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Fantastic Mr. Fox

Review By: Ryan Hamelin
RyanHamelin@TheCinemaSource.com

Movie Grade: A

This is a match made in cinematic heaven. Not unlike the recent pairing of Spike Jonze and Maurice Sendak, to mixed results, Wes Anderson’s wonderfully quirky sensibility seems as though it came into being in order to adapt Roald Dahl’s deliberately twisted words. Fantastic Mr. Fox is both an amalgamation of everything that Anderson has been examining and perfecting through his years as a writer as well as all of the visual excellence and pitch-perfect timing that he is known for in his direction. If there’s any person who should have attributed their style to animation earlier, it is Anderson, as his live action films play on a level of absurdly cartoonish characterization just as realistically as an animal puppet in an underground lair. The jump couldn’t be more natural, and I look forward to seeing him continue down the road he has built for himself here with future projects.

As for the film itself, it is a bit of a marvel to behold. Anderson deliberately aimed for an unfinished, choppy look to the animation, working at only 12 frames a second instead of the traditional 24. He also insisted that the animators leave whatever disturbances they made to the puppet hairs intact, as to have a shuffling, wavy quality that allows us to see the fingers at work. The added texture of obvious craftsmanship is what Anderson believed gave early animation its charm, and that by preserving the artifice of the process within the film, he would give force the characters to breathe and inhabit a life of their own. Whatever the justification is, the results are beautiful to witness, and the weight these puppets have helps to distinguish this style of animation from the over-saturation of CG fare in recent years. I have nothing against Pixar animation in the slightest, but the homeliness of Fantastic Mr. Fox definitely works for the film, and makes me believe in the possibilities of stop-motion technique all over again.

At the other end of the production is the terrific ensemble cast. Apparently Anderson wasn’t keen on a voice-over studio manner doing things, and instead brought his actors outside, in groups, to record their dialogue. If they had to be in a cellar, they went down into a basement. If they had to be running through a field, the actors would run through a field with the sound recordists chasing after them with a boom poll. Beyond just the ambient noise, it meant that actors would be interacting with each other, stomping on each others lines, and adlibbing, all things which are virtually impossible in a studio setting. Just as much as he wanted the look of the film to be vibrant and alive, it is clear that Anderson wanted the voice-work to match, and the all-star cast delivers at every turn.

To be perfectly honest, there’s not ...