Fantastic Mr. Fox

"Fantastic Mr. Fox" A-

Remember stop motion animation? The old Christmas animated movies where they had clay figurines and brought them to life with stop motion? When I was a kid, I enjoyed those kind of shows. I was always fascinated with how they did the animation. Apparently, it takes a long time to make a movie like this because basically it is taking constant pictures while moving the figurines. It is move them, take a picture, move them, take a picture, etc. It is reminiscent of a flip book, as some have described it. Wes Anderson worked very hard for a very long time in making the movie "Fantastic Mr. Fox", which is based on a Roald Dahl book. Dahl also wrote "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Wes Anderson (director of well made movies such as Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Darjeeling Limited) does something a little differently this time and made a kid's movie. I must say, he does a brilliant job with it! The usual Wes Anderson cast is in this movie, which are Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson. The lead characters here are Mr. and Mrs. Fox, played by George Clooney and Meryl Streep. The movie starts out with Mr. and Mrs. Fox stealing from farms basically, until Mrs. Fox learns she is pregnant with a cub. Mr. Fox is forced to find a new occupation as a columnist for a newspaper. He is a "wild animal" as he puts it, so he continues his old job of stealing chickens without her knowing it. He mainly attacks Boggis, Bunce and Bean and their corporations. They are described in the movie as "one short, one fat, one lean. These horribe crooks, so different in looks, were nonetheless equally mean". It all turns into a war for food and apple cider. The apple cider is from Bean's farm and he is the one who is obsessed with exterminating foxes or fox like creatures who try to steal from him. I won't give too much away in case you want to see it too lol! The cast is perfect and the stop motion animation is so awesome. It made it a visual treat and Wes Anderson did a brilliant job making this movie for kids and adults to enjoy. I read the book when I was in 4th grade and I also did a book report on it, so it was so cool to see it not only come to life on the big screen, but also to see it done the way animation was done in the old days! I highly recommend this movie because it is fun for the whole family. It deserves to get the academy award for best animated movie of the year!