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Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
25 November 2009 (USA)
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Tagline:
Dig the life fantastic. more
Plot:
Angry farmers, tired of sharing their chickens with a sly fox, look to get rid of their opponent and his family. full summary | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
NewsDesk:
(609 articles)
The Satellites Have Launched. What Are They Orbiting?
(From FilmExperience. 29 November 2009, 6:22 PM, PST)
Box Office: New Moon Almost Blind Sided by Sandra Bullock
(From FilmSchoolRejects. 29 November 2009, 5:30 PM, PST)
(From FilmExperience. 29 November 2009, 6:22 PM, PST)
Box Office: New Moon Almost Blind Sided by Sandra Bullock
(From FilmSchoolRejects. 29 November 2009, 5:30 PM, PST)
User Comments:
Spirit if not letter of Dahl in animated adaptation romp
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US Showtimes:
| The Bridge: Cinema de lux | 12:15pm | 2:30 | 4:45 | 7:00 | 9:15 | (personalize) more |
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | George Clooney | ... | Mr. Fox (voice) |
 | Meryl Streep | ... | Mrs. Fox (voice) |
 | Jason Schwartzman | ... | Ash (voice) |
 | Bill Murray | ... | Badger (voice) |
 | Wallace Wolodarsky | ... | Kylie (voice) (as Wally Wolodarsky) |
| Eric Chase Anderson | ... | Kristofferson (voice) (as Eric Anderson) |
 | Michael Gambon | ... | Franklin Bean (voice) |
 | Willem Dafoe | ... | Rat (voice) |
 | Owen Wilson | ... | Coach Skip (voice) |
| Jarvis Cocker | ... | Petey (voice) |
 | Wes Anderson | ... | Weasel (voice) |
| Karen Duffy | ... | Linda Otter (voice) |
| Robin Hurlstone | ... | Walter Boggis (voice) |
| Hugo Guinness | ... | Nathan Bunce (voice) |
 | Helen McCrory | ... | Mrs. Bean (voice) |
Additional Details
MPAA:
Rated PG for action, smoking and slang humor.
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
87 min
Language:
Colour:
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Certification:
USA:PG (certificate #45468) |
Ireland:PG |
Australia:PG |
UK:PG |
South Korea:All |
Singapore:PG |
New Zealand:PG |
Canada:G (British Columbia/Manitoba/Quebec) |
Canada:PG (Alberta/Ontario) |
South Africa:PG
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach created a new beginning and ending, adapting the latter part of Roald Dahl's story (where Mr. Fox and his family and friends go on the offensive against Boggis, Bunce and Bean) as the main plot.
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Quotes:
Movie Connections:
References Robin Hood (1973)
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Soundtrack:
Night and Day
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FAQ
A Note Regarding SpoilersWhere is Fantastic Mr. Fox set?
How much sex, violence, and profanity are in this movie?
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| News articles | IMDb Animation section | IMDb USA section |
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It's been about a quarter of a century since (enthralled) I read Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox. Well this film roughly represents the text. However, Anderson and Baumbach took the decision to re-appropriate some of the story's content and style in order to reflect their own sense of energy and wonder. It basically works, because it's fresh, up-to-date and pertinent to a cinema audience.
The voices are a super feature, particularly that of Anderson's long- time collaborator Jason Schwartzman, who plays Ash, the eponymous Fox's son/cub. In a nice casting move, which brings further irony to a running joke concerning human vs fox years, Meryl Streep is Mrs Fox to Clooney's Mr... Clooney is a bit cool for me in this film - he's a good comic actor but a lot of what he does is visual. I missed a weight to his sincerity.
The spirit of the late, great British animator Oliver Postgate is invoked throughout the film with a generally low-fi approach to the animation. I was most impressed with the variation of shots, given that it's all roughly two-dimensional. Variations of angle and framing as well as some fluent camera tricks (which, sometimes for only a matter of frames, must have hardly seemed worth it) make for an involving film. The chase scenes are funny, fast and occasionally frightening. One mustn't forget that Dahl himself did not eschew the shocking in his books.
As is often the case with animation, there's a fair bit besides the narrative packed into the screen. We're treated to a Jarvis Cocker cameo in more ways than one; a Tarantino homage from Kill Bill; and an interesting framing device that Brian de Palma used in Carrie, overlaying a shot so that foreground and background are in focus simultaneously to take in solipsitic aside and reaction simultaneously. As in Carrie, this happens on a sports field, at a sub-Quidditch/cricket game, mixing quirks and pathos as the young animals wrestle with their own pre-pubescent purpose, Anderson's chief interest in this film.
Some of it doesn't work. I thought the second appearance of the (more Tarantino meets Desplat's Morricone-spoof music) rat was overlong and possibly superfluous. Yet I laughed a great deal and the serious moments never curdle. 7/10