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50 free Fantastic Mr Fox trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox was published in 1970 and is barely 80 pages long, yet it has spawned a play, a musical, an opera that won a Grammy, a Royal Mail stamp and a Wes Anderson film in which George Clooney recorded his lines in a forest and every single frame contains the color orange. These 50 questions split between the book and the 2009 movie: the three farmers and what each one eats, the shot-off tail, Badger and the cider cellar, Rat and Mabel, the closing line, the 2023 text revisions and the illustrators from Donald Chaffin to Quentin Blake; then Anderson and Noah Baumbach's script, Henry Selick's departure for Coraline, 3 Mills Studios, Meryl Streep replacing Cate Blanchett, Ash and Kristofferson, Kylie the opossum, Alexandre Desplat's score and the two Oscar nominations that lost to Up. Every answer is cited to a page we checked. Play in sets of ten or print the list.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox first published?
1970
George Allen & Unwin published it in the UK and Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S., with illustrations by Donald Chaffin.
Q 02Who illustrated the first edition of Fantastic Mr Fox?
Donald Chaffin
Jill Bennett drew the 1974 Puffin paperback, Tony Ross the 1988 edition and Quentin Blake the 1996 one.
Q 03Which illustrator's pictures appeared in the 1996 edition of the book?
Quentin Blake
Blake is now the illustrator most associated with Dahl, but he did not draw this title until 26 years after it came out.
Q 04How many children does Mr Fox have in the book?
Four
The 2009 film replaced the four unnamed cubs with one son, Ash, and a visiting cousin, Kristofferson.
Q 05What are the names of the three farmers Mr Fox steals from?
Boggis, Bunce and Bean
Dahl describes them as cruel, rude, wicked and dim-witted. The film gives them first names: Walt, Nate and Frank.
Q 06When the farmers ambush Mr Fox outside his hole, what do they manage to shoot off?
His tail
In the film, Ash and Kristofferson later sneak back to Bean's farm to try to reclaim the missing tail.
Q 07After spades fail, what do the farmers use to dig up the Foxes' hill?
Excavators
The Foxes simply dig deeper, and the farmers are ridiculed for the mess, so they decide to starve the family out instead.
Q 08How many days are the Foxes trapped underground before Mr Fox hatches his plan?
Three
He tunnels from memory toward Boggis's four chicken houses, then on to Bunce's storehouse and Bean's cider cellar.
Q 09Which animal friend joins Mr Fox on his tunneling mission in the book?
Badger
Badger and his family, plus the Moles, Rabbits and Weasels, are invited to the feast by way of apology for being caught up in the siege.
Q 10Which farmer keeps the secret cider cellar that Mr Fox raids last?
Bean
There they are nearly caught by Bean's servant Mabel and have a run-in with the cellar's resident, Rat.
Q 11What is the name of Bean's servant who nearly catches the animals in the cellar?
Mabel
Felicity is Mrs Fox's first name in the film; Agnes is the Foxes' adopted daughter in the film's cast list.
Q 12What does Mr Fox propose to the animals at the celebratory banquet?
A secret underground neighbourhood
He promises to hunt for them daily so no one need fear the farmers again; everyone cheers.
Q 13The book ends with the narrator saying the farmers are, so far as he knows, still doing what?
Waiting
Boggis, Bunce and Bean are left sitting outside the hole in vain while the animals feast below.
Q 21Who directed the 2009 film adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox?
Wes Anderson
Anderson said he signed on because Dahl was one of his heroes. He co-wrote the script with Noah Baumbach.
Q 22Who co-wrote the screenplay of the 2009 film with its director?
Noah Baumbach
Baumbach had previously co-written The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou with Anderson.
Q 23What animation technique is the film primarily made in?
Stop motion
The puppets were built by Mackinnon & Saunders, and many of the crew had animated Tim Burton's Corpse Bride.
Q 14Which Australian children's prize did Fantastic Mr Fox win in 1994?
The Read Aloud BILBY Award
The BILBY Awards are voted by children through the Children's Book Council of Australia.
Q 15In 2012, Mr Fox appeared on what?
A Royal Mail stamp
The commemorative stamp set marked Roald Dahl's work. Dahl himself and Martin Jarvis have each recorded audio readings of the book.
Q 16Who composed the opera of Fantastic Mr Fox that premiered at Los Angeles Opera in 1998?
Tobias Picker
Gerald Finley sang Mr Fox. A 2019 recording by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Odyssey Opera won the Grammy for Best Opera Recording.
Q 17A 2019 Boston Modern Orchestra Project release of the Picker adaptation won what?
A Grammy Award
Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Odyssey Opera made the recording. Opera Holland Park had staged a new version outdoors in 2010.
Q 18David Wood's stage play of the book premiered in 2001 in which city?
Coventry
A separate musical ran at the Nuffield in Southampton over Christmas 2016 before touring the UK.
Q 19In Puffin's controversial 2023 revisions, roughly how many changes were made to Fantastic Mr Fox?
More than fifty
Changes included dropping the word "black" from a description of tractors and turning one of Mr Fox's sons into a daughter.
Q 20In the 2023 revised text, Boggis hops about like what, instead of "like a dervish"?
A frog
Dahl had told his publishers not to change "a single comma." His U.S., French and Dutch publishers refused to adopt the edits.
Q 24Who provides the voice of Mr. Fox in the film?
George Clooney
Anderson recorded the voices outdoors, in a forest, an attic and a stable, to get spontaneous performances.
Q 25Which actress was originally cast as Mrs. Fox before Meryl Streep took the role?
Cate Blanchett
Blanchett left for undisclosed reasons. In the film Mrs. Fox has a first name, Felicity.
Q 26Who voices Ash, Mr. Fox's small and insecure son, in the film?
Jason Schwartzman
Eric Chase Anderson, the director's brother, voices Ash's athletic cousin Kristofferson, a source of jealousy for Ash.
Q 27Kristofferson comes to stay with the Foxes because his father is being treated for what?
Double pneumonia
His full name in the film is Kristofferson Silverfox; he is Felicity's nephew.
Q 28Who voices the Foxes' lawyer, Clive, in the film?
Bill Murray
The film makes Badger a lawyer who warns Mr. Fox against buying the tree house near the three farms.
Q 29Which actor voices farmer Bean in the film?
Michael Gambon
Hurlstone voices Boggis and Guinness voices Bunce. Helen McCrory plays Mrs. Bean.
Q 30Who voices Rat, Bean's violent security guard, in the film?
Willem Dafoe
Rat is pushed into a generator during a fight with Mr. Fox and, before dying, reveals where Kristofferson is held.