Review: “Fantastic Mr. Fox and Other Animal Stories” by Roald Dahl

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🦊 This collection of relatively short Roald Dahl stories was fun to listen to particularly as the last 2 were narrated by Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie respectively.

🦊“Fantastic Mr. Fox” was easily our favorite of this collection. Boggis, Bunns, and Bean provide the typical very bad alliterative villains, and clever Mr. Fox finds a way to save the day. We watched George Clooney’s spin as Mr. Fox ages ago when Ashwin (now 16) was a toddler. His “what the cuss” line is still memorable.

🐢 “Esio Trot” should be skipped. Seriously. Mr. Hoppy is not a good person. Avi was in 2nd when we listened and he immediately asked: “is he kidnapping the tortoise?”. The moral here is extremely suspect. Do whatever it takes (lying, cheating, stealing) to get someone to love you. Nothing redeeming here. Pains me to say.

🐊 “The Enormouse Crocodile” is the shortest story in the collection. This one is narrated by Stephen Fry (who narrates the American edition of the HP books). It’s a sweet tale of jungle animals using teamwork to teach a gluttonous croc a lesson.

🦒 “The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me” is the most whimsical of the set. It involves the inimitable Hugh Laurie singing, so definitely audiobook this one. It’s a charming story of a misfit window washing crew. There’s a neat tie in to Willie Wonka. It keeps to the Roald Dahl message of good guys beating the bad ones in the zaniest way possible.