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Thursday, May 20, 2010

faaaaaantastic!



Even though it's been almost 6 months since I've seen it, I feel compelled to write about one of my favorite animated movies, Fantastic Mr. Fox! If you haven't seen it, you should. Now, I'll have to admit that the trailer doesn't do it justice at all, and I wasn't even super excited to see it, but I was very pleasantly surprised to say the least.

Not only is it directed by the...excuse the pun...fantastic Wes Anderson (whose other films include Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic, and The Darjeeling Limited), but it is also stop-motion animation (you know, like The Nightmare Before Christmas style), which I think is a huge part of what makes the feeling of the film unique. It's hard for me to really enjoy and appreciate movies with graphic animation these days, I tend to think that filmmaking has shifted too far into the spectrum of shock-and-awe computer graphics and each movie just tries to outdo the one before. It's almost not even impressive anymore. Don't get me wrong, I do realize the skill and talent that goes into any type of graphic art, and I am not one to judge. It's just my personal opinion. All you Avatar fans probably want my head on a silver platter right about now...ha. I was surprised to learn that the film was made using real, tangible, handmade models! I mean, who does that anymore? And while I know stop-motion is nothing new, it does somehow give the film a warmer, more organic feel, and I like that.

Another added bonus is the fact that the screenplay was based off of a children's novel by Roald Dahl, one of my favorite childhood authors (James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG...etc). The great thing about this movie is that it's not just for kids...in fact, I think it'd be safe to say that adults would enjoy it and understand it even more.

It also has a huge cast of big name actors - I'm not even going to name them, just try to guess who they are by their voices- voicing the characters, which adds a fun, grownup touch. And just when you think it can't get any better...wait til you hear the soundtrack. It is on constant repeat in my car, much to Clay's annoyance. ;]

So the gist of this rambling observation-turned-film-review is...go see Fantastic Mr. Fox! And like all the urging I got to go see Avatar "just for the graphics, if nothing else", I urge you to go see Mr. Fox for the NON-graphics, if nothing else. Let me know what you think!


(i don't know why the right side is cut off a little bit...i made it as small as i could! sorry)




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