A thread for Wes Anderson's "The Fantastic Mr. Fox"

'cept if that's not all it is.

(or even primarily what it is)

it's hard to say how to classify it. i think you can broadly call it a "family" movie, in the sense that you can definitely take kids to it. but i don't think it's a kids' movie.

jazzgasms (Mr. Que):
i haven't seen this movie yet but i get the impression sometimes that wes should just be a set designer or something and leave the story to someone else

^^^^^^ this - OTcussinM!
I feel asleep several times. probably one of his better (best?) films though...

s1ocki is so otm itt... goddamn i hated this and i am one of the biggest stop-motion stans u could meet. he's so unimaginative, why did he even hire world class animators to do this when he clearly wanted it to look like fuckin robot chicken or something. i'd feel ripped off if i hadnt snuck in after seeing another movie - actually i still feel ripped off

the opossum was the only likeable character

All this time on ILX and you're drawn exclusively to likeable characters?

not exclusively, but i wasnt exactly drawn in by fox's roguish charm or w/e

also why were all the animals american

haha even british ppl aren't bothering with the 'why are we always the bad guys' whine for this movie

i'm just tired of his yarns about raffish fops & upper crust cumstaches

it's clear now that owen wilson was the engine behind his only good movies, which is weird/scary

speaking of which, there was a preview before it for noah baumbach's newest manchild movie, starring ben stiller as a charming unemployed guy i guess... who is this shit meant to appeal to

answer in question?

i think fmf is pretty good tbh. works for kids. liked how it acknowledges how artificial it is to make a film about wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiild animaaaaaaaaaaaaals as part of industrial-entertainment complex. also, funny.

i liked when the possum talked about his credit rating

i liked badger's tape recorder

Ben Stiller's best manchild work by far has been in Tenenbaums

Wow cankles we are 100% eye to eye on this.

I am not full cankles on this, but I left this movie feeling vaguely so-what about it.

i also sorta resented that it was so half-assed as a kids movie, it felt like he probably saw it as beneath himself to make something that kids would actually love

how half-assed as a "kids movie"? should it have been dumber and louder like Up?

Not that this line of reasoning would make anyone hate Anderson less, but I bet this movie reflects what he genuinely would have enjoyed as a kid. But yeah, definitely heard adults squealing more than kids in the theater despite roughly equal attendance.

as Ebert said, THE KIDS CAN ASK QUESTIONS.

Man, I don't want to hear parents explaining pregnancy or Jarvis Cocker while the movie's going on!

after.

I liked it and would say it's probably his best film to date.

best anderson since rushmore, or at the very least since tenenbaums. it might help if you read the book as a kid but have dim memories of it, so you remember some of the pictures and even chapter titles (the terrible tractors!) but not most of the specifics.

I would've loved this as a kid, just for the way it looked and the sense of giddy grownup adventurousness. ppl have somewhat warped ideas about what kids are and are not into, methinks.

weird that my two favorite films of the year both involve willem defoe confronting talking foxes.

how half-assed as a "kids movie"? should it have been dumber and louder like Up?

― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Thursday, December 31, 2009 7:16 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark

this is exactly the kind of arrogance i'm talking about! like he cant deign to make movies kids will enjoy, he has to make something that's identical to the crap he treats his normal audience of shiftless hipster bums to so he can then reassure himself that he's doing kids a favor by not talking down to them. kids are often sophisticated enough to understand movies that aren't made for them, but making a movie for adults with the veneer of a kids movie seems like a shitty worst-of-both-worlds compromise for an unimaginative filmmaker who doesnt have the courage to try something outside his comfort zone.

*kicks back, lights cigar*

When is he finally just gonna re-make Harold & Maude? Isn't that what his whole style/career is based on?

I'm sure Ben Stiller could play Harold with a bit of CGI assistance.

*slits wrists*

*covers self in gasoline, lights match*

*rolls eyes* *kills self*

*farts*

something is amiss when i agree with cankles

you know your a racist if...

you're**!

I want so desperately to agree with cankles on a movie. One of these days.

Saw this today. Not my favorite, but I did how it was set in your standard Anderson Neverwhen period, flatscreen and cell phone notwithstanding.

did what?!?!

cankles you must know a lotta stoopid kids.

Did LIKE how

a movie for adults with the veneer of a kids movie

fyi it is about talking foxes

Not that this line of reasoning would make anyone hate Anderson less, but I bet this movie reflects what he genuinely would have enjoyed as a kid.

coulda sworn i said something like this upthread, but yeah: anderson seems to make movies that he wishes he'd grown up with himself.

what you guys need to see is "historias extraordinarias." blew my dome open like no other movie in the past long long time.

― T.M.I. Friday's (s1ocki), Monday, November 30, 2009 4:15 AM (1 month ago)

i saw this! and you are OTM

When is he finally just gonna re-make Harold & Maude? Isn't that what his whole style/career is based on?

If so, he's improved on it every time (not that that's so difficult).

But in the end, he's just another dead rat in a garbage pail behind a Chinese restaurant.

this movie was funny!!!

i saw this! and you are OTM

― just sayin, Saturday, January 9, 2010 1:36 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

:D

xpost - What's not to like about Harold & Maude (besides maybe Cat Stevens)?

Ok, I think I was using bad terminology back when I talked about "kid humor"...

What bothered me was not kid humor. I am a fairly juvenile persona and most of the comedy in the movie was great, such mini-motorcycle, that acorn game (which was great), "cussing" and the animals easting like animsls) it was that the parts that seemed to be more adultish really lacked any kind of emotional poignancy that you except from Wes-And except for maybe the very first time the kids meet and Ash cries and they play with trains.

And I thought it was disjointed, moving way too quickly between funny stuff and serious stuff. It just seemed either too manic for what was going on or to flat.

Ok.

~Just been thinking 'bout that fantastic fox.