Oscar Huckle, 24/01/2010
Critically acclaimed director Wes Anderson reunites with his usual cast, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzmann, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and a few new faces for Fantastic Mr Fox, based on the ever popular novel by genius Roald Dahl. How can such a good book be adapted into a 20th Century Fox stop motion animated movie? Well, Wes Anderson certainly had an idea how to do this, but it fell short of the novel, in my opinion - a lot. There were new characters in the film as well, like Coach Skip, (Owen Wilson) who really wasn't needed at all, but Owen Wilson had to be incorporated into it somehow because he always works with Wes!!!!!! Also, the plot fell really short of the book; for example, with Kristofferson (Mr Fox's nephew) coming to stay and getting captured. It's like a children's game of cat and mouse between the characters. Mr Fox must save Kristofferson from the bad guys, Boggis, Bunce and Bean. The plot really isn't as good as Roald Dahl's brilliant book. It is a film with parts of the book in it; not the whole book, which is what it is mostly meant to be. The animation also, in my opinion, is lacking. The characters look like squashed puppets and the setting is like a damaged and dented Sylvanian Families play set. However, the voices are mostly super. George Clooney provides a good, solid performance for the voice of Mr Fox as does Meryl Streep as Mrs Fox. Bill Murray plays Mr Fox's friend, Badger; again a very good performance. I must however stress again that the actual film isn't good.
The film is worth watching once to see just how bad it is!!!!! Do not expect anything brilliant. Thank you for reading.
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