"Uh, my
dad's on fire..."
Fantastic Mr. Fox might just be one of the biggest
surprises of the year for me. 2009 has
really shaped up to be a year of daring big studio gambles. While some have
been more successful than others, it's pretty amazing that we've seen mega
budget adaptations of The Watchmen
while iconic children novels have been left in the hands of outsider auteurs.
I'll
shamefully admit that I'm completely unfamiliar with Ronald Dahl's original
book so it's difficult for me to make comparisons, but I assume that Wes
Anderson's script shares few similarities. This is an Anderson film through and
through and about as child friendly as Where
the Wild Things Are. But there's a glaring difference, this is fun and
entertaining.
Anderson's
films tend to polarize audiences. If you're a fan of his previous work, you'll
assuredly be a fan of this. If you've
grown tired of his retro, hipster, ironic schtick, you'll be moaning the whole
way through.
I still
believe Bottle Rocket is Anderson's
best film, it remains his most personal and heartfelt picture. Since he's
developed and trademarked his visual style, his obsessive attention to detail
and colorful art direction tends to outweigh the story. He's too willing to give his fans exactly what
they expect. Much like Tim Burton, the very things that turned Anderson in the
type of auteur that film students aspire to become have also become a crutch.
Still,
Anderson's storybook compositions lend themselves perfectly to animation, his
deadpan direction, not so much.
Fantastic Mr. Fox is an odd beast. Many of you have
probably read the controversial article in Variety a few months back citing the
crew and D.P.'s bitterness and animosity towards Anderson's overbearing restrictions
and absence from set.
The film is
a visual feast and the hand-made, purposefully amateur(ish) stop motion animation
is intriguing and unique. Yet, this is a dialogue heavy film where all of the
humor is based on expert timing and subtle facial expressions. As beautiful and
endearing as the puppets are, they lack the facial and physical complexity to
match the actors' line delivery.
But there
are plenty of amazing animated adult features from the 70's with dramatic
acting paired to low-fi animation and that's the thing. The film really feels
like the product of entirely different era.
It's an interesting dynamic.
There was a
brief interview with actor Jason Schwartzman after the film and while he and other
actors visited the set, they never saw any of the animations before or during
line readings.
Often in
animation, actors are either brought in to dub their voices in a sound room after
the shooting has completed and they cite their lines while watching the
animation play in front of them or vice versa. The animators are given video
performances of the cast to draw from.
Neither
happened in the case of Fantastic
Mr. Fox. Schwartzman told the audience via live Ichat that Wes had the
entire cast act scenes out on physical locations similar to the script.
Supposedly, there may be extras on the DVD of Jason, Bill Murray, and Meryl
Streep digging holes by a real tree on a farm while reading their lines.
In many
scenes, there's an obvious divide between the actors' performances and their
puppet avatars and it becomes distracting at times. There are scenes where it matches and works
terrifically, but it's a bit of a mixed bag.
Also, I
can't figure out what the overall message is.
Being unfamiliar with the book, I'm not sure if they're similar.
The story
revolves around Mr. Fox, his wife, son, and nephew. Mr. Fox is a thief. When he is almost killed with his pregnant
wife after getting caught taking chickens, he takes a 12 fox year hiatus from a
life of crime.
But when
Mr. Fox begins stealing again from three local business owners, he starts a
war. The majority of the film is about Mr. Fox and his family being violently
hunted down by the three business owners.
In his big
epiphany, Mr. Fox claims that stealing is part of his nature, he is a wild
animal after all and that's what separates him from the human world.
SPOILER WARNING.
In the end,
Mr. Fox and the other animals are unable to completely escape the businessmen
they stole from and are forced to live in the sewers where they'll presumably
spend the rest of their lives. But they find a tunnel that leads to a large
supermarket that closes early on the weekends and they celebrate knowing they'll
be able to steal their food there from now on.
END
SPOILER.
Yeah,
seriously, that's the fucking ending. Was that the ending of the book? Is this
a children's film at all? Essentially, it's an anarchist tale. Hey, they're
criminals at heart, why hide it. Fuck the system.
The
characters drink and smoke and often use the word "cuss" to replace "fuck."
Characters say things such as "This is a major cluster cuss", "stop cussing
with my head," "you cussing me?"
It's cute
and clever but also kind of shocking. There's
also some fairly intense violence. Mr.
Fox actually murders a fellow animal character who goes at his wife with a
switchblade. But maybe that was in the
book, most children's books are probably darker than we actually remember.
I
personally don't believe the film is totally inappropriate for children, but
I'm not sure if they'll fully enjoy it either. While it's beautiful to look at,
the dry witty banter is sure to go over their heads.
Still, if
you're not automatically turned off by Anderson's specific breed of cinema and
have any interest in seeing this, it is most definitely worth your hard earned money
to experience on the big screen.
Oh, and
chaos reigns!