Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

As part of my flight to Boston in preparation for our camp, American Airlines had this movie as an option for in-flight entertainment. Given its placement on my watchlist, I figured I would be opportunistic. What do I think?To start with, this film is written in a way that puts it at the middle ground between children's and adult's animation. It adapts Dahl's children's novel into something a tad more heavy-hearted. I won't talk about the story too much since it succeeded in adapting the novel, but its additions (such as the capture of Kristofferson) are written in a way that actually work out in its favor. Our characters benefit from this too, with the combination of familiarity from the novel and somewhat modern twists to their personality (such as Kristofferson's flair for meditation). It actually seems that both our protagonists and antagonists can be sympathized with; out of mere nature, the former want their food and the latter want to keep them away. While the Foxes can be summed up as the usual family of 3, I enjoyed Rat's threatening demeanor, Petey's music, and Kylie's comic stare. What really strengthens the characters, however, is the believable and spot-on voice acting. It fits both the cartoonish influence of Dahl's novel for some characters and the different aim of this movie for others. The stop motion environments feel like they are very comparable to Aardman's work, with the detail on the fields and locations, the unique character models. Like Kubo and the Two Strings, the animation possesses surprising fluidity in the movements of both characters and objects, which is wonderful for its assortment of action/peril scenes.This isn't really a "children's" movie as much as it is a family movie. Children will enjoy the cute animals and the similarities to Dahl's work, while adults will enjoy the action, humor, and less light-hearted tone. It's worth 87 minutes of anyone's time, really, and I'll be cussed if anyone didn't end up having a good thing to say about it. OK, maybe once was enough...

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Director: Wes Anderson Watched: April 2018 4/10 Where is Roald Dahl? Fine start but soon became bored, Siding with bad guys. Have pause button ready though, For set design and knolling! Tanka, literally "short poem", is a form of poetry consisting of five lines, unrhymed, with the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable format. #Tanka #PoemReview #WesAnderson

Looking at the front cover of the bluray, it looked to be cute, fun and super child friendly. It's fun, definitely. Cute? Sure. Super child friendly? No no no. Yes children can watch it but the screenplay was absolutely genius, they just wouldn't appreciate it. This was hilarious. Me laughing on multiple occasions is a rare achievement for any film, trust Wes Anderson and his quirky quirkiness to win me over. This is easily one of his strongest films, both in script and technical direction. His style is so unique and inventive that it's hard not to admire it. His centralisation of characters or objects in shots are just innovative, forcing the audience to become absorbed with what's on screen. Plenty of direct address to entice the viewer which I'm sure the younger audience will appreciate. But this screenplay. Genius. Masterful. Quotable. So many nice touches like substituting curse words with the word "cuss". Might go over children, but damn it made me laugh. "What a cluster-cuss". Ha! Only Anderson could pull that off in an animation. Every character had a unique and creative personality. Mr Fox was sly and suave, his son Ash was eccentric, nephew Kristofferson was perfect in every way, heck even Mrs Fox had some personality...she's a fully independent woman *click fingers in zig zag formation*. The voice casting choices were spot on. Clooney has that suave voice that suited Mr Fox, Streep has the power behind her voice for Mrs Fox. Schwartzman was the stand out, his line execution ensured laughter from viewers...so good! The only criticism I have is the soundtrack, some of the songs just didn't work for me and I think an original score would've suited the animation better. Oh, the stop motion work was tremendous. It's a dying art, so I can fully appreciate the time spent on a project like this. Overall, this took me by surprise. Honestly. I think older viewers will actually find more enjoyment due to the adventurous script. Can't wait to watch it again.

God, this film's phenomenal. The weirdest interpretation of a Roald Dahl book I've ever seen (yes, including Gene Wilder's Tunnel of Horror in Willy Wonka), but nevertheless phenomenal. The soundtrack's fantastic, the jokes are great, the story is bizarrely touching, and all in all I just absolutely love Fantastic Mr. Fox.