Make no mistake: This is a Wes Anderson
film through and through. Voiced by George Clooney with his perfectly
pitched mix of matter-of-fact cockiness and oblivious confidence, Mr.
Fox is a happily married husband and uncertain father torn between
9-to-5 domesticity and the thrill of raiding the henhouse. “I’m a wild
animal,” he explains. But it’s less primal impulse than personality
trait here, like a career criminal who wants to pull off one last big
job before retiring. The fresh meat is secondary to the feral rush of
thieving forbidden fowl.
Toss in a neurotic son (voiced by Jason Schwartzman) who wears a
towel like a superhero cape, a sewer rat (Willem Dafoe) who dances like
an extra from West Side Story, a rock-and-roll soundtrack, and
dryly funny dialogue woven through with emotional disconnection and
self- delusion, and you’ve got an Anderson storybook. In other words, a
kids’ movie for grown-ups.
Stop-motion animation proves to be a perfect fit with Anderson’s
sensibility. A filmmaker of tableau imagery packed with defining detail
and quirky humor, he’s the Joseph Cornell of American cinema, creating
colorful cinematic boxes around stories of dysfunctional families,
absent fathers, and characters lost in ambition and obsession and the
need for affirmation and parental approval.
The combination of elaborately designed sets and minimalist
animation looks downright quaint next to the expressiveness of Henry
Selick or the Aardman folks, but it evokes storybook illustrations by
way of 1950s-era puppet animation. Anderson’s animal dolls could have
stepped right out of museum dioramas and into their vintage-store
wardrobes, and the mix of stillness and sudden action (from discreetly
ruffled fur to a sudden acrobatic leap) is an animated analogue to the
deadpan performances of his human casts.
Fantastic Mr. Fox is Anderson’s most satisfying film since
Rushmore, his funniest and his warmest. And it’s the second
movie this year more keyed to the child within adults than to children
themselves. Whether kids will relate to Anderson’s anxiety-ridden world
is a fair question (I like to think they will), but even if they don’t,
his storybook-illustration images and elaborate cartoon-panel detail
are a playtime delight in themselves. 
no mention of the excellent children’s book it’s based off of??
And no mention of the obvious homage to the master of stop-motion movies, Czech animator Jan Svankmajer?
Is there actually an homage to Jan in this film?
If so that’s amazing!
That poor animation in so much of the trailer is a stylistic choice? Really? If you say so…
Wes Anderson is doing furry porn now? I guess he caught the kitsunetsuki and is bringing it to the mainstream.
Kids’ Movie for Grown-ups.
WHY NOT HAVE GOOD MOVIES TO SHOW YOUR KIDS WHILE ENJOYING IT YOURSELF?
THAT’S A GOOD FAMILY FILM, IF YOU ASK ME.
@1: We had to cut the review down for space, but before the chop, Sean Axmaker did note that this movie is based on “Roald Dahl’s children’s book about a wily fox who robs local farmers and brings their wrath down upon the local critter community.”
Hope that helps!
Oh, you cut out that information? What a genius choice! It made Sean look like a dope and pissed off the readers! Great editing!
This movie looks fugly, by the way.
The movie was well written, executed perfectly and full of the wit Anderson is renowned for. Cleverly done through the painstaking process of the stop motion, I came away from the film sense of fulfillment. Even while focusing on much of the production quality, the writing bears no sacrifice.