Plot: Mr Fox steals poultry, and despite his wife's nagging him to quit, he begins a private war on three neighboring farmers. The farmer's retaliate and go after the Mr Fox's family and the other woodland creatures with heavy equipment. Mr Fox makes a plan, gathers a team, and everything turns out fine.
Review: Fantastic Mr Fox is a high concept comedy that happens to be done in stop-action animation, and for some reason this heightens the novelty and irony. Mr Fox is like George Clooney in Oceans 11/12 making plans, recruiting people and stealing things.
The film is voiced by celebrity actors including George Clooney as Mr. Fox. The animation is servicable, but not really up to the task of communicating the characters motivations and thoughts. We are often viewing doll-heads mouthing lines.
The real star is Wes Anderson who delivers his brand of satire on American society using animals. Anderson who did The Royal Tannenbaums, and The Life Aquatic, enjoys exploring quirky characters and drawing out their likeability. This is a good installment in that series.
The film gets lots of points for being creative and different. It is also fun-to-watch and keeps moving. On the other hand, there is no social message or insights into the psyche here. Mr Fox steals farm goods because "he is a wild animal," and we get no clues into how people should live our lives in a society. I don't think there is a "moral," in this film - just a wry ironic grin.
Crew: directed by Wes Anderson; based on the book by Roald Dahl
Rating: 3.0 flasks: Pluses - creative, fun; Minuses - not a lot of content or drama
More: I loved the side-scrolling video-game-like sequences.
No comments:
Post a Comment