“I understand what you’re saying, and your comments are
valuable… but I’m gonna ignore your advice.”
-[Fantastic] Mr. Fox
I
have seen two of Wes Anderson’s eight films in the theater. The first of them
is in fact the first film I ever saw of Anderson’s, which is this film. As my
very naïve, inexperienced, younger self, I didn’t like it because of its
differences from Roald Dahl’s beloved book. Honestly, looking back, I realize
that I had no idea what I was talking about. Wes Anderson’s contributions and changes
to the classic are superb and incredible, as well as highly creative. He adds
exactly the right tone to the characters, fleshing all of them out fully and
giving them life.
When
one thinks of the art of stop-motion animation in relevance with artistic
director Wes Anderson, they may likely realize that it fits his style as well
as the train in The Darjeeling Limited.
Because of the individual focus on every single frame that is essential to
stop-motion, Anderson is able to pack loads of glorious detail into the film.
Wes Anderson is able to control the cameras every move with this format, as
well as his characters’ movements. Basically, stop-motion is perfect for Wes
Anderson in all ways, and is in contest with The Grand Budapest Hotel when it comes to the amount of control
that Wes Anderson shows over the medium. One can only hope that he will make a
return to animation someday.
The
characters in this film often do what has been done more subtly in other
Anderson films. They break the fourth wall. Some characters glance at the
camera in desperate moments of panic. Kylie answers a question asked by one of
the three fearsome farmers, despite the fact that they are far aboveground.
After this, Ash pops up out of nowhere, seemingly points at us, the audience,
through the camera, and asks, “What’s that?” Wes Anderson’s film is truly not
your ordinary animated film.
Wes
Anderson also now has a new composer for this film. Alexandre Desplat, who has
scored such incredible films as Terrence Malick’s masterpiece, Tree of Life and Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech, now contributes his
amazing skills to construct an absolutely tremendous soundtrack. He gives the
film a lot of energy, with quickness and rambunctiousness. However, along with
this original score, we have an excellent compiled soundtrack. Incredibly
diverse, the soundtrack contains many songs from Burl Ives, The Beach Boys,
Georges Delerue, and of course, The Rolling Stones. In this film, also, is a
musical number, played by a character named Petey, which all the characters,
though miles away from each other, dance to.
The
main character of the film, Mr. Fox (the fantastic), is far from a role model.
He robs farmers, he’s enormously, even detestably prideful, and is deceitful
towards his family. Mrs. Fox doesn’t do a great job of putting up with this,
but she is a loving wife to her husband. I disagree when people act as if Mr.
Fox should be offended when Felicity Fox confesses that she never should have
married him though. I believe that this is simply a revelation on her part. For
her well being, it wasn’t a wise decision. But she does indeed love him.
However, Ash, their son, feels unappreciated and is basically the opposite of
Schwartzman’s character in The Darjeeling
Limited. Whereas Jack Whitman despised being included in family affairs and
issues, Ash yearns to be noticed, but is surrounded by such impressive,
well-known, and even fantastic creatures that his own talents are overlooked.
For this reason, he dislikes his incredibly talented spotlight-stealing cousin,
Kristofferson. Ash’s father is more impressed by that skilled and athletic fox
than he is with his own son. But Kristofferson is also in quite the
predicament, as his uncle is suffering from double pneumonia, and not only
that, but he is thrown into a dysfunctional house where he’s led into crime,
complicated family issues, and a badly timed midlife crisis.
The
vocal actors are made up, unsurprisingly, of Anderson’s usual cast, excluding
the two main actors. George Clooney, in what I believe is his fourth
performance as a thief (the other three, two my knowledge, being the Ocean’s
Eleven series), seems to really enjoy that type of character. As Mr. Fox, he is
loud and proud, which is best represented in the feast scene, as he obnoxiously
interrupts Badger, the lawyer. Meryl Streep shows herself, as always, to be
capable of filling all sorts of roles. Eric Chase Anderson, who has had cameos
in Wes Anderson’s other films, finally has his first primary role, does a
fantastic job. Wes Anderson himself also has his biggest cameo ever, as the
Weasel real-estate agent.
Finally,
Wes Anderson’s style is at its most detailed yet. For example, an insert of a
newspaper, upon further inspection, can be seen to contain excerpts from Roald
Dahl’s original children’s book.
Another sign of this unbelievable detail is
the scene depicting a sport called ‘Whackbat’. We hear a quick and concise
description of the sport, describing how the insanely complex game is played,
as we watch the game being played with quickly drawn lines, ‘x’s and ‘o’s
showing something like a football play. The film also has a color scheme as
defined as The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Wes also uses some grand originality, like his use of the word ‘cuss’ in place
of all cuss words.
This
wicked game of revenge is actually, surprisingly, one of Wes Anderson’s most
delightful films. It’s filled with some rather heartfelt scenes, one of which
takes place near the end of the film, a conversation between Ash and his
father, which nearly causes some to tear up (myself included to be honest). The
film is incredibly uplifting and stupendously enjoyable. Anderson humanizes
foxes in this amazing film, but still allows them to retain some of their base,
and important ‘wild animal craziness’.
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