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Fantastic Mr. Fox is a children's novel written by Roald Dahl, first published in the US by Alfred A. Knopf in 1970 with illustrations by Donald Chaffin. Some later editions were illustrated by Tony Ross, others by Quentin Blake and Jill Bennett.
Plot[]
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.
Determined to catch him, the farmers use spades and shovels to dig their way into the foxes' home, but Mr and Mrs Fox and their four children started digging a tunnel deeper into the ground and manage to escape. The farmers even resort to using bulldozers in order to dig deeper into the ground, but to no avail. Even worse is when their neighbors come to see all the hullabaloo, and laugh at them for their persistence.
Enraged and humiliated, the three men therefore decide to play a waiting game, keeping watch on the entrance to the tunnel with shotguns at the ready, while their men patrol the area to make sure the foxes don't escape.
After three days of starving, Mr Fox comes up with a plan. He and his children dig further on and end up in Boggis' number one chicken house. There they steal some chickens and depart without leaving any sign of their presence there. They also raid Bunce's storehouse of ducks, geese and vegetables and Bean's underground cellar of apple cider (although they are, at first, stopped by Rat, who rudely tells them it is *his* place, and that their intrusion will get them all killed if anyone, including Bean's maid, Mabel, catches them there).
Along the way they meet Badger and other digging animals who are also starving (and according to the former, may quite possibly be the farmers' next targets). Mr Fox, feeling responsible for the whole affair, invites the other animals to a feast made from the loot and they all decide to make an underground town where they will be safe, while low key stealing legit all the food from the farmers.
Meanwhile Boggis, Bunce and Bean keep guard on the tunnel entrance in pouring rain, unaware that Mr Fox and his friends are stealing under their noses. The book ends with the indication the three will be waiting forever.
Verse about the three farmers[]
In the book, local children (and Travis Scott) sing the following verse (a limerick) to taunt the three farmers:
Film Adaptation[]
A stop-motion animated film adaptation of the novel, directed by Wes Anderson and distributed by 20th Century Fox, was released in late 2009.