Home » Jazz News » TV / Film

123

Blu-Ray Review: "Fantastic Mr. Fox"

Source:

Sign in to view read count
I know this is absolute heresy for a guy in my line of work, but Ive never been a big fan of Wes Andersons filmmaking. There's a difference between developing real, honest characters with believable flaws and simply loading up the screen with quirk for quirks sake, and I think Anderson too often falls back on the latter. Hes the kind of guy who cant just have someone enter the room they have to enter wearing a vintage tracksuit, sporting a mysterious sore or messed-up hair or, I don't know, walking a mink on a leash. After awhile, his characters start to feel less like people and more like elaborate constructions made almost entirely from idiosyncrasies. It's off-putting.

But I think this has its roots in the fact that Anderson is a boundlessly creative guy who cant resist putting his stamp on every facet of his films, and most people are willing to look past his flaws simply because hes a talented storyteller. He was, in other words, the perfect person to bring Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox to the screen.

Filmed in stunningly detailed stop-motion animation and voiced by a typically diverse cast that included George Clooney and Meryl Streep as well as perennial Anderson favorites Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Eric Chase Anderson, Fox is the kind of movie that whispers “labor of love" with every frame. Like Anderson's other films, it has a very distinctive look (the color palette is devoid of blues and greens, creating an on-screen world that glows with warmth) and feel --and yes, the characters tend to have their little quirks. But here, none of those little added touches feel superfluous; rather, they come across as part of a painstaking effort to immerse the viewer in a wonderfully distinctive place and time. And it works.

It's animated and family-friendly, so it was marketed as a kids' film, but if you've read any of Dahl's books, you know Fantastic Mr. Fox falls into the same camp as Where the Wild Things Are he was a children's author, yes, but one who didn't flinch from the tough stuff, and his audience loved him all the more for it. Fox is no different. This isn't to say any of its inappropriate for children, most of whom will simply enjoy the dashing, humorous adventures of a pack of talking animals in their quest to humiliate a trio of hateful farmers. But Fox's real themes, like the choices we're forced to make as we enter adulthood and the unforeseen side effects of getting what you wish for, will be lost on younger viewers--they're there for the grown-ups, like the classic late -60s/early '70s Beach Boys and Rolling Stones songs on the soundtrack.

Continue Reading...

Comments

Tags

News

Popular

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.