Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wes Anderson has become a master of making quirky little comedy-dramas. He came to attention with the likes of Bottle Rocket (1996) and Rushmore (1998), he then got big ensemble casts together for The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). It was while working on the latter that he employed stop-motion maestro Henry Selick to create some special effects for the underwater scenes. It was while working with Selick that gave Anderson the spark to do a stop-motion animation film, as he planned it, he went to India to make The Darjeeling Limited (2007), when he got back he was ready, and decided to take on a Roald Dahl story. Alot of Dahl's books have been adapted for the big screen, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (twice), The Witches (a remake is in the works), Matilda, The BFG, Danny: The Champion of the World and James and the Giant Peach, the latter was directed by Selick. This time, it's Roald Dahl's 1970 children's story Fantastic Mr Fox, which is now up for becoming a film!! And stop-motion will suit this story perfectly.

The story has Mr. Fox, (a fox, of course), who steals chickens, ducks, and turkeys from 3 rich and mean farmers. Boggis, Bunce and Bean, who are all annoyed by this wily old Fox. They even shoot his tail off, and even dig after him. The farmers become preoccupied with trying to catch him, and even resort to using bulldozer to try and dig him out. Mr. Fox and his family, with the help of other animals, Mr. Badger and other digging animals, all starving from the farmers digging out their homes, dig into the farmers' storehouses and cellars and raid their stock while the farmers dig away after Mr. Fox...

It's a lovely story, and Dahl's sense of humour and brilliant writing is ever-present, and it's been a favourite of children for years. Wes Anderson is an interesting choice for a film like this, as you'd never have guessed he would turn his hand to something like this!! But, it'll be interesting to see what he comes up with here. Stop motion films are always visually inventive and good to look at, from the genius of Aardman to Tim Burton's brillian productions. Henry Selick was due to co-direct this one, but Coraline got it's funding together, so he went to do that. Plus, the film was made in London with the same crew that did Corpse Bride!!

The spark for Fantastic Mr. Fox started in 2004, and it finally started filming in 2007, (Stop-motion takes time and patience.) Plus, Anderson has assembled a good vocal cast for this film. George Clooney will be voicing Mr. Fox!! A good choice, with a distinctive voice. The lovely Cate Blanchett will be voicing Mrs. Fox, while Anderson regular Bill Murray will be voicing Mr. Badger!! Plus, the cast also includes the voices of two more Anderson regulars, Jason Schwartzman and Anjelica Huston, (the latter was in The Witches), oh and Meryl Streep is in it too!! The film will be released in the UK on October 23rd 2009!!



This looks certain to be a hit, Roald Dahl stories are still popular with people today, and they've made good films out of his stories so far, and this looks certain to be no exception!! It's been kept underwraps for a while now, but early word from a test screening claims the film is "absolutely fantastic". We may even see a new direction for Wes Anderson with this film, he's made good films so far, but this is something entirely different altogether. But, he couldn't have picked a better story for his first animated film, and he's got a good vocal cast too. More as it comes people!!

My views can be summed up by the following smilies -

Here's a review from an early screening!!

More cast has been announced, and they're all BRILLIANT choices. Michael Gambon is voicing Farmer Bean, Brian Cox is voicing Farmer Boggis, and there's vocal appearances from Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson!!

I wish Cate Blanchett was still in this.

Looking good though.

Well, I will admit it does look alot different to what I had in mind. I knew it would be stop-motion, but they look more like marionette puppets. But, you cannot judge an entire film from ONE image. Give it a chance...

Better quality images, does that look any better??

The film is going to open the London Film Festival!!

It's mentioned in this month's Empire, turns out the inspiration for the crude looking stop-motion comes from 1960's Czech stop-motion animations. Quite a novel idea, would Dahl have approved??











Note how Mr. Fox sits in a chair like Roald Dahl used to work in...



Wes Anderson directs his puppet cast



And Bill Murray pays a visit to the set!!

TRAILER!!

And I'm sold!!

That's a extremly failed attempt at spelling Yay with smilies there

JD wrote:

That's a extremly failed attempt at spelling Yay with smilies there

Looks very odd but very good!

As long as you're sold on it, that's the main thing!!

Making of featurette narrated by Jason Schwartzman!!

Check out these character posters!!

New Trailer!!

Well, the critics seem to like it!!

Oh dear, the crew don't have many nice things to say about Wes Anderson...

The animation was all done in London, but Anderson directed nearly all of the film from Paris by email!! Was he working on another film in Paris at the time?? No. Plus, he wanted it shot the way the whole crew weren't used to, to use techniques they don't use anymore. So, alot of the crew is against what was shot, but it looks brilliant!! What's their problem!?

Wes Anderson responds to the controversy about his directing methods on this film...

It had it's World Premiere at the London Film Festival last night!!