, but Fantastic Mr. Fox, which is based on Roald Dahl's charming book, is his first film specifically for children. The movie's soundtrack manages to take nearly all of Anderson's musical fascinations -- Anglophilia, Francophilia, '60s pop and rock, and music from other gentler and/or quirkier times -- and tailor them to a younger audience. Though Anderson's films and their soundtracks have been criticized for valuing style over substance, Fantastic Mr. Fox's stylization is fitting, given that the film's characters are stop-motion animal puppets. The soundtrack's songs and Alexandre Desplat's score mix delicacy and rough-and-tumble energy while reminding listeners of what children's movies and music used to be like before being cool took precedence over everything else. While there are two songs from Anderson favorites the Beach Boys, "Heroes and Villa