Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Fantastic Mr. Fox

Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl

16 reviews

allisonbrooke's review

3.0

adventurous funny inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

bookishchef's review against another edition

3.25

funny fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

It's Roald Dahl, so obviously I liked it.

This is one of the few Dahl books I didn't read as a child. So maybe that affected my enjoyment of this story but for some reason this one felt way less magical.

This one is about an anthropomorphic fox, stealing some poultry and getting drunk on apple cider. No magic, no memorable villains, no scenes bordering on pure horror like in Dahl's other stories.
This story is uncomplicated. And while there is nothing wrong with that, it is not what I expect from Dahl. He still doesn't shy away from showing awful things;

the main character gets a limb shot off and he and his family almost starve to death

but it doesn't go into horror like it does in The Witches or even Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and that felt like a missed opportunity.

It is also a product of its time, because this children's book has fatphobia (towards Boggis), ableism (towards Bunce) who is a little person)), and celebratory underage drinking among other things. I will always have a soft spot for Dahl, even if not all of his books are a 10/10 for me and he maybe wasn't that great of a person.

Content Warnings

aisling872's review

3.0

funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

Content Warnings

val_z's review

3.0

adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is the epitome of a perfectly serviceable book. Dahl does a commendable job of setting up the animal and human world. I might be reading too much into this but it seems to be a commentary on the have and have-nots. The farmers are corpulent and greedy, where as the animals are just trying to survive to provide for their families. Sure the animals steal, but I don’t know how they could possibly form a treaty with the humans. Especially, when the humans are so bloodthirsty, and they have no remorse at all when it comes to wanting to kill the animals.

My biggest issue with this book is the ending is too abrupt it’s just a cliff hanger with no resolution. Talk about being an anticlimactic ending. If you don’t know how the story ends I’ll kindly elucidate. The story concludes with the farmers waiting outside the fox hole for the animals. So there’s no mano a mano battle between the humans and the animals. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the Wes Anderson film but I seem to recall that having a more satisfactory ending. Despite my qualms, I still think it’s a fun children’s book to read. And if you’re an adult who likes Dahl’s writing this book will be right in your wheelhouse. And you can breeze through this book in about an hour. Nuff said.

Content Warnings