Review of Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) by Spencer S — 13 May 2013

As a fan of Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, and Roald Dahl, this film was almost a dream come to life that I hadn't known I had ever truly wanted. The basis is one of my favorite books from childhood, by my absolute favorite author, maybe of all time, and though it doesn't follow the book to the absolute tee, it does something even better with its source material.

This may be one of the first stop motion films that is explicitly for adults with many of its jokes, and yet obviously appeals to kids not only for its beautiful look and direction, but also because the characters are animals, and crafty ones at that.

The animals are very intelligent, and anytime animals outwit their human counterparts, it proves to be instantly enjoyable, more so in this film because though it's animated it is also distinctly Anderson.

The dialogue by itself proves that this film is very adult, mature, and thoughtful, but I think it was the character of Ash (Schwartzman) that cemented this as an Anderson film: he's jealous, courageous, and laments his state in life though he's very young, reminiscent of Schwartzman's character in "Rushmore.

" Anderson also employs a great voice cast for this film, calling on some of his favorite stars, including Billy Murray, Schwartzman, and Owen Wilson. Anderson had his voice actors perform in attics, underground cellars, and outdoors to capture the feel of their voices as animals, and he gets some really outstanding performances in this way.

The mere technique used in this stop motion film is predictably magnificent, and as you watch the miniature world take hundreds of frames only to show the movement of wind in the foreground, it's really rather breath taking to realize this film took two years just to shoot.

The music, from Alexandre Desplat, is phenomenal and fitting for this narrative. Dahl would be very happy with his book taking to the screen this way, and probably didn't even know he wanted this dream unless he saw it.