The Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

[Guest losborrachos]

Wes Anderson does a stop-motion to the Roald Dahl book

Trailers:

From Wikipedia:

The story is about a fox named Mr Fox (George Clooney). At night, he steals chickens, ducks, and turkeys from three mean, stinky and wealthy farmers — Boggis, Bunce and Bean — to feed his family. The farmers are fed up with this and try everything to kill him. One night they wait outside his foxhole in an attempt to ambush him. When Mr Fox emerges from his home, they fire at him but only succeed in blowing off his tail.

Determined to catch him, the farmers use spades and shovels to dig their way into the foxes' home, but Mr and Mrs Fox (Meryl Streep) and their four children dig a tunnel deeper into the ground and manage to escape. The farmers even resort to using bulldozers in order to dig deeper into the ground, but to no avail.

The three men therefore decide to play a waiting game, keeping watch on the entrance to the tunnel with shotguns at the ready, while their men patrol the area to make sure the foxes don't escape.

After three days of starving, Mr Fox comes up with a plan. He and his children dig further on and end up in Boggis' number one chicken house. There they steal some chickens and depart without leaving any sign of their presence there. They also raid Bunce's storehouse of ducks, geese and vegetables and Bean's underground cellar of apple cider.

Along the way they meet Badger (Bill Murray) and other digging animals who are also starving due to the farmers' siege of the hillside. Mr Fox, feeling responsible for the whole affair, invites the other animals to a feast made from the loot and they all decide to make an underground town where they will be safe, while discreetly obtaining food from the farmers.

Meanwhile Boggis, Bunce and Bean keep guard on the tunnel entrance in pouring rain, unaware that Mr Fox and his friends are stealing their food right under their noses. The book ends with the indication the three will be waiting forever.

In the book, local children sing the following verse (a limerick) to taunt the three farmers:

Boggis and Bunce and Bean

One fat, one short, one lean

Those horrible crooks

So different in looks

Were nonetheless equally mean.

Cast

George Clooney as Mr. Fox

Meryl Streep as Mrs. Fox

Bill Murray as Mr. Badger

Jason Schwartzman as Ash

Michael Gambon as Franklin Bean

Jarvis Cocker as Petey

Owen Wilson as Coach Skip

Willem Dafoe as Rat

Anjelica Huston

More Pictures:

i love wes anderson and i'm so glad he's adapting one of my favorite books as a kid (i read a ton of roald dahl). i think it's gonna be really entertaining.

[Guest losborrachos]

new trailer is out: WHAT! awesome. that's what.

original trailer:

new trailer:

will add them to first post.

[Guest Miro25]

Amazing - I love love love Wes Anderson and the voice is another huge plus...looks really clever - can't wait!

[Guest soma]

I'm a HUUUGE fan of Wes Anderson.

I can't wait to see this movie.

It looks so different and unique, too by how it's a stop-motion.

Can't wait to see it!

[Guest retarded_sponge]

I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS

Wes Andersooooooooon *__*

[viedeluxe]

I absolutely loved this book when i was little! I want to see thisss

[Guest gazePunk]

The Royal Tenenbaums has carved in stone in me a Wes Anderson fan. Yippee(!), I'm excited about this movie.

[Guest Miro25]

The detail that went into making all of those character is sooo fascinating - i'd love it if they made like an hour long special on TV just about how the film was made!

[Guest Of Clouds]

Oh, I remember having read this book when I was young. I like how it's a stop-animation film.

Something more to look forward to!

[Guest KanyeWEST]

what the hell is this furry bullmini cooper?

[Guest losborrachos]

so the revelation that i'm sure hit most people when they saw this movie is that wes anderson was essentially making stop motion films this whole time, except he used to do it with real people. i love everything about it, from the story that was already fantastic because roald dahl wrote it, but wes gave it his dose of quirkiness and took it to the next level, to the usual roster of dysfunctional yet lovable family members reminiscent of the tenenbaums or the whitmans, to the visual style that was absolutely breathtaking (i've heard how much of a pain it was to create the stop motion, and i can say all that effort was not for naught), the music, and pretty much everything. and at the heart of it all is the beautiful message that it's alright to be different. love it.

really though, more people need to see this, especially if you're a film buff or a wes anderson fan (most of the time it's the same thing, right?). it's the only serious competition that "up" has for animation oscars except for "coraline" (to give you guys an idea, "up" got an 88 on metacritic, "fantastic mr. fox" got an 83, "coraline" got an 80, and tim burton's "9" got a 60).

[Guest diru]

^ 9 was directed by Shane Acker, not Tim Burton. Tim Burton produced the film, saw that Acker had potential and allowed Acker to expand on his short movie (much like what Peter Jackson did for Neill Blomkamp for District 9). I just felt like correcting you, sorry if I came off as a prude, haha.

I actually haven't seen any of Wes Anderson's films I don't think, but Fantastic Mr Fox looks really great and I think it has something to do with not only Roald Dahl's story and the visual aesthetics behind it (the trailer looks gorgeous) but George Clooney's voice, haha. I'm looking forward to seeing him in, "Up in the Air". (Y)

[Guest losborrachos]

^ 9 was directed by Shane Acker, not Tim Burton. Tim Burton produced the film, saw that Acker had potential and allowed Acker to expand on his short movie (much like what Peter Jackson did for Neill Blomkamp for District 9). I just felt like correcting you, sorry if I came off as a prude, haha.

i know he didn't direct it, it was just easier to say that since the general public associates the movie "9" with tim burton instead of shane acker, much like "the nightmare before christmas" even though henry selick directed that. but yeah, don't be sorry, i'm just as much as a prude and would have done the exact same thing.

but yeah, i think generally speaking, "rushmore" is still wes anderson's best film to date and i highly recommend it, but "the royal tenenbaums" is probably my favorite, followed by "mr. fox". visually, though, "mr. fox" does feel the most complete, for the obvious reasons.

[Guest res0nate]

All of Anderson's work is awesome.

Life Aquatic is probably my favorite.