The Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) (Criterion Collection) UK Only [Blu-ray] [2021]

“Boggis, Bunce & Bean. One fat, one short, one lean...”When those lines appeared on screen in the opening shot of Fantastic Mr. Fox a grin appeared on my face and a wave of nostalgia ran over me as I instantly began to remember reading the novel as a child. Based on the novel by Roald Dahl, a crafty and ambitious fox (George Clooney) can’t resist returning to his farm raiding ways and then must help his animal community survive the farmers retaliation.This is visually one of the most impressive, engaging and beautifully crafted animated films I have seen. The film was released in 2009 when Pixar was still dominating and CGI/digital effects were the prime method for animated films. The stop motion animation really makes the film standout and above its peers and makes it essentially timeless. The level of creativity and dedication to the source material is nothing short of jaw dropping and truly puts the film in a league of its own. The colour palette is bold and vibrant and gives the film a constant heightened energy.Wes Anderson manages to bring his signature stylistic techniques and trademarks to the stop motion animation style. The camerawork is precise and moves fluidly from scene to scene. The framing and cinematography is brilliant with some great shots that are more effective and impressive then some live action shots. The editing and pacing is fast yet focused and well crafted and the mixture of licensed music as well as the original songs for the film work very well together.The screenplay is extremely witty and smart. It captures the humour and bizarre nature Dahl’s writing perfectly and is funnier in its slapstick physical moments to its one-liners, sarcasm and insults than most comedy films aimed at a maturer audience.The voice cast ensemble is one of the best I have seen. George Clooney perfectly captures the cockiness, courage and optimism of Mr. Fox. Meryl Streep contrasts this perfectly with the subdued and at times quietly intense Mrs. Fox. Jason Schwartzman as Mr. Fox’s son Ash & Eric Chase Anderson as his cousin Kristofferson have great back and forth dialogue and a friendship that grows throughout the film. Michael Gambon is suitably sinister and menacingly over-the-top as Bean, Willem Dafoe ups the crazy as Rat and Bill Murray, Wallace Wolodarsky and more nail their supporting roles.Fantastic Mr. Fox exceeded my expectations substantially. A visual treat and pure nostalgic joy brought to life in a bold creative presentation. The voice cast are spot on, the cinematography is excellent and the time flies by with a fast (and at times slightly too rushed) and engaging story.

I've been reading Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox to my 3 1/2 year-old, and as we've been enjoying it, I rented it here on Amazon. Man, I'm disappointed! I'm not a Clooney fan, but I figured Streep is great with accents so maybe he is too? Nope. The English character inherent in the children's book has been obliterated and replaced with American accents (I found it grating- and I'm American!) and a lot of needless modern phrases which are usually full of expletives. They think they're so clever, eh? Making all us adults know they're putting in "cuss" for whenever they would have used the f-word. Was this seriously made for kids? My daughter is fascinated by the story in the book, but literally got up and walked away from this film. I turned it off.

TBh, I watched that movie because I was looking for something easy and 'fluffy' on a Sunday night. I was hooked after the first 5 minutes as the characters are so well created - it's like a sociological profiling adventure which incorporated different societal issues applied to the world of forest animals and displayed in an over-simplified cartoonish style; Pretty cool and smart idea!;-) The 'dry' voices of the characters and the way they talk is just a little cherry on top - awesome!!! Hence, absolutely not just for kids - it's really well thought!

Miss Five and I both enjoy Wes Anderson's quirky take on Fantastic Mr Fox, which keeps the spirit of Roald Dahl's classic story (which is really more of a 80-90 page novella than one of his larger novels like Matilda or Charlie), while expanding on it and adding new scenes, characters, and escapades.

I know Wes Anderson is very clever and very popular, but this film is just weird - too cartoony and naff for adults but with dialogue that's way over children's heads. Added to the confusion is that the animals all have American accents so you think you're in the States but the shift half way through is to humans with English accents, and dodgy English scenery, in an other-worldly landscape dominated by a dark yellow light. All this is very distracting and is not really a great representation of Roald Dahl's talent,

`Fantastic Mr Fox' is a delightful stop animation film based upon the Roald Dahl book of the same name. The first half of the film remains relatively faithful to the original storyline (with the addition of a few new characters) but the second half takes it in a slightly different, but no less satisfying direction. Essentially Mr Fox steals various farm produce from three unsavoury farmers who then go out of their way to hunt him and his family down to kill them. Mr Fox is as cunning as a....well a fox, and he finds various ways to outsmart the farmers and amuse us in the process. This has numerous animation touches that made me laugh out loud and made this an especially enjoyable film and the overall animation is excellent throughout. The voice cast is very impressive and well matched to their respective characters and the direction was truly superb. The soundtrack which pretty good as well. I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would and after hearing some disappointing things about this film (generally from fans of the book) I was pleasantly surprised with the high calibre of film making on offer. The best way to gain the most enjoyment from this film is to view it as a separate entity to the book and if you do this you will be in for one wonderful, humorous and spell binding film experience.Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page.