Reader Recommended: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Our latest recommendation comes from a fellow long time reader @staciedenola. I’ve actually been wanting to see this movie for a while now. It has animation and George Clooney, two things I adore. But in all seriousness, when I first saw the animation for “Fantastic Mr. Fox”, it caught my interest right away. It is different, unique and refreshing to see a stop-motion animation film. Than again, I really hope this movie doesn’t destroy a story from one of my favourite children books author. The full details after the jump.



Mr. Fox (Clooney) and Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep) are forced to change their criminal lifestyle after they find out Mrs. Fox is pregnant. After years of boring life, Mr. Fox can’t deal with his routine life. So he retreats to his ways of being a thief, with one last job. He decides to steal from the 3 most evil farmers: Boggis, Brunce and Bean. After it goes all wrong, the farmers mistakenly kidnap Mrs. Fox’s nephew, thinking it's their son. The family and their animal friends need to devise a plan to save the nephew from the evil farmers before being hunted for game.

The gang is stuck in a hole, a fox hole to be exact.

Let me start with the animation. I am sort of iffy on it. I like the look of all the creatures and humans. They find a neat way of capturing the actor’s mannerisms in the characters they voice. The problem here is the actual animation, I found the stop-motion flow to be awkward. There are times it fits in nicely, but other times the actual motions feel jerky and almost annoying.

My favourite character was Kylie (Wallace Wolodarsky) because he is the exact opposite of the adventurous Mr. Fox. Kylie is very timid and has this innocent vibe, but he has a certain charm to him that I really liked. But Mr. Fox is certainly the star in this movie. I found him to act like Clooney almost exactly. I don’t mind, because he fits the role perfectly. He is charismatic, smooth and most importantly entertaining. Bill Murray acts out a Badger whose profession is a lawyer, of course that makes sense. And of course William Dafoe is the rat from the south. He makes a well fought nemesis, and that Dafoe quality really shines through a rat, in a good way.

If you asked me, I would say that looks just like Clooney.

Besides being a bit picky with the animation I don't have a lot of complaints about Fantastic Mr. Fox. The movie didn't out right butcher the story, it kept to it pretty well. It was more like the movie ate the story, chewed it up and regurgitated it in almost the same shape as it was before. It almost made the story come to life like I use to remember back in the day. Though I remember the nephew, Kristofferson, being a bit more of a jerk. But that might be because I was young and cheering on the underdog, err underfox son.

If the animation doesn't throw you away from this movie, it is a fun ride. The comedy is witty, but not laugh out loud. The characters add a fun twist to what you normally conceive their animal counterparts to be. And of course the story is solid, making this children's book entertaining to both adults and children alike. Thanks to our great readers for recommending us great movies for us to watch. If you guys have any other suggestions please just tweet, facebook or just ol' fashion email us.