Animated Antic
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.
loganholley
Wes Anderson is an interesting figure. Maybe you've heard of him, maybe you haven't, but one things for certain: his works are amazingly unique. Sure, films like The Life Aquatic lack the coherence of other works such as Moonrise Kingdom, Fantastic Mr. Fox (hey!), and The Grand Budapest Hotel, but even at his worst, it's easy to find at least one thing to adore about his films. Now enter Roald Dahl. A prominent writer of books for Children (although, they do certainly still hold appeal to those older) who sadly passed around 2 decades ago, his style is a perfect blend of quirky. The way he tells his stories is so ingenious, and the same could be said about the characters that inhabit those little worlds. A Roald Dahl adaption by Wes Anderson is not something I realized was a match made in heaven until I saw Fantastic Mr.Fox, which, like the first word of it's title, is a kids film that should not be ignored.Wes Anderson is a mastermind when it comes to cinematography, and surprisingly, the same could be said about his hand in Stop-Motion Animation. The environments here are amazingly done, and the tone they convey is so perfect. It may be a quirky, up-lifting piece targeted at the little ones, but each location oozes atmosphere in a charming way. The presentation is nothing short of amazing, and, as typical with Wes Anderson pieces, melds so well with what happens on screen that it doesn't become a part of the movie you don't really notice, it essentially becomes a key point to notice when viewing. The animation on display is also outstanding. Puppet movement is never chunky enough for you to laugh at it for the wrong reasons, but the puppets themselves are silly enough for you to laugh at it for reasons that display just how much fun everybody invested had.Enough about the style, what about the substance? First off, the performances. There are few performances that would crumble a movie should they not be in the final product, and there are few examples that stand out to me more than George Clooney as Mr.Fox. His voice work matches up with the animation so well that I struggled at moments to envision him hunched over a microphone recording the lines given to him. Every line is said with attitude that fits deeply with the character, the enthusiasm and emotion is present to a point where it is no longer just a man pretending to be a fox puppet in some studio, but rather, a man who IS a fox puppet (as weird as that may sound). As for the rest of the performances, also amazing. I never heard a voice that I thought didn't match up with what I was seeing, and everybody in the cast seemed to enjoy what they were doing just so much. I never quite heard a voice that sounded weak, droopy, and bored.And then there's the writing. In my opinion, this is one of the best Wes Anderson films, even if it wasn't technically filmed in the traditional sense. The script, which he wrote with Noah Baumbach, is filled to the brim with charm, humor, and fun. The lines never came out as cheesy to me, and anything that might come remotely close is great, regardless. The real question that remains in a potential viewers head for an adaption, however, is simple: 'how faithful is this to it's source material?'. The book itself, which I haven't read myself in many years, is amazing, and though this film does add bits and pieces to that already established narrative, none of those bits and pieces never seemed to find a way to mess with what should be amazing. Dahl's quirky charm is almost on point with Anderson's, which works wonders as anything not originally there certainly feels like it could have been.Maybe a 10 is too generous, (I don't always see a fault where there are some, after all) but I really do think that Fantastic Mr.Fox is an excellent gateway to the works of Wes Anderson, one that excels greatly as a film itself. It's animation is, in layman's terms, brilliant, and it's perfect presentation fits that quite well. It oozes charm, and it's performances, especially that of Mr.Clooney, are notable as well. It's a brilliant adaption and a film that is, dare I say it, fantastic.
