Fantastic Mr. Fox

"Why a fox? Why not a horse, or a beetle, or a bald eagle? I'm saying this more as, like, existentialism, you know? Who am I? And how can a fox ever be happy without, you'll forgive the expression, a chicken in its teeth?"

Wes Anderson has a way of making you feel like a kid. Although his films deal with serious topics such as teenage boys in love with their 30-something teachers, dysfunctional families and coming to terms with what your life has become, he creates these playful and interesting worlds that you can't help but want to be a part of.

His signature consists of a certain color scheme, 60's British invasion music, perfectly awkward dialogue and countless other things. You'd be able to spot one of his films a mile away because they're unlike anything else. When I heard that his next feature was to be an animated film based on the book by Roald Dahl, I was disappointed because I felt that he would get rid of his certain weirdness and charm. Well like usual, I was completely wrong.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is entirely a Wes Anderson film. Maybe more so than his previous efforts. Instead of using computers and expensive technology, he resorted to stop motion animation which allowed him to be as unique as he wanted to be. Pixar movies have taken the Best Animated Feature award for the past few years but I think Up better watch it's back.

Anderson's usual cast is present. Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson and more, but it's the addition of George Clooney that makes this movie. Let's face it, Clooney is pretty fucking suave. He brings his usual charm and then some. In most animated films it's hard to relate to the characters because they are pretty two dimensional (HA!), but every major character is well developed here. There were many instances where I completely forgot that I was watching an animated film. I'll also mention Schwartzman who played Mr. Fox's son. His lines were spot on and had me laughing extremely loud which was quite embarrassing because I was surrounded by five year olds.

Let me touch on that for a minute here, this is definitely a film for adults. I think the humor would just confuse most kids as it's very dry. Most of the children in the theater looked pretty bored, yet it made me feel like a kid again. I don't know. Forget this paragraph even exists.

The animation also provides a lot of laughs. It's just so different than everything else that's been out lately. There's a sequence at the beginning of Mr. and Mrs. Fox running through a farm and it's simply amazing. Within the first few minutes I already had a huge smile plastered on my face.

The story is very well written. I haven't read the book, but I'm assuming Anderson added a lot of material which works very well. The few subplots keep you interested and like I mentioned earlier, the dialogue is perfect. His usual choice of music is present with tracks by The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones and a hilarious cameo by Jarvis Cocker.

I'm not a huge fan of animated films but this is definitely one of the best movies of the year. I recommend seeing it if you want a feel-good comedy and especially if you liked any of his other films.

9.5/10