Last night, Anne and I watched The Fantastic Mister Fox. I completely missed this movie when it was in theaters, and didn't know a single thing about it except that, according to our friends, I'd really like it.
About fifteen minutes into the movie I turned to her and said, "This is awesome. It's like Wes Anderson made a stop-motion movie."
…like I said, I didn't know a single thing about it, and for those of you who are like me, it was a Wes Anderson movie.
Anyway, I don't think it's available on DVD yet (we watched a screener), but when it is, I highly, highly recommend watching it. It's one of those movies that is entirely appropriate for children, with some humor for their parents that will fly harmlessly over their heads.
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My family rarely goes to the theater to see first-run movies, simply due to the sheer cost after a trip to the refreshment stand.
We do however, use the hell out of Netflix. I’ll be adding this to our queue based on your recommendation. After I get back from my deployment in Curacao, that is… 😉
It comes out on DVD this Tuesday (March 23)
its based on a book by Roald Dahl, who wrote excellent books for children and adults and everyone should read him
We saw that in the theater, and it was the first time we did the CinemaScore survey, which was fun. We gave the movie the highest grade…so excellent!
Absolutely! I was going to say the same thing, or something along those lines, but Dahl’s books transcend the youth/adult generational gap quite nicely. Huge fan =}
I missed it at the cinema, too, so with the @wilw stamp of approval I can’t wait for it to come through my letterbox in the next couple of weeks (lovefilm – UK equivalent to netflix – assigments are a bit random).
Thanks All – will have to keep an eye out for that one. Previews looked interesting and love Roald Dahl. Think a 5 year old will get it?
Sounds cool, thanks for the heads up.
It may also interest you to know that I’m writing this while listening to Shira Kammen’s song Downstream which you used in RFB24. Thanks for introducing me to her work.
This movie is absolutely awesome. I watched it for the first time last week and I simply loved it ^^
And now, I’m going to watch Wes Anderson’s other movies =D
A local theater has this “cheap matinee” deal for school kids, my daughter and I are going to go see this in a couple of weeks.
We are both very much looking forward to it.
The Fantastic Mr. Fox is one of the books by the great Roald Dahl, author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and Matilda. My six-year-old and I just read the book last year (er, when he was five), and I’m looking forward to getting the film on DVD when it comes out. I knew about it when it was in theaters, but didn’t have enough points in Babysitter Acquisition to squeeze it in, when there were movies like Avatar to be seen…
Indeed, great books. Reading the BFG for my kids was awesome. I need to read them other Dahl books.
It has a definite Wallace and Grommit sensibility about it as well (and if you haven’t seen those short films, plus the feature film, then you absolutely MUST add them to your list).
I’ll echo that sentiment. Nick Park is brilliant. I’ve enjoyed his work for years…The Wrong Trousers is my favorite, FWIW.
Agreed. I saw this as a screener as well. This movie was awesome. I told everyone I know. And I told Wes Anderson I would continue to tell everyone I know. I was so disappointed this didn’t win Best Animated Feature and wasn’t even nominated for best adaption. :/
Yeah, it’s definitely been on my list, and I can’t wait to catch it. Roald Dahl’s stories are absolutely brilliant. I wish someone would make a screen adaptation of The BFG. It would have the added bonus of all the old DOOM gamers showing up to it, confused.
My experience was almost exactly the same, except it was two weeks ago and I watched it with my friend Andrea.
Caught this during a run of cheap films for kids at the local fleapit. This came, in all out estimation, as much better than the other offerings, Cloudy with a chance of meatballs (despite the makers fighting REAL hard to bitch slap Disney/ Hollywood expectations) and Planet 51 (wow, what a dull movie).
When I heard it was being made, I cringed. Another US version of a Roald Dahl book, featuring a virtually all US cast in voices… very, very pleasantly surprised by the results.
And hey, FMF features the real actual Jarvis Cocker. Who couldn’t love that.
I loved this movie. I’ve seen it twice now. I’m almost sorry it came out the same year as a Pixar movie, because TFMF didn’t seem to get the recognition it deserved – despite getting a 100% rating from the top critics on rottentomatoes. 100%!
And as good as TFMF is, as brilliant as the voice acting is and as incredible as the animation is, the soundtrack… oh, the soundtrack. Perfection is almost not a good enough descriptor. It has three Burl Ives songs. I grew up with those songs as a kid, and when I heard them in the context of this movie my brain began spewing happy at me. It has “Love”, which was written for the Disney animated version of Robin Hood, in 1973. It has Beach Boys!
And then there are the original songs by Alexandre Desplat. I actually bought this soundtrack, which is something I haven’t done in a very long time. Desplat’s songs for this movie are so pure, so full of everything that is good about music, and all the massive compression, overproduction and autotuning of the damn kids’ music these days is completely absent.
“Mr. Fox In The Fields”, for example, puts a smile on my face that stays there for a good long while. “Canis Lupis” brings a real tear to my eye. It’s powerful, real music, and I think it serves this movie as well as it possibly could. I can’t remember the last time the soundtrack of a movie kidnapped me, threw me in a van and tied me up in a basement like this. And now I think I have Stockholm syndrome.
“Up” was a great movie too, but it was really only the first part of “Up” that deserved the Oscar for best animated film. I think TFMF should have won, as I believe it’s a better film overall. But what do I know, I’m just the schmuck who pays money to see them. I do know I’m buying TFMF on blu-ray.
I adored Fantastic Mr Fox! And if you haven’t seen it already, this Spider-man/Wes Anderson video had me in hysterics –
I didn’t like it. It was like Wes Anderson made a stop-motion movie. Actually I quite like his movies, but I took my 10 year-old to see it and … eh. Nothin like Chick Run or a dozen others as far as the kids go…
I wrote a great review about this film if you want to read it. I missed it in theaters too, but since I got a screener copy, I’ve watched it 5+ times. It’s that good of a movie!