The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and other Wes Anderson Roald Dahl Shorts (2023)

[MisterGlass]

Netflix recently debuted several shorts based on Roald Dahl stories that were adapted and directed by Wes Anderson - "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar," "Poison," "The Rat Catcher," and "The Swan."  Anderson previously adapted Dahl's "Fantastic Mr. Fox."  The films star Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Kingsley, Dev Patel, Ralph Fiennes, and Richard Ayoade in various roles.

I have watched the first three listed shorts.  Henry Sugar is the best, and longest, of those I've seen it.  It has all the Wes Anderson whimsical framing that a person could ask for, including theatrical staging and a story within a story within a story.  I enjoyed it a lot.

Poison was good but jarring, and showed how much Ben Kingsley can act in a few moments. 

I found the Rat Catcher disappointing.  It was a weird, dark tale that was afraid to show the weird, dark bits, and I'm not sure I would have wanted to see them.

[SeanC]

My ranking:

1. The Swan
2. Poison
3. The Rat Catcher
4. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

The first three are all interesting tonal departures from Anderson's typical aesthetic. At the same time, I thought The Swan made a particularly good case for the distanced narrative style he chose to employ, because I don't know that most people would be interested to watch a more naturalistic rendering of that story.

[EtheltoTillie]

I’ve only watched Henry Sugar so far, but I really liked it. And I usually dislike Wes Anderson. His using someone else for the source material helps.