Australia's Best Movie Magazine

Film reviews

The Vow

A saccharine and paint-by-numbers slice of romance, which is largely boosted by the appeal of its two leads.

Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace (3D)

The under-utilised 3D adds little to this prequel, which only serves as a sore reminder of the brilliance of the original films.

Any Questions For Ben?

The talented bunch of actors ably cut through the surface gloss, but it’s tough to remain invested in the plight of the self-absorbed lead.

Shame

It starts off as brutal but arresting stuff, and the two lead performances are scorching, but disappointingly dissolves into a case of tragedy for the sake of tragedy.

search the site

Enter search term:

newsletter

Enter your email address below to receive the weekly Filmink newsletter

Enter search term:

The Fantastic Mr. Fox (Film)

by Erin Free | December 23, 2009 13:01 | Edited December 23, 2009 13:04

Filled with vibrant characters, sharp soundtrack choices and Wes Anderson’s unique comedic stylings.

Filmmaker Wes Anderson is an acquired taste. His films Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic and The Darjeeling Limited have their fans - ardent, swooning ones at that, usually found on university campuses, or working in music stores or independent cinemas or bookshops - and though they are undoubtedly fine, highly original works, they're all a little fussy and overly thought out. To put it bluntly (and with the risk of being lynched by the fashion police), Anderson seems to take all of his creative signals from his head, and very few from his heart. When applied to the medium of animation (usually one positively dripping with honeyed sentimentality), however, Anderson's dry, highly intellectual brand of filmmaking doesn't appear nearly as self-satisfied.

 

Working from Roald Dahl's gorgeous children's book, Anderson creates a warped, funny world filled with vibrant characters. Using the now antiquated but utterly timeless process of stop-motion animation (whereby puppets are manipulated, frame-by-frame, to create the illusion of movement), this world has a lovely, hand-made quality to it, evoking children's cinema of the past, while also standing on its own as something strikingly new and original.

 

Anderson's humour melds perfectly with Dahl's in this tale of an ambitious, barn-burgling fox (voiced with punchy dexterity by George Clooney) who tries to go straight, but just can't help himself. Against the wishes of his wife (Meryl Streep), he plans to pull a major heist by robbing three wealthy farmers, which will put his entire family in hot water.

 

Complete with typically sharp Anderson soundtrack choices (The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys etc), witty dialogue, cracking voice work (Jason Schwartzman is a stand-out as Clooney's withdrawn son), and reams of good spirit, Fantastic Mr. Fox is a truly beautiful experience, representing not just a career high point for Wes Anderson, but one for animated cinema in its entirety.