In this family-friendly animated film, I saw the difficult choice of the fox father, the difficult growth of the fox son, and the hypocrisy and fragility of the middle class.
When I was a child, because of the fairy tale "The Story of Lena Fox" adapted by French Jeanne, I never had a negative impression of foxes as "fake foxes and tigers" and "fox friends and dog friends". When I saw the title of the film "The Fantastic Father Fox", I thought to myself that it is probably also a warm fairy tale.
Unsurprisingly, the already warm story setting, with director Wes Anderson's dreamy color matching, stop-motion puppets, and cheerful music, the movie is a snack that is particularly enough to cure loneliness at night.
But it would be too superficial to say that it is just a family animation.
The main story line is this. The fox father who once engaged in stealing chickens and dogs, because the fox mother said that she was pregnant, and engaged in column writing after washing her hands in a golden pot. The family of three spent a happy 12 years in poverty. One day, because of his mid-life crisis, Father Fox decided to try to change his ordinary life.
First of all, despite the legal advice, he finally decided to take out a loan to buy a tree house, and has since moved out of the cave. But he was not satisfied with it. Looking at the three farms raising chickens, cider, and frozen ham on the opposite hillside, the nature of the fox began to stir in his body.
The subsequent development of the story, it is easy to guess, after several twists and turns, the fox and his animal friends finally defeated the three farmers, and ended with living underground and enjoying the unlimited food supply in the human supermarket. There are also interspersed with the process of the fox son growing from a rebellious teenager to a responsible and responsible big boy.
Probably I am on the edge of "standing at 30" and belong to the "fuzzy people who are neither young nor old." When I look at any art work, it is instinctive, and I will think about how to choose in life.
This time, too, in this family-friendly animated film, I saw the difficult choice of the fox father, the difficult growth of the fox son, and the hypocrisy and fragility of the middle class.
【one】
"Who am I? How can I make the fox happy forever without worrying about a chicken in its mouth?"
Father Fox has always believed that he is a fox, and the identity of a fox must be proved through wildness. He felt that it wasn't him who wrote the column and was polite, but he was the one who followed his interests and stalked dogs. However, in the opening story of stealing, because of the unplanned pregnancy of the fox mother, he must end his "uninhibited, freedom-loving" lifestyle, and he must find a stable and safe job to support his family.
After having a child, in the mother fox's heart, his identity is first and foremost a qualified husband and father, not a wild fox.
It can be said that the fox father is more responsible. For the sake of his family, he gave up his 12-year (the year of the fox) self, lived in the most suitable cave for a fox, and worked a low-paying but decent job. However, from some details, we can feel his unwillingness to be lonely. Every morning, while sitting at the table for breakfast, he opens the newspaper delivered by the postman and always asks his wife: Do your friends read the column I wrote? He will always take his piece of "little tofu" seriously and cut it out for collection.
As he himself sighed: The thing I want most is that everyone praises it as "amazing". And he only thinks that newspapers are just a few pieces of "ripped paper". Yes, he doesn't think the job has value, he just thinks the job has a price. Therefore, in the process of working, he could not obtain it, because of the spiritual enjoyment brought by the recognition, he was farther and farther away from the evaluation of "great" in his heart. The way he devoured his breakfast and ate his breakfast like a storm, indirectly exposed the nature of the fox as a wild animal, even though he was wearing a tie and a suit at the time.
Finally, when it was unbearable, he had to change, because time waits for no one - his father, at his age, had already entered the grave with half a foot. The panic of dying but accomplishing nothing, enveloped him anytime, anywhere. The mid-life crisis is on schedule. Ignoring the legal advice, he took out a loan to buy a high-risk tree house and quickly escaped from the dark cave life.
But these stimuli were far from enough for him. He wants more. And those chicken farms, frozen meat warehouses, and wineries that can be seen from the window of the tree house wake up the feral father fox who has been sleeping for a long time. He decided to make a few votes. He said: This is what existence looks like. I am a fox, nothing else. If I don't have a chicken, am I still a fox?
Determining the definition, or form of existence, of a species is an esoteric question. Father Fox is not only a good orator, but also a natural philosopher. Each of us, to a greater or lesser degree, has a dilemma like Daddy Fox.
From the food and clothing in the past to the good life now, what we are striving to pursue all our lives is not to find the answer to why we live? In other words, the answer to what is the meaning of living. It's just that people are middle-aged, have no worries about food and clothing, and at the same time have a lot of knowledge. The appearance of these confusions in the mind is particularly prominent.
When I just started working, I was once deeply confused: I upgraded all the way to fight monsters, read and take exams, and I worked so hard. Is it just to get such a job that is not painful and does not feel the slightest sense of achievement? Is it just to punch in at get off work, watch dramas after work, and change the way to pass the time? Where is my future direction? Do I have a future? If there is, if the direction is to do a good job, then how does it count as a good job? No one can help me.
Parents who used to think that they were omnipotent and omnipotent, because of the different times, they could not understand my pain that originated from the spirit. And this kind of pain is far more unbearable than physical pain. They feel that eating, dressing well and having fun is the best thing to do, and it is the happiest and happiest life. As the fox mother said: although we are poor, we are happy.
Faced with the disintegration of a decent life due to the rekindled adventurous spirit of the fox father, the fox mother said to the fox father sadly: I should not have married you back then. Just like my parents, they would only laugh at me when I was deeply involved in the problem: I am stupid when I study, I don’t know happiness when I am born in happiness, and if I can find such a job, others will be jealous. This kind of life, peaceful, isn't it good?
Not bad, not happy.
The difficulty for Father Fox is that he is not understood, and that he wants to prove in an impressive way that he has come to this world. The difficulty for a young man like me is that there is a long road ahead, and the difficulty is not knowing how to accept that he is an ordinary, ordinary, even insignificant ordinary person. All of us have difficulties, what is the meaning of life? If it is so ordinary, is it that there is no motivation to live on, is it impossible to obtain happiness after living?
Fortunately, I met Camus, a master who never admitted to being an existentialist philosophy. Through his "The Outsider" and others, I came to understand and agree that life is meaningless. However, profoundly he went on to say: life is just because life has no meaning, so living with people who have no meaning has become the meaning of life. That is to say, it is not about success (of course, what success is, is another topic, and I will not discuss it here), life has meaning, not attention, life has meaning, nor great achievements, life has meaning.
As long as I'm still alive, as long as I can spend every day in a down-to-earth way, as long as I can talk to my soul calmly, I don't need to pay attention to others, and I don't need to pay attention to others, because the most important thing in life is that I live I've lived, not someone else's proof that I've lived.
Unfortunately, Daddy Fox has no Camus and no existentialism.
At the end of the film, the way to resolve the contradiction between the father fox and the mother fox is very old-fashioned but very useful. The mother fox said again: I am pregnant. Towards the end of this farce, Daddy Fox's midlife crisis is overwhelmed by the same sense of responsibility (the pressure to support his family) that he had.
The reality is always so helpless. Perhaps, this also explains why the "American Dream", the typical Japanese middle-class family, or can be said to be anywhere, any country, advertised so similar the appearance of happiness; a family of four, preferably one son and one daughter.
Also, as Leo Tolstoy wrote: "Happy people are all alike, and unfortunate people are unhappy in their own way" .
The only good thing is that it is still a little different from the forced compromise last time, this time it is a little more voluntary. In the process of rescuing the captured cousin fox, the fox father gradually began to realize the meaning of his family and friends to him. He said: "While I like it (pointless adventure), I shouldn't do it; we're always happier together (with Mother Fox) anyway.
Even at the end, facing the wolf he was most afraid of—a terrifying creature that was always alone in the ice and snow and only accompanied by the wild, Father Fox was extremely envious, and felt extreme fear every time he thought about it—he could sigh from the bottom of his heart: "What a beautiful creature!"
He understood that if he had to choose a wolf-like life, he had to face the cold and frost outside, and he had to stay away from the warmth and sweetness of the family, so he shouldn't get married. And what he chooses now is to be with his family, then he must say goodbye to individualism completely, bid farewell to the value judgment of personal achievement and the meaning of life, and embrace the value of family happiness and the meaning of life.
Goodbye, youth, goodbye, excitement.
Hello, family, hello, responsibility.
【two】
"Yeah, I'm grumpy, I'm spitting, I'm in a bad mood, and obviously I'm just...a little different."
This is how psychology understands adolescents. From the age of 12 to 18, people are in the transition period of saying goodbye to childhood and entering adulthood. During this period, there are many things that were invisible when I was a child, things that were seen, things that I didn’t realize when I was a child, things that were noticed, and things that I didn’t care about when I was a child, became extremely important.
The final result is either to successfully enter the adult world, or to successfully stay in the childhood stage. In the end, a choice must be made.
In the movie, the fox son is just 12 years old (the year of the fox). Like a 12-year-old human child, he just entered the most rebellious adolescence. Every morning, the fox son finds various excuses (sick, fever, just don't want to go...) to avoid going to school. He likes to wear a piece of cloth and tuck his trousers into his socks. As papa fox said of his outfit: he just wanted to be different.
Teenager, who doesn't want to be different? Who really wants to be different? At that time, we were always torn between being a maverick and being liked by everyone.
At this time, his cousin, about the same size as him, came to the house for help. Compared with the fox son, the fox cousin is handsome and well-mannered. He is good at diving, meditating, karate, doing experiments, and talking to girls... everything. Even the "heavy bat" that he has never touched, he can play directly and win just by listening to the coach's introduction.
Facing such a younger brother, the fox son is very unhappy. He has always believed that he is an athlete and that he has the genes of his father (the most outstanding Grand Slam athlete), but the reality is always so cruel— - No one thinks he is an athlete, and his performance on the sports field can almost be described as "poor". Of course, people around you in the past always avoided using these directly hurt words.
When the fox cousin arrived, the original balance was broken. When doing the same thing, although the son of the fox still received encouraging comments from the people around him, the cousin of the fox received the praise from everyone's heart. With the visit of the fox cousin, a sense of loss and frustration came over him.
Naturally, the fox son will think that everything he has suffered so far should be blamed on his cousin. That's why he didn't make room for his cousin to sleep, so he cursed: "His (cousin fox) father stepped into the grave with one foot, and the other three stepped on the banana peel.
Adolescence, who doesn't want to be noticed and praised? Who really likes to speak ill of others? At that time, we didn't know how to express it. It was obviously the partiality of the adults, which led to unfair treatment among the children--the fox cousin just visited, and was taken out by the fox father to take risks and get a hood- -Why is the conflict between the children in the end? Why is it that we who need to apologize in the end are seen as useless? Are we to be deprived of the right to vent after we are abandoned?
Fortunately, this farce made the fox mother and fox father start to face up to the "differentness" of the fox son, and also made the fox son, because of the understanding of his parents, start to face up to his own difference. Just like, before we truly become adults, all value judgments are actually based on the preferences of our parents. That is to say, every child, more or less, has a personable personality. Subconsciously, we all understand that only by pleasing the parents who provide us with food, clothing, housing and transportation can we survive.
In the escape hole, the fox mother squatted down for the first time, looked at the fox son's eyes, and gently licked her son's face with her tongue. That face was already dirty with mud from other angry animals. Then, she said to her son with an equal attitude: Son, I know now that it feels different. Each of us is different, but that's what makes life strange. Finally, the fox son had the courage to admit that he had made mistakes, he said to the fox cousin: I am sorry, it will not happen again in the future, sorry.
Probably, when the adolescent child begins to face and admit his mistakes, it means that he has passed the most difficult period, and he can really face himself. Therefore, in the process of escaping from the claws of human beings, the fox son showed extraordinary fox instinct and super athletic talent. At the same time, he also had the most stable state of mind - when he finally got the praise of "You are an athlete" from Dad Fox, he just gave a slight "hmm", and when he got the hood handed over, he also Just take off the homemade hood and simply put it on.
There is no particular mood swing, which is the most normal reaction. Because the process of growing up is to understand that you should not seek yourself from other people's evaluation of yourself, but to influence other people's evaluation of yourself after completing self-identification. What kind of person you want to become is not to meet other people's eyes and change according to other people's expectations, but to see clearly what that person is in your heart, and keep working towards that appearance.
Funny to say, every time I need to recall what happened in my childhood, or my teenage years, I have to do the math. What grade was I in at that time? In the past days, the main line of memory revolved around reading, because in those days, the main line of life revolved around reading. Pale and full. At the age of 12, I just graduated from elementary school, and I attended the summer camp for the last time and visited Beijing for the first time. It was the first time I read Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, and for the first time I felt abandoned because my good friend was in love.
At that time, I didn't know that I had severe gender cognitive impairment, and I didn't know that my father's words had brainwashing control over me.
All I know is that every time I see a child in someone else's family make a big mistake, my father will say to me: If my child is like this, I will definitely kick him out of the house and cut off the relationship.
All I know is that every time I see a girl from someone else's family who fails to do a good job because of something, my father would say to me: Look, that's why I don't like having girls.
All I know is that I hate pink because it's a girl's color, that color represents weakness and squeamishness, and that color is equal to princess disease.
All I know is that I want to become a handsome hero who can save lives and help the wounded, draw a sword to help in the face of injustice, and be admired by all people because of my strength.
But in the end, I have to face the cruel fact that I am a girl, and I can only be a girl. There are always a few days every month when I will be tortured to death by the pain like a knife in my stomach. No matter how brave you are, you will never be able to outperform boys in physical tasks such as moving things.
How I want to grow my hair long, put on a beautiful dress, and wear those trinkets that shine dreamily in the light, but every time I do that, I feel awkward all over, like I'm a man dressed as a woman, like Become transgender.
The fox son was luckier than me, because of that big farce, he finished his adolescence quickly. As for me, approaching thirty, the long period of self-acceptance was drawing to a close.
Goodbye, hero, goodbye, legend.
Hello girl, hello, real me.
【three】
"Is there a fox bothering you?" "He's laughing at us!" "You really are an amazing dad fox!"
The animals in the movie are all suits and leather shoes, with decent jobs and lives. They are great lawyers, skilled paediatricians, amazing cooks, shrewd real estate agents, great tailors, top accountants, talented musicians, pretty good minnow fishermen, the best landscape painters... And, of course, the Gazette columnists.
Before the farce caused by Father Fox, they were like the white-collar workers in human society that we are familiar with, living a regular and routine life of nine to five, paying taxes, getting married and having children. Day after day, week after week.
Are they all happy to maintain such a decent life? uncertain. However, what is certain is that they have more or less hidden their wildness and interests. At the climax of the film, Father Fox delivered his final speech, calling on everyone to use their natural instincts as wild animals to fight against human farmers. Every animal said what they were originally good at and had nothing to do with their careers.
They are shorthand, seeing in the dark, running fast, biting through wood, blasting, digging... In order to ensure their middle-class status in the animal world, they have all chosen occupational identities that are more in line with social expectations, elegant and decent, clean and tidy, and more The important thing is to refrain from emotions.
However, how to restrain the sudden outbreak of wildness? Like humans, they began to practice meditation and meditation. Even the fox cousin, who is under 12 years old, must meditate for half an hour every day. And this recognition and familiarity with social rules makes the fox cousin far better than the fox son and even the fox father in terms of integrating into the adult society and showing maturity and stability.
In real life, our choice of career is more helpless than animals.
When I was a child, I was withdrawn, and I always liked to stay in the studio of the Youth Palace, dealing with models and props that could talk without making a sound, and sketching those time stories with a pen. In many cases, one stay is for a whole day, until late at night, until the moon and stars are thin. So I always wanted to be an art student, but when I discussed it with my mother, she said to me, "I can't afford it at home."
Since then, I have realized that the most common judgment in the world is "money".
In order to ease my loss, my mother once told me why she chose to become a teacher instead of saving lives and wounds. She said that because studying in a normal school is not only free, but also the salary can be received during the study period, and the distribution is included. As a result, she was born in a rural area where sons are more important than daughters, and she is the eldest daughter of her family. It is a good luck to be able to study. What's more, if she is admitted to a normal school, she will be able to achieve economic independence at the age of 15.
The story has developed here, and it is far from over, and the mother has not ushered in the "liberation of life". The reality is harsher than I thought. My mother majored in mathematics during normal school, but she has never taken a mathematics class for more than 30 years. Because the employment school that was arranged at that time was short of language teachers, not mathematics teachers.
To survive in this society and survive decently, we must do things according to the logic of this society. Even if you have the amazing ability of Daddy Fox, you can't. What's more, most of us don't have it, so most of us must take advantage of the situation and act accordingly.
In the film, it appears that Daddy Fox is a challenger to the existing order. He challenged the established occupational division of the middle class, he restored the nature of wild animals, he was always able to avert danger in crisis, he even dared to attack human farmers and won.
But what is the final outcome? The only way they, all the animals that used to depend on nature for their existence, was to steal from the supermarkets of a more human, more industrial society. Is this way of living different from the mice you met in the winery? Are they really liberated from the wild, or are they caught in the more terrifying abandonment of the wild?
we are the same. In order to survive, interest and nature are actually something that comes later, and they are something that solves the problem of food and clothing. Strive to become a standard middle-class person, do everything in line with your status, adhere to all reasonable rules, and be a regular person.
There are templates for everything in life: our favorite fruit is cherries, the most anticipated dish is scrambled goose eggs with toon, the most preferred style is Nordic simplicity, and the most travel destination is Hokkaido, Japan... We gave up asking The inner needs, do you really want these? really like these?
In order to maintain decency and courtesy, and not be mentally broken, we never dare to face the night alone, because the quiet darkness makes everything hidden in the noisy daytime visible. We are always looking for ways to pass the late night, read dramas, gather with friends...
The hypocrisy of the middle class is also about trying to hide problems that should not be ignored. In the movie, the fox mother is an elegant and decent housewife. She cares about the fox father and whether he has fulfilled his duties to become a husband and a father. She cares about the fox son and whether he goes to school on time for education. Be well behaved.
She never cared what the family was thinking. Father fox's unhappiness is not one or two things. Likewise, the unusualness of the fox son is not a matter of a day or two. However, they can't see each other and never communicate with each other, as long as everything looks normal on the surface.
It reminds me of my sister. She got married very early, and when she got the certificate, the man had just passed the legal age for marriage. At that time, they had only known each other for 3 months, and my sister was 3 months pregnant. Such an eager and hasty marriage happened not because of how much they loved each other and how suitable they were, but because after an accident, their parents' first choice was not to stop the loss in time, but to maintain their decency.
As you can imagine, their married life was a mess.
The boy cheated a few days after his marriage because his sister was pregnant. When my sister had just finished her confinement period, the first thing she heard her husband candid about was his infidelity. How can such a marriage go on? However, parents do not allow such a quick divorce. They said to the unemployed sister and her husband, it's okay, we'll take the children, you do your thing.
The life of the middle class, as long as it looks normal on the surface, it will be fine, no matter whether it is festering or rotten on the inside.
View more about Fantastic Mr. Fox reviews
