Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

This movie was my fourth stop-motion I've seen since Aardman's Early Man and this movie blew my mind and it's one of my favorite adaptations of a children's book I've ever seen!What can I say but... WOW WOW WOW! This movie was amazing and very humorous in relating to life's greatest blunders and achievements! Wes Anderson is awesome in this movie! Can't wait for Isle of Dogs!You rock Wes! Keep being wierd!

Out of the many books by children's authors that are adapted to film, the books by Roald Dahl mostly tend to be excellent. Save for Tim Burton's disastrous retelling of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", I have really enjoyed the movies made based on Dahl's books. Now we have another movie that I can happily say is yet another great adaptation. "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is the debut animated movie from famed director Wes Anderson and he was able to craft a movie that can successfully do some elements differently from the book while also adding touches to make the movie memorable. I'll explain why this really works out well.Mr. Fox (George Clooney) and his wife Felicity (Meryl Streep) have given up the life of raiding farms after their only son, Ash (Jason Schwartzman). Mr. Fox is now a newspaper columnist and has now moved the family from a burrow to a tree nearby three farms run by three dangerous farmers named Boggis (Robin Hurlstone), Bunce (Hugo Guinness) and Bean (Michael Gambon). Wanting to conduct one last raid, Mr. Fox, his assistant possum Kylie (Wallace Wolodarsky) and his nephew Kristofferson (Eric Anderson) steals items from all three farms much to the farmers and Felicity's anger. Wanting to kill the fox, the farmers come along and try to dig the foxes out of their tree only to discover that the foxes keep digging away from the danger. After having led to the destructions of their home and the homes of other critters, Mr. Fox decides to declare war on the farmers in order to fight for their survival.The thing that I really enjoyed about this movie was the script. The script in this movie written by Anderson and director Noah Baumbach was smartly written as well as very funny. Though the movie can be viewed by kids, I think adults well enjoy the movie more mainly due to how adult the film is. The characters talk like people in other movies minus the swear words which Anderson and Schwartzman simply replace with the word "cuss". As an example, the character would say something like "The cuss you would," or "That was the craziest cussing thing I've ever done." You might think it would get old fast, but it actually doesn't. I also like how the story can be both faithful and different to the book at the same time. Elements to the story are added, particularly the relationship between Mr. Fox and Felicity and I personally think it's needed to advance the story along and give the characters some depth. As for the animation, it's brilliantly crafted. It's done entirely in stop motion animation without any digital help which I found very impressive. It also included some of Anderson's style into the film as well like the camera angles being mostly centered. I also really enjoyed the characters in the movie. Where in the book they are likable though don't have a lot of personality, here they are given tons of personality and charisma to boast. Even a subplot involving a feud between Ash and Kristofferson which I thought would be the weakest part of the movie was actually really well realized and written. As far as flaws goes, the character designs of the humans did bother me at times due to how odd they were, though they were not too bad to be distracting."Fantastic Mr. Fox" is a very smart movie with a well written story, some impressive animation and characters with lots of personality and charm to boast. Considering that this is the first animated film from Wes Anderson, I'm really impressed by how much detailed elements went into this film. I'm very eager to see if he continues to make stop-motion movies because I feel he can reach the heights of the people at Aardman and Henry Selick. We'll just have to wait and see.

Mr. Foxy Fox is voiced by George Clooney, but this isn't just some publicity stunt, Clooney has always been somewhat a foxy guy, handsome, clever in a funny way with a touch of darkness, when he says "I'm just a wild animal", it sounds like something Clooney would say about himself. The actor is no Day-Lewis but he has always been good in that particular range of smooth-talking small-time crooks, whose looks and natural swiftness make him get away with everything… except with the one who won't take it. Because, you know guys like Clooney or foxes have their weakest point, which generally coincides with the heart.Felicity Fox comes only one minute later in the picture. Before, we just saw Foxy warming up a little, he's at the top of his game as number one thief, and in what other job would a fox excel if not stealing? In this movie, animals' personalities are defined by their archetypes but Anderson, faithful to Dahl's spirit, always find a little twist, a way to play with it rather than being chained to it. And the whole tonality of the film indicates that this is a rather adult-oriented movie. Indeed Mrs. Fox comes from the doctor, a few minutes later, during a fox-trap situation; she'll reveal what we didn't dare to suspect. It seems like Fox is caught in a worse trap with no getaway except the promise to go straight.Meryl Streep has always possessed that homely, motherly authority and creates the perfect contrast with Clooney. Together, they form a more believable couple than any live-action movie. As a matter of fact, it's a miracle how Anderson finds the perfect tone between a ludicrous premise (style-wise) and the authenticity of his characters. His movie is set in a world where humans and animals coexist and seem to live within the same standards, except for one thing: humans have all the rights, they can raise, domesticate, kill and eat animals, this is the only Disney territory where Anderson ventures. But the paradox of anthropomorphic animals confronted to normal humans is one of the film's most creative bits. It's interesting though that the two worlds rarely share the screen.The film is based on the childhood rhyme about three mean men, Boggus, Bunce and Bean, one fat, one short and one lean, they're three farmers who mind their own business (poultry, duck raising and cider) before they're victim of Fox' robberies. With the help of their new house's attendant Kylie Oppossum (Wallace Wollodarsky), Fox steals from the three farmers and make mortal enemies out of them. The three men will know no rest until they get Fox, digging him out to the point that all the furry animals are forced to live underground and risk starvation. But foxes have more than one trick under their sleeves and thankfully, the plot doesn't just rely on a simple humans vs. animals antagonisms, there are a few demons to overcome within the animalistic characters and Anderson treat them sometimes with the same three-dimensionality than the people from his live-action movies.In fact, anyone familiar with Anderson's style shouldn't be surprised by the kinship with his films.Anderson is a director who cherishes static shots and linear movements, in perhaps the style that is the closest to comic-books than any other directors or maybe animation à la Hanna-Barbera. In the film, characters run like in the old Atari video games, and the digging looks exactly the same except in the vertical sense. We suspect that the 'artistic license' was also forced by a few budget restrictions and the fact that Anderson isn't an animator from the start, but he finds a way to transcend possible flaws and turn them into old-fashioned visual delights, as the lack of green and blue provided a nice autumnal sepia texture. The eloquence of the scripts makes up for the static moments, many times people talk without necessary looking at each other, which also simplifies the use of stop motions.Overall, the stop-motion gives a real edge to the film and is perfect for a movie centering on furry and funny characters, each fox has a unique design and fur complexion accentuating the realism (while the human characters are more ordinary looking with the help of CGI). The real thrill of the film comes from the various personalities, and they're surprisingly believable. A masterstroke of characterization is Ash (Jason Schwartzman), the teenage son (two years in fox years) who could have been a little brat or an awkward teenager, like any of the "Incredibles" children, but he's a kid who lives in the shadow of his father, who's bullied because of his short height, who's everything his father is not, and who must suffer from the inevitable comparisons with his cousin Kristofferson, who's everything he's not. I never thought a movie would feature an archetype that has seldom been in movies: the perfect guy.After two Hayao Miyazaki's movies, which multiply the number of viewings by two to fully get the films' brilliance, my mind needed a rest. I pulled a Monty Python and said to myself: and now for something different. Yes, I needed to see something new, imaginative enough to challenge my perceptions but in a more soothing way. I didn't know what to expect exactly from "The Fantastic Mr. Fox", but that ignorance was perfect, the film was exactly the medication I needed, I longed for something different and maybe the best compliment I can give to this Foxy adventure is that it's like no animated film I've seen before and like no animated film you'll ever see, from beginning to end. And one thing for sure, this Mr. Fox is indeed, fantastic.And as if ever needed, here's another offering that proves that Wes Anderson is as much an auteur as Miyazaki in the sense that he really invented a style, a form of storytelling that channels his own creativity, in total symbiosis.

'The Fantastic Mr. Fox' takes Wes Anderson's quirky directing style and applies it to animation. All the classic Anderson elements are there (relentless symmetry, wide shots with tiny elements of motion, laconic dialogue punctuated with pauses, etc), but in this case, all is acted out by stop-action, animal models. The result is a great animated 'action' film – a little dark at times (as befits a Roald Dahl story), but otherwise enjoyable by all ages. Marquee voice talent adds a lot to the wandering story of a fox (and father) dealing with his family and friends, and the disastrous consequences of his compulsion to steal from the local cabal of farmers. Much of the fun is in the details, so watch closely. The music (especially the children's chant motif) and the visualisation of the most 'psychotic' of the three nasty farmers adds a lot to the pleasingly grim-lite mood of the film.