Review of Fantastic Mr. Fox

I'm a little late in the game, watching all these 2009 animated films several months after their release in theaters, but here's another quick 'late review'.


My opinion of Mr. Fox.... WOW! What a fun film! I couldn't take my eyes off of it. So stylish, and so unique. There is no question that Fantastic Mr. Fox is undistilled Wes Anderson -- I suppose the only way it could've been more pure is if he did all the voices himself. The film is every trait from his live action movies magnified, or to put it more distinctly, expressed to their most accurate degrees.


I hate the fact that people assume the film was "purposefully made to look cheap". Just because it wasn't as fluid animation as Corpse Bride does not make it any less entertaining or any less difficult to design, produce and animate. It is a very deliberate and original style, both in design and motion. Consider the way the characters are shot; the art production of the sets; the way the characters act, the way their eyes move, the way they walk into a room, the way they are mostly still and are punctuated with rapid movement, and even the way they dance. Do you think Anderson could ever get his actors to dance that way?


The thing about animation -- and stop-motion animation in particular -- is that "preformances" have to be precise right down to every frame; and so with Fantastic Mr. Fox, we may have the ultimate Wes Anderson movie in terms of look and feel. It is fascinating to watch, and the story itself is also very delightful, as Anderson's sensibilities, sometimes too self-consciously twee with live actors, work extremely well in this animated format.


This story of a society of wild animals living in disharmony with some nasty neighboring farmers is about the call of one's individuality, and it's quite comedically voice-acted by George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, and others. Now I'm starting to wish every auteur would go and make his or her own stop-motion animated flick. I was glad to watch the film in one of the animation classes that I instructed this week (lately, my only way to catch a movie), and I think this is my favorite Wes Anderson film.