SYNOPSIS:
George Clooney and Meryl Streep lend their voices to this hilarious
and heartwarming animated adventure from visionary director
Wes Anderson. Mr. and Mrs. Fox (Clooney and Streep) live a happy
home life with their eccentric son Ash (Jason Schwartzman) and
visiting nephew Kristopherson. That is until Mr. Fox slips into
his sneaky, old ways and plots the greatest chicken heist the
animal world has ever seen. Based on the beloved, best-selling
book by Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory),
FANTASTIC MR. FOX is family fun at its finest.
MOVIE REVIEW:
When
you think of stop-motion animations, the name Henry Selick
comes to mind. This is the man behind the hugely successful
"The Nightmare Before Christmas"and also "James
And The Giant Peach" and the recent "Coraline".
Back
in 2004, it was announced that Wes Anderson, the quirky, talented
guy behind "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums"
is doing a stop-motion picture based on a Roald Dahl children
book with Selick. It never sort of comes to fruition in the
end as the original studio folds and Selick went on to helm
"Coraline". Anderson presses on and there you have
it, "Fantastic Mr. Fox" in all its glory stop-motion
animation after years of production.
The basic premise of the story comes from
Roald Dahl’s 1970 children book of the same name but
Anderson took some creative license of his own to expand some
background story of Mr. Fox, the prologue and the ending to
stretch it to a full-length feature. Mr. Fox is still Mr.
Fox (George Clooney) though he is now working as a columnist
of sorts instead of a chicken thief to feed his family. Old
habits die hard and being a wild animal, Mr. Fox is back to
his chicken-hunting days with his opossum friend after 12
years of absence. Determined to catch Mr. Fox for his theft,
the three farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean literally went to
great lengths to get back at him and causes other animals
to lose their homes and food supply as a result. And now,
it’s up to Mr. Fox and his friends to rebel and survive
against the farmers’ retaliation.
Despite
having a children’s book setting, "Fantastic Mr.
Fox" is very much for the adults and Anderson’s
longtime fans. The relationship between Mr and Mrs Fox (Meryl
Streep) and their son Ash (Jason Schwartzman) smells a bit
like a dysfunctional family, a recurring theme in many of
Anderson’s previous movies. Throw in Ash’s almost
perfect cousin, Kristofferson Silverfox (Eric Chase Anderson)
and you have another nice subplot of a son’s craving
to live up to his father’s reputation and getting a
piece of his attention.
I
personally love the almost flawless voicework by the cast.
Clooney basically embodies the spirit of Mr. Fox, the thinking
man errr..fox who remarkably lead the heist like what Danny
Ocean did in "Ocean’s 11". Meryl Streep is
perfect as Mrs Fox, the woman who prefers her husband to settle
down like a normal family will do. Adding to the numerous
other voice cameos including Owen Wilson as Coach Skip, Willem
Dafoe as the sinister rat and of course Jason Schwartzman
as the dejected son and Bill Murray as Badger, the ensemble
voice cast adds a sense of energy never before feel in any
other animations.
The landscapes, character designs which are
all done in London by the way and the toe-tapping score by
Alexandre Desplat contributes to all the amazing aspects of
this movie. Children of course might be highly entertained
by the mentioned factors and also consider the fact that the
movie contains a rather action-packed ending to all the mayhem.
However it’s the adult demographics that is going to
go all wild over Mr. Fox’s wisecracking, the midlife
crisis and marriage issues, father-and-son relationship and
trademark Anderson’s sarcasms in this stop-motion animation.
Did
I mention the Mr. Fox’s whistle with a clicky sound
effect is addictive?
SPECIAL FEATURES :
The
Look Of Fantastic Mr. Fox – In this 8 minutes
feature, we take a look at how Wes Anderson came up with the
overall look of the movie with inspirations based upon Ronald
Dahl.
The
Cast – Some key cast members including Jason
Schwartzman and Bill Murray spoke briefly about their characters.
A
Beginner's Guide To Whack-Bat – A brief but
fun explanation on the rules and equipments used if you are
keen in a game of Whack-Bat.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Fantastic
Mr. Fox looks err…fantastic on DVD. The brownish overall
look and level of details such as fur, sets deco are a beauty
to behold. While this is not exactly a loud movie, it does
boast a decent amount of ambient effects and a solid dynamic
range across the speakers occasionally.
MOVIE RATING :
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Linus Tee
Posted
on 22 April 2010
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