Cate Blanchett Movie:

				Label: 20th Century Fox Salesrank:
		MPAA Rating: Media: Theatrical Release

Editorial Review:
The visually ravishing animated movie The Fantastic Mr. Fox follows a fox, voiced by George Clooney and dressed in a natty brown corduroy suit, as he cheerfully and recklessly takes his thieving ways a little too far and brings down the wrath of some sour-faced poultry farmers on his family and friends. Based on a lesser-known book by children's author Roald Dahl (who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach), the movie is the work of Wes Anderson (writer-director of Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums), who expanded and elaborated on the original story; the combination is inspired. Anderson's sensibility--his fondness for meticulous compositions, coordinated colors, and narrative filigree--can sometimes seem finicky and stiff in live-action movies, but it's exquisitely suited to the painstaking art of stop-motion animation. Every corner of the screen crackles with visual invention and whimsical humor. The top-notch vocal cast (which also features Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, Owen Wilson, and others) create vivid personalities that perfectly mesh with the movie's lush colors and luscious textures. The Fantastic Mr. Fox is an off-beat gem, a giddy mix of adult emotional issues, wild animal behavior, and childlike delight. --Bret Fetzer

The Fantastic Mr. Fox [Theatrical Release] Reviews:
4.5 stars for this pretty fantastic little film.
2009-12-10 - My family and I saw FANTASTIC MR. FOX on Thanksgiving, one of the busiest movie-going evenings of the year. We were in a group of about 30 folks watching this film...a sad statement. It's one of the wittiest (not just funny, but witty) animated films in a long time, and a truly original piece of filmmaking. When movies like PLANET 51 or ...CHANCE OF MEATBALLS can make 5 times as much at the box office, I can only bemoan how many people have caused their kids (and themselves) to miss out on the experience of seeing how challenging films can be, and how much FUN that can be.

Director Wes Anderson is one of my favorite filmmakers. I know there are MANY people who agree, and MANY MORE who disagree fairly vehemently. For everyone who loved DARJEELING LIMITED, many more found it inert, pretentious, boring or unemotional. Ditto ROYAL TENNANBAUMS. Double ditto LIFE AQUATIC. I admit, Anderson can be a bit "clever" in his style. He films everything from a lower than usual angle. His camera either sits still or moves side to side...seldom in and out. He keeps us at a distance this way...much like his characters tend to be emotionally distant or shut off. The humor in his scripts is often dry and laced with sadness. When his characters to express their emotional sides, it comes in short bursts that demonstrates a form of being stunted. His characters are super smart, and very unwise.

Yet in FANTASTIC MR. FOX, even Anderson's critics are finding much to love. The same filmmaking style is there, but there is also something charming about the way in which he trains his camera on these awkwardly animated figures. They are frequently filmed at "odd" angles, but what this does is allow us to SEE more of the character than we might in a more traditionally framed movie. His reduced depth-of-field works even better with animation...particularly animation this "crude." (It isn't really crude, don't freak out.)

Adapted from the Roahld Dahl story, MR. FOX follows its title character...a dashing, daring young scoundrel of a fox who gives up his dangerous life of chicken-thieving and living on the edge in order to settle down with the love of his life and have a family. Skip ahead some time, and the Foxes are living in an underground den, where dad is a newspaper reporter (an endangered species?) and his son constantly disappoints him by having a singularly UNdaring nature. Fox is a good husband and father, but his true nature constantly nags at him, and in a mad burst, he purchases an above ground tree in which to live. And from there, he can clearly see the facilities of three big, evil farmers. And it's a short step from there to returning (albeit without telling his wife) to a life of thieving and trickery. It makes him feel young again and makes him feel he's being true to his nature. It also gets him, his family and the whole animal community into some SERIOUS trouble.

There really isn't much to the plot, per se. The film is more about little incidents, observations and conversations. And it's all shown to us via stop-motion animation. These furry animals move in a manner frankly reminiscent of the original KING KONG. We see their fur move from frame to frame, where the animators clearly were manipulating the little creatures. They are primitively constructed...and yet the film is 100% true to its own aesthetic throughout. While many scenes look flat (and everything is brown)...there is a feeling of life in every moment. It may be the rippling fur, and it may be the outstanding voice work.

George Clooney plays Mr. Fox and his wife is voiced by Meryl Streep. Jason Schwartzmann is their cowardly, clumsy son. These 3 work together very well, and although I wasn't sitting there the whole time noticing that stars were doing the voices...there was also a sense of familiarity that was very welcome. Clooney has become a master of the "wacky" character (MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS, BURN AFTER READING, LEATHERHEADS)...and this movie shows that it is his voice as much as his physicality that makes this work. Schwartzmann plays the "dreary" son much like we'd expect him to...infused with chagrin and sadness.

As I mentioned, Anderson's humor is often coupled with sadness...and we have that here too. Whether Fox is longing for his past life, or his wife wishes her husband was happy with what he had or their son wishes Dad was prouder of him...that sense of sadness is there. These are the richest animated characters in a long time (outside of most Pixar films)...and it's easy to care about these funny looking creatures. There are many delightful other characters as well, including badgers (Bill Murray, hilarious), moles and so on.

But the movie can be readily enjoyed without reading much into it. It's got loads of off-kilter humor (the shots of Fox eating are almost worth the price of admission!), a GREAT soundtrack (Anderson is almost as good as Tarantino at picking great music) and a satisfying conclusion, one that delivers a Hollywood feel, but is uniquely odd as well.

So please do yourself (and the film) a favor, and check out FANTASTIC MR. FOX. It is, indeed, fantastic.

A foxy little film
2009-12-07 - "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" is an entertaining, visually pleasing tale based on the classic book by Roald Dahl. In the film, Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney) is a former bird thief who goes against the wishes of his wife (voiced by Meryl Streep) and returns to his criminal life. Unfortunately, Mr. Fox takes things a bit too far, and his shenanigans cause three local farmers to wage war on the entire Fox family, which also implicates all the other critters in the area.

Children and adults will enjoy this film, which is beautiful to watch. The movie has great characters and clever dialogue, and it is so much better than most of the animated films being produced today. I highly recommend this movie for the whole family.

***1/2 = Storyline/Animation = Great, Humor/Jokes = Horrible
2009-12-06 - We have basically been seeing too many CGI animated movies where most of them are getting tiresome, with the exception of the Pixar films. There have been some other great non-Pixar movies, such as "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," so-so ones, like "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" and crappy ones like "Monsters vs. Aliens." We're on a third stop motion animation. After seeing the amazing "Coraline" and the pathetic "9," "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" will deliver everything to critics just in time for award season.

Compared "Mr. Fox" to a lot of movies, I really didn't think it was in the quality of Pixar at all. It wasn't even as good as "Up" and definitely not as good as "Finding Nemo." Also compared to a lot of movies that are playing out there, I'm sure it will make its way through awards season, but it definitely won't top "Where the Wild Things Are" (which I think is the best movie playing right now).

I know that "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" is based on the Roahl Dahl book and Dahl does deliver with his movies based on a book motion picture adaptations. It's just that I have mixed feelings with some of his movies. I loved the original "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and "James and the Giant Peach," didn't like the remake "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" in 2005, and I also thought "Matilda" had too many issues to deal with children and school. "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" will just fall somewhere in the middle.

"The Fantastic Mr. Fox" tells the story of an ordinary fox named Mr. Fox. His friends describe him fantastic but the humans are planning to take over his colony (at least this is what I think). He ends up going on a mission where one of his friends gets kidnapped and leading Mr. Fox and his friends to save him. And also, one of the humans plans steals his tail to use as a tie.

Yeah, I know, it's a little weird. It's just that amazing that people finds this stuff funny. To me, I think it was all right. My friend did state at the party that it doesn't have anything like South Park humor which actually is a so-so thing to them but to me some of its humor was more like Simpsons related humor. And yes, I would have to admit that "The Simpsons" is funny for everyone to enjoy and to me. I can understand why people like this. When it comes with to adult humor, I can understand why people think its funny, but to me, it's okay.

That's just me in a nutshell. I don't mind adult humor here and there, but this went way out of hand. I could prefer the adult humor used in the "Wallace & Gromit" cartoons, but this just went a little too far off.

I really think it is about time we are getting another stop motion animation. Those things take up as much work as possible compared to that of CGI. We had two stop motion animation movies this year, which were "Coraline" and "9." And we're also finally getting another 2D animated movie next week, "The Princess and the Frog," a first since "The Simpsons Movie" (yeah that was 2D and good for adults and tolerable for me), but this was also be a first full-length from Disney in years, not counting as "Enchanted," which was both 2D and live action.

"The Fantastic Mr. Fox" has excellent animation. It's something that would be worth seeing at a festival than at a regular movie theater. But to me, this animation has been very good. It's the same techniques that they used in movies like "Wallace & Gromit" to make their films to become success. I'm just very selective though on animation. I mean, I love animation movies, but mostly Pixar. Other than that, there's a lot of animated movies that I like more than others. But I would have to back to the fact that I did think Mr. Fox was very funny.

Overall, I think "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" is worth seeing only for the adults than for the kids. I enjoyed it either way, though not as much as I would enjoy an average Pixar movie on a regular basis. The storyline and the animation were great, the humor and the jokes weren't just as funny enough. They could at least throw in more of the the humor and jokes that you would see in "Shrek" to make it a lot more successful, but it was just what any type of animated movie in that category could be. It's not topping off my Academy Awards list but I think we should see what the awards say for this movie to each its own.

Takes away the glory of the big screen.
2009-12-05 - This is the fifth time in 2009 alone that I run into those animation productions that ruined my joy of getting to movie theaters. After the Ice Age, the G-Force, Planet 51, and the Christmas Carol, I was already fed up with all animation movies. This one topped them all with its silliness.

Even though animations permitted the producers to invent diverse and effective characters, it exposed the weakness of making elegant characters, motions, or plots. The artists put too much labor in making the faces of the characters appear rich and impressive. Yet, all artistic ingenuity were depleted in making gracefully moving or talking characters.

The stiffed and skinny foxes made up a polarized existence that is far inferior to the real world of our beloved animals. Drawing parallels between the conflicts of the survival needs of the farmers and the wolves with those of human conflicts was overreaching. Making the best of enjoying the artistic richness of the movie did not reconcile my discontent with Mr. Fox.

Though most movie theaters display brief description of movies, those pamphlets are meticulously designed to escape the attention of busy people. In theaters where the description posters were intentionally hidden, I never took a chance wasting my time and money on nonsensical stuff. Fantastic Mr. Fox will be my last entrapment in sitting in a theater for a total waste. Beside myself, there was another poor guy sitting in the 120-seat theater. In the same night, I had to see the Blind Side for the sake of getting over my anger of being stuck with wolves suffering from spinal Billiard sticks.

Considering the enormous resources spent on movie display, I doubt that the $20 total per show would pay for the utility usage or the space rental. Even the $4.75 cups of soda in movie theaters are gathering dust from Sunday through Friday. As such, movies theaters would be better off playing the true legendary movies than competing for new high-risk productions.


Great kids film that doesn't pander
2009-12-04 - I enjoyed this film as much as my five year-old daughter. It was quite refreshing to have an uncomplicated story meant for kids that doesn't patronize--certain "adult" themes like a a married couple arguing over the husband's career choices or mistakes, the "existential" crisis -- are left in, giving you in the end a film that works, I think, for all ages. Well done by all. I particularly like the visual style and soundtrack. Her favorite part: the surprise glimpse of the wolf.