Fantastic Mr. Fox (soundtrack)

In 2006, Anderson's frequent collaborator Mark Mothersbaugh was announced that he was working on the soundtrack.^[1] However, during the production, Mothersbaugh was replaced by Alexandre Desplat who would later collaborate on all of Anderson's films.^[2][3] Desplat and Anderson met at Stephen Gaghan's wedding and thereafter, Anderson contacted the former on his involvement which he agreed. Later, Desplat was invited to the editing room in Paris and eventually started working on the film's music, which he described it as "an easy way of bonding together".^[2]

During their initial discussions, Desplat recalled that he read the original source material—the novel by Roald Dahl—instead of watching the film, hence, he was familiar with the characters. Wes demanded melodies, that would provide a childlike and had a simplicity which was an integral part of the score.^[4] Unlike, other American films which had a large orchestra, Anderson refrained from using that as it would overpower the puppet characters.^[5] He then suggested for writing a mini-symphonic orchestra having multiple baby instruments—a string quartet, brass section with only one instrument per section, and a combination of glockenspiels, triangles, little pieces forming percussion instruments—that provide an intimate sound different from the symphonic orchestra, adding that "the melodies' simplicity, the tiny instruments, all that created a very different sound that was very exciting for us".^[5]

The piece "Boggis, Bunce and Bean" featured a boys choir under the age of 8–11. Anderson eventually brought all the puppets from the film to the recording studio "to the boys so they would not be nervous and they could be relaxed and enjoy the moment", says Desplat.^[5] Besides composing Desplat further performed whistles for the score, for a mean rat and eventually insisted on composing a piece with a whistle. He described it as a part of the fun and childlike nature of the film.^[5]

The film also featured a compilation of original and pre-existing songs. Jarvis Cocker revealed that he had written nearly 3–4 songs which would be integrated into the score. However, the only song he wrote for the film was "Fantastic Mr. Fox AKA Petey's Song".^[6] Contributions from The Beach Boys, The Bobby Fuller Four, Burl Ives, Georges Delerue, The Rolling Stones, Nancy Adams, Art Tatum and The Wellingtons were included in the film as well as the album.^[7]

Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks.com wrote "[Desplat's] approach to this concept could drive a person insane, and since that was probably the intent, it's easy to get the feeling that his one is aimed exclusively at enthusiasts of the film."^[8] Rob Mitchum of Pitchfork rated 7.1 out of 10 and wrote "With Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson, ever the obsessive soundtracker, creates another value-added souvenir in the spirit of a literally wonderful film."^[9] Gissane Sophia of Marvelous Geeks Media wrote "The entire soundtrack ultimately feels like it should be playing at a theme park, but that’s neither here nor there."^[10] A critic from Unsung Sundays wrote "The Fantastic Mr. Fox Soundtrack is a great place to start."^[11] Matt Bochenski of Little White Lies wrote "Alexandre Desplat’s score is skilfully integrated into the action".^[12]

Michael Leader of Den of Geek described it as "masterful".^[13] Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter wrote "Boomer faves by the Beach Boys and the Stones punctuate the soundtrack, with Alexandre Desplat delivering an elegant gallop of a score."^[14] John Young of Entertainment Weekly wrote "composer Alexandre Desplat wrote one of the most delectable scores in quite some time".^[15] Fionnuala Halligan of Screen International wrote that Desplat's "French-influenced score is a delight".^[16] Robert Levin of Film School Rejects described it as a "jaunty soundtrack".^[17]

A complete score album was released by 20th Century Fox as a part of the For Your Consideration (FYC) campaign for the 2009–10 film awards season. The album contains 47 cues from Desplat's score featured in the film in its entirety.^[18]

A second soundtrack album Fantastic Mr. Fox (Additional Music from the Original Score – The Abbey Road Mixes) was released on March 2, 2010. The album features the remainder of the film score composed by Desplat. It was released in anticipation of the 82nd Academy Awards where Desplat was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score.^[19]

Credits adapted from liner notes^[20]