Fantastic Mr. Fox

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damn this film good

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source: Fantastic Mr. Fox

There has been a lot of love that has been put into Wes Anderson's "Fantastic Mr Fox", unfortunately all the love is for himself. Granted, there has been a lot of time and effort been put into making this ever so self-consciously quirky universe but if only the same time and effort had been put into the script to try and make it funny. The worrying thing is that I think it was, and this is the best that Wes Anderson could come up with. The animation is good in the close-up shots of the animals, however when the camera is further away everything becomes really harsh on the eyes and to be perfectly honest looks like a bit of a mess. There wasn't really anything special about the acting either, with Wes opting to choose his buddies and big names over more specialised voice actors that could have probably made the film better. I'm pretty sure George Clooney's voice acting resume consists of two cameo appearances in South Park, one of them where he played a dog. The film is too smug and trying way too hard to be clever and different and is typically, despite the film being set in England, all the good animals are typical Americans playing baseball, whilst the bad guys are stereotypical English with the most insulting English accents. I cannot stress how much of a waste of time this film is. I didn't laugh once.

I love this movie. The visuals, the endearment from the characters, the ARCS oh boy the character arcs in this movie are SO SO AMAZING. Anderson makes you feel and care for the characters from square one which is a supremely difficult task to do (most directors/writers instead employ making them dislikable because it's way easier). The visuals are top notch and super original which deserves + 1 star on its own so really this movie gets a 11/10 from me. The story and the overall effect of this movie to inspire artistic creations and not be afraid of telling a story from your unique perspective is what this movie should really be looked on about. It's a masterpiece.

This film piqued my interest for two reasons -- the fact it was based on something by Roald Dahl (known for quirky stories) and the fact that Meryl Streep voiced one of the characters. I realize the second reason was a bit shallow, but the film turned out to be equally so. I had to work to find bits of joy. The first third or so of the film was very slow. I cannot think of when the last time was that I considered walking out of a film, but the beginning of this one had me contemplating a walk out. Finally, the actual Dahl story kicked in at about that point -- and got a little more interesting. Overall, the film lacked any real reason for me to care for any of the characters or what happened to them. Mr Fox (George Clooney's voice) was, from the start, self-centered and wanting to prove himself to the world, to be famous, as he admitted several times during the movie. But, he had no real, redeeming qualities. His son, Ash, was equally shallow. Kristofferson (nephew), was created as a too-good-to-be-real child. The evil rat (Willem Dafoe) was delightful, and the single-minded fury of Farmer Bean and his wife was somewhat engaging. However, Mrs Felicity Fox (Meryl Streep's voice) was only mildly intriguing, and while her husband was a less than admirable spouse, her blunt comment to him indicating her regret in marrying him to begin with did nothing to make her endearing. Finally, there was a poorly coordinated side story - that Mr Fox had a fear of wolves, and in the film's culmination, Mr Fox meets a wolf and they show each other a begrudging respect in an overly long segment. Unfortunately, since the fear of foxes had been largely glossed over during most of the film and truly underdeveloped, this scene falls flat and feels completely out of place. My favorite take away from the film - besides Bill Murray's voice as Badger (and, to a certain degree, Meryl's voice as an uninteresting Mrs Fox) - was the use of the word 'cuss' by any character wishing to swear. The first couple of times it was used, I pricked my ears in curiosity. But, then there was a whole scene filled with 'cuss' this and 'cuss' that. And, for some reason, I found it quite funny. Likely, the reason I was so easily amused was that I had been waiting, hoping, praying for something, anything, to be funny. So, when this came along, I grasped it with both hands and held on tight. I have no doubt the studio is well aware the film is teetering, dangerously close to being a royal flop. Which is why it comes as no surprise that they are waiting to open it back home in the States on Thanksgiving weekend -- with the hopes that millions of young children will drag their parents to the film before turkey day festivities or as a break amidst 'Black Friday' shopping sprees. They may be able to recoup some costs this way, and, if they are lucky, audiences will be too mellowed out by tryptophan-induced comas from turkey feasts to notice that this movie seriously underachieves its ability to truly be 'Fantastic.'