It wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to call director Wes Anderson an "oddball". After all, his films have celebrated the outcasts of the world, the unsung heroes whom you wouldn't believe to be "normal" folks. But like many other "oddball" filmmakers (such as Tim Burton, John Waters, Spike Jonze, and the Coen Brothers), there's a palpable air of real humanity in Anderson's stories; in fact, even MORE so than the "conventional" movie auteurs.
From his 1996 debut of the crime-caper comedy Bottle Rocket, his indie classic Rushmore, to his deliciously eccentric The Royal Tenenbaums, Anderson's developed a well-deserved reputation for bucking the trends and sending his audiences to unexpected places.
So it was only natural that Anderson's latest cinematic outing would be even weirder and quirkier than its predecessors. Only this time, instead of a live-action comedy about iconoclastic teenagers, dysfunctional families, or shark hunters, Anderson went for an animated film. And as expected, Anderson eschewed the methods of now-commonplace CGI in favor of good-old-fashioned stop-motion animation. And truly, when you make a movie based on Roald Dahl's classic children's book "The Fantastic Mr. Fox", you're almost obligated to aim for the weird.
The eighth movie adapted from one of Dahl's works, Fantastic Mr. Fox is a wonderfully sublime achievement in animation, not because it takes a step back in movie technology, but how the production is executed in an entirely original and fascinating way. For example, instead of utilizing the clean and fluid stop-motion animation of current (like those used for Coraline or Corpse Bride), the animation here is jerky, madcap, and almost creepy in an aesthetic way. The autumn-styled color schemes are used in great detail, and the art direction is to die for, clearly done in painstaking detail.
Crafty Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney) and his wife Felicity (voiced by Meryl Streep) are two chicken thieves on a job at a British farm. However, as the two are captured, Felicity reveals that she's pregnant, and should they escape, Mr. Fox would have to quit thievery and find a new, honest line of work.
Go forward two years (twelve in fox years), and the now-domesticated couple are proud parents to a grumpy youngster named Ash (voiced by Jason Schwartzman). After moving into a new tree, the allure of thievery gets the best of Mr. Fox, and he plans one final heist on three massive farms in the area.
As in all of his movies, Anderson committed a true masterstroke of casting, and no voice would be a finer fit for the sly, crafty Fox than that of George Clooney. Injecting his natural charm and hysterically funny delivery into what's essentially the vulpine version of Danny Ocean, Clooney is an absolute blast in his role. Streep, as always, is wonderful in her vocal performance, as is the rest of the cast (which includes several regular Anderson collaborators, including Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Wally Wolodarsky, and Owen Wilson).
As with Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are, the film needed obvious padding to flesh out the story, and Anderson does a wonderful job adding "quirk" wherever he could. From the use of the word "cuss" replacing any potential swear words ("What the cuss?" "What a cluster-cuss!" "You little cuss!"), to the animation style resembling '60s era storybook illustrations (what with the limited color palette and two-dimensional backgrounds), to the wonderfully eclectic soundtrack (ranging from The Rolling Stones and The Wellingtons to The Beach Boys and Burl Ives), Fantastic Mr. Fox truly delivers when it comes to crafting a highly original and terrifically enjoyable film experience.
Some may be annoyed with the current popular trend of making movies too "quirky" or "oddball" (we're looking at YOU, any movie starring Michael Cera), but Wes Anderson shows that in the right hands, "oddball" is truly fantastic. A terrific experience for both kids and adults, and one that I'll be sure to experience again.
Letter Grade: "A-"
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