Sunday, 16 July 2017

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Genres

Animation, Adventure, Comedy

Director

Wes Anderson

Country

USA

Voice Cast

George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson, Wallace Wolodarsky, Eric Anderson, Michael Gambon, Jarvis Cocker, Wes Anderson, Karen Duffy, Robin Hurlstone, Hugo Guinness, Helen McCrory, Adrien Brody

Storyline

Many years after giving up the criminal life, Mr. Fox (George Clooney) cannot resist raiding the three nastiest and meanest farmers, but it ends up in a horrible way and the lives of the entire animal community are put at stake.

Opinion

Although I've only seen a couple of Wes Anderson's films, I've always been intrigued and fascinated by his quirky directorial style. So when I found out he was the man behind Fantastic Mr. Fox, a movie that has been on my watchlist for a very long time, I had to watch it. And it was exactly as I was expecting it to be, a brilliant and fun stop-motion animation film. 

I never read Roald Dahl's book upon which the film is based, but to my understanding, the two couldn't be more different. What I do know is that the story Anderson brought to the screen is incredibly gripping, engaging and well developed. Also, despite the short running time, Anderson was able to incorporate several interesting subplots.

The most astonishing aspect of Fantastic Mr. Fox is the characters. The characterisation is impressive. Each character has its own rich personality and an actor/actress giving a great vocal performance, but what makes each one of them truly memorable is that something, that special feature they have thank to the wonderful animation. Let's think of Mr. Fox's grinding his teeth, the rat clicking his fingers, or the opossum's hypnotized eyes. These are the kind of things, in addition to their quirky personalities, that are truly mesmerising.

Which brings me to the fantastic stop-motion animation. It's beautifully crafted and fits Anderson's style and sense of humour to perfection.

Very fascinating is the way Anderson was able to incorporate his typical dysfunctional family in a movie that targets kids. And he delivers also some good messages, like the importance of family, people together are better and stronger.

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