![]() FOX sits at the top of the heap, which is a tough choice given my affinity for RUSHMORE, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, and THE LIFE AQUATIC. That said, I don’t love every one of his films and I certainly have an order of favorites and FANTASTIC MR. I’m a huge fan, so take my bias for what it’s worth. You could label just about every director as one thing or another based on their style (or lack thereof). Some people just don’t dig his style, commonly referring to him as an indie hipster. If you hate his work, there’s very little here to convince you otherwise. Let’s get the inevitable “I hate Wes Anderson” stuff out of the way to start. It has since started to gain a small cult following, especially with stop-motion animation enthusiasts. Critical reviews were exceptionally good, but the film failed to connect with audiences in theaters. By animation standards this is a big flop, even with a modest budget in comparison to the larger scale animated pics. FOX was released in November 2009, making a worldwide total of $46 million from a $40 million budget. In addition to taking great pains with the audio, Anderson shot the film at 12 frames per second in order to highlight the stop-motion animation and shot using a Nikon D3, which offers a significantly higher resolution than even that of full High Definition (And it looks amazing in blu-ray).įANTASTIC MR. The dialogue was recorded at a farmhouse in Connecticut in order to retain a natural feel to the audio, capturing it in various locations: the forest, the attic, underground, etc. Anderson immersed himself in Dahl’s world, writing the film on the author’s estate, where he incorporated everything from locations, sets, costumes, and characters, making it as “Dahl-like” as possible. The project was originally set to be directed by Henry Selick (THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS), but he later dropped out to work on CORALINE, another stop-motion project (although he continued to advise Anderson throughout the production). The indie director wanted to capture the spirit of the old stop-motion animated films of his youth and craft a tale that retained the integrity and wit of Dahl’s novel, while adding his own signature touch (which included a first and third act). FOX, which coincidentally was the first book Anderson ever owned. The fox must find a way to save his community, while mending the relationships with his family and coming to terms with his own mortality.įilmmaker Wes Anderson teamed with screenwriter Noah Baumbach to adapt the classic story written by Roald Dahl (CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH) and rounded up a stellar cast, including George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe, and Owen Wilson.Ī devout fan of author Roald Dahl and stop-motion animation, director Wes Anderson teamed up with screenwriter pal Noah Baumbach to craft an animated tale based on FANTASTIC MR. FOXĪn urban fox cannot resist returning to his wild-animal nature, raiding the farms of three prominent farmers, causing a retaliation against the entire animal population. This week we’ll be examining Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animated film FANTASTIC MR. Welcome to The Best Movie You NEVER Saw, a column dedicated to examining films that have flown under the radar or gained traction throughout the years, earning them a place as a cult classic or underrated gem that was either before it’s time or has aged like a fine wine.
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