Fantastic Mr. Fox

Typically, i am the sort of person who likes to see a book transfered into film page for page with no deviation from the original plot. However, this has got to be one of the few exceptions and one movie i thoroughly enjoyed. This film compiles a classic with a few spins and connotations that bring it into the 21st century and up to date with what modern audiences expect to see.

Maybe it is not the same classic story, but really, you need to appreciate that directors often want to take a different approach than the author and this definitely paid off. Another good example would be Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Another Dahl book. Many loved the book, and the new film has been an outright success despite very drastic changes. This film is reminiscent of that kind of success, although not as widely acclaimed.

The stop motion type of filming is brilliant when the film industry seems to be endlessly pumping out similar CGI and animations that don't contain that same… more »

Typically, i am the sort of person who likes to see a book transfered into film page for page with no deviation from the original plot. However, this has got to be one of the few exceptions and one movie i thoroughly enjoyed. This film compiles a classic with a few spins and connotations that bring it into the 21st century and up to date with what modern audiences expect to see.

Maybe it is not the same classic story, but really, you need to appreciate that directors often want to take a different approach than the author and this definitely paid off. Another good example would be Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Another Dahl book. Many loved the book, and the new film has been an outright success despite very drastic changes. This film is reminiscent of that kind of success, although not as widely acclaimed.

The stop motion type of filming is brilliant when the film industry seems to be endlessly pumping out similar CGI and animations that don't contain that same imperfection and man-made feel. If you're willing to try something new, and expect a slight slant on the original i'd give this film a try! Trust me, it's worth a watch.

I'm a big fan of mainstream stop-frame animation - I have the complete Harryhausen (excluding Earth vs The Flying Saucers, but including all the Puppetoons etc.) On my DVD shelves, and I'm a big fan of Willis O'Brien, Jim Danforth, and Phil Tippett. I don't much care for the middle European stuff from the 50s and 60s though.

And that's pretty similar to the style adopted here, and I have to say I don't care for it. There were times when I greatly admired the way some effects were achieved, but I really didn't like the way this film looked (from a character and set design point of view) or moved. In fact, populating an essentially rustic English setting with distinctly American animals didn't really work. There was nothing fundamentally wrong with the idea, it was simply that the execution meant that there was, to me, an irreconcilable disharmony between the two.

The voice talent was, on the whole, very good, with Clooney, Streep, and Gambon not unexpectedly taking the… more »

I'm a big fan of mainstream stop-frame animation - I have the complete Harryhausen (excluding Earth vs The Flying Saucers, but including all the Puppetoons etc.) On my DVD shelves, and I'm a big fan of Willis O'Brien, Jim Danforth, and Phil Tippett. I don't much care for the middle European stuff from the 50s and 60s though.

And that's pretty similar to the style adopted here, and I have to say I don't care for it. There were times when I greatly admired the way some effects were achieved, but I really didn't like the way this film looked (from a character and set design point of view) or moved. In fact, populating an essentially rustic English setting with distinctly American animals didn't really work. There was nothing fundamentally wrong with the idea, it was simply that the execution meant that there was, to me, an irreconcilable disharmony between the two.

The voice talent was, on the whole, very good, with Clooney, Streep, and Gambon not unexpectedly taking the honours.

The script was, I thought, awful. Wes Anderson joins the Coen brothers and Darren Aronofsky in that select group of writer/directors who make films which display, with utter confidence, a belief in how clever they are, a belief which a) I don't necessarily share and b) irritates me intensely with its arrogant disregard of me as an audience member.

Finally, this film has no idea - and doesn't care - who its audience is. In many ways it is clearly pitched at adults, but then it is tweaked downwards for tinies: the script contains a number of instances where the word "cuss" is substituted for the F-bomb, for instance.