Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Tags

Animated, Bill Murray, Comedy, Eric Anderson, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Fantasy, George Clooney, Jason Schwartzman, Meryl Streep, Movie

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PG

George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Eric Anderson

Mr. Fox: Wake up everybody!  They’re digging us out!
Mrs. Fox: They’ll kill the children!
Mr. Fox: Over my dead body!
Mrs. Fox: That’s what I’m saying!  You’d be dead too in that scenario!

Mr. Fox (Clooney) is an expert chicken stealer.  He promises his wife (Streep) that after their son is born, he’ll leave that dangerous life behind, but a few years later he’s back to his thieving ways.  This brings trouble down on his family and friends.  Can the Fantastic Mr. Fox outsmart the human farmers he’s been stealing from, or will they manage to finally kill him?

Do you like Wes Anderson movies?  Do you enjoy deadpan, dry humor?  Do you like characters that are mean to each other, but in a sort of sweet way?  Characters that are self-centered, but eventually learn to think about others first?  Those are the kinds of things you’ll see in Wes Anderson movies, along with good – usually older – music.  That’s all present in Fantastic Mr. Fox, and it all works well for the most part.

I thought the movie lost a little steam towards the end, but it’s still funny enough throughout for me to like it quite a bit.  The voice work by the leads is good, but not outstanding, though I thought Schwartzman, as Mr. Fox’s son, Ash, may have fared the best.  Poor little Ash is constantly trying to be noticed and impress his father.  When his cousin, Kristofferson (Anderson), comes to live with the Fox family, he immediately impresses Mr. Fox, which angers Ash even more.

It’s really just your typical Wes Anderson type story, featuring a group or family of misfits, who initially don’t get along too well, that must deal with adversity by growing closer.  It just happens to be told in the form of stop motion animation.  It’s not the smoothest animation in the world, but that’s by design I assume.  It gives the movie a strange feel, but that’s okay, it’s a strange story.

To answer my own question up above, I do like Wes Anderson movies.  I like the angry, but willing to change, characters.  I like the soundtracks (great use of Beach Boys music in this one).  I like the humor.

While this one is not yet one of my top 3 favorites of his, I do plan on seeing it again soon.

To kill a chicken, you want to do it quickly, with one swift bite to the neck.

10 – 1.7 for losing some steam in the last third of the movie – .5 because some of the voice work just seemed a little off for some reason = 7.8