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Fantastic Mr. Fox: DVD Review

Krystal Clark — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 19:05:20 +0000

Last fall, director Wes Anderson did what most people considered the impossible. He adapted the short Roald Dahl story of Fantastic Mr. Fox and turned it into a feature length film. Instead of taking the ever popular route of using CGI, he decided to bring the characters to life with stop motion animation. He also got an A-list cast led by Oscar winners George Clooney and Meryl Streep to voice Mr. Fox and his long suffering wife. So the question is does Fantastic Mr. Fox deserves a spot in your DVD collection?

The Players:

Director: Wes Anderson
Writers: Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach
Starring: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Michael Gambon, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson

The Plot:

Mr. Fox (Clooney) is an animal that’s wild by nature but forced into a life of domestication when his wife Felicity (Streep) announces that she’s pregnant with their first child. Fox reluctantly agrees to give up his shady ways to become a family man that she and their son can be proud of. Unfortunately after years of living on the straight and narrow he begins to get the itch for mischief and makes a plan to rob the meanest, nastiest and ugliest farmers in the valley, Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. With his careless antics in full swing everyone he loves ends up in danger causing him to finally grow up and change his foxy ways.

The Good:

Behind the Animation: In the DVD Extras there are two amazing behind the scenes featurettes that give us an inside look at how the film was made. You see how far Anderson and his crew went to make things happen, for example the director showed video of himself acting out certain scenes and sent them to the animators so they could match up the movements he wanted with the puppets. It’s really interesting to see how everything thing was made from the various sets to fur on Mr. Fox’s face.
Behind the Direction: Wes Anderson went above and beyond critical expectations with Fantastic Mr. Fox. Even though the characters are puppets, their movements and emotions appear tangible and somewhat human. The vocal performances match up perfectly with what we see on screen and that’s due to Anderson’s vision of making them as life-like as possible.
From the Script to Screen: The original Fantastic Mr. Fox story isn’t that long and with this DVD extra you get to hear from the writers themselves on how they adapted it for film. They approached it from a trilogy stand point, which is an interesting concept that Anderson expands on during the segment.

The Bad:

None: The movie was great and the behind the scenes material is amazing.

Overall:

After seeing Fantastic Mr. Fox in theaters a lot us walked out thinking, “How did they do that?” This DVD answers that question in spades. You see the production crew, eat, sleep, and breathe this movie and at one point you even catch Wes Anderson doing storyboards in his robe. This DVD is definitely worth the money.

Rating: 10/10

The Fantastic Mr. Fox DVD is on sale now, and don’t forget to check out ScreenCrave’s full review of the film.

Trailer:

Are you interested in buying Fantastic Mr. Fox on DVD?

New DVD Releases: The Blind Side, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Brothers

Andrew Payne — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:31:01 +0000

If you’re a George Clooney fan (and really, who isn’t?) this week equals DVD nirvana as two of his films from last year will debut to join recent release Up In The Air in DVD bins everywhere. There’s also a little movie starring an actress you might have heard of named Sandra Bullock. It’s not like she’s been in the news that much this year, but chances are you may remember her from Speed and want to check her out in Best Picture nominee The Blind Side on DVD. Plus there’s another classic AMC series, a not-so-classic AMC series, and a special edition DVD worth mentioning!

Check it all out below. . .

FEATURE FILMS

The Blind Side

This year Sandra Bullock rose from the ashes of bad romantic comedies and action films to become a bonified A-Lister.

With two massive hits (this film and The Proposal) and a notable amount of critical acceptance, ultimately resulting in an Oscar. You can now buy her $200MM Oscar winning smash on DVD and watch the performance that changed her career.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Then there’s George Clooney. Hard to argue with the year he’s had. Oscar nomination, continuing success, a girlfriend who can’t speak English, the guy has it all!

Most underrated on that list; however, was this film, which not only gave Up a run for its Best Animated Feature money, but also returned Wes Anderson to his status as a top filmmaker after The Darjeeling Limited threw that off the rails, literally.

But back to Clooney. Clearly we don’t need a poll asking whether or not you’d like to be him, but here’s a question that may inspire even more debate. Well, at least among the first two choices:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Of course, if you need to brush up before you answer, you can buy this animated gem on DVD.

Also:

Brothers – Buy Now
The Men Who Stare at Goats – Buy Now
Red Cliff – Buy Now
Seraphine – Buy Now

TV ON DVD

“Mad Men”: Season 3

Last week, AMC gave us the second season of its superb “Breaking Bad.” Now it completes a one-two punch by offering up the third season of its sterling “Mad Men,” which begs the question – can a network with only two series be the best network on television?

This is kind of the Ringo Starr corollary: Ringo only wrote two songs as a member of The Beatles – “Octopus’s Garden” and “Don’t Pass Me By” – and both of them were good. He never had a “Revolution 9″ or a “Wild Honey Pie” or an “Only a Northern Song” to blot his resume. That means, batting average wise, he was the best Beatle. Two songs, both good, no strikeouts.

That’s sort of what AMC has become – the Ringo Starr of television networks. Sure it doesn’t have the long list of shows like cable top dogs FX, HBO, and Showtime, but it also never made anything as horrendous as the last season of “Entourage” or “Testees” or “The Tudors”

So when you buy your “Mad Men” Season 3 DVD and begin to wonder if AMC is in fact the best television channel, ask yourself this – Was Ringo Starr the best Beatle?

“7th Heaven”: Season 10 – Buy Now
“Father Knows Best”: Season 4 – Buy Now
“The Prisoner”: Miniseries – Buy Now
“Sabrina, The Teenage Witch”: Season 6 – Buy Now

SPECIAL EDITION OF THE WEEK

The African Queen - Commemorative Box Set

This is one of those movies that you see on so many “Best Of” lists that you get ready to watch and log on to Netflix, only to discover that it isn’t available on DVD. Now, the wait is finally over, as Paramount has found a print worthy enough to transfer onto the DVD format, and they’ve done it in a handsome collection with all the Hepburn and Bogart bells & whistles including many special features.

This film is essentially a must-buy for fans of classic cinema. And since it comes in a two-disc collector set, it really is a no-brainer.

Bonus Features Include:

Bonus CD of a Lux Radio Theater broadcast where Bogart reenacts his role opposite Greer Garson
Eight Stills
All-new hour long “making of” feature with never-before-seen images and commentary
A Condensed Version of Hepburn’s out-of-print 1987 memoir
Featurette: “The Making of the African Queen: Or, How I Went to Africa With Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind”
A reproduction of 4 35mm Frames from the Film

What DVD will you be picking up this week?

Wes Anderson Accepts Award In Stop Motion Style

Mali Elfman — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:51:32 +0000

Last night the National Board of Review awarded Director Wes Anderson a special achievement award for his latest film, the old school, stop-frame animation Fantastic Mr. Fox starring George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Michael Gambon, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson. For those of you who have seen the film, there’s no real question as to why he’s won the award, it’s charming to watch and probably one of the most genuinely funny films of the year.

In fitting with his work on the film, Anderson decided to deliver his acceptance speech via video, in stop-motion animation of course! The big question is, if he beats Up and wins an Oscar for Best Animation, how will he accept that award? Hopefully in stop-frame! And with all the buzz currently surrounding the film, it wouldn’t be that big of a surprise to see it take the win!

Watch the video of his acceptance speech below. I’m not exactly sure what animal he is? A dog? A gopher?

Any ideas as to what animal he is? And do you like the idea of stop-frame acceptance speeches.

Fantastic Mr. Fox Poll: What Was Your Favorite Part?

Krystal Clark — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:40:27 +0000

Fantastic Mr. Fox opened in limited theaters this past weekend, and if you were lucky enough to check it out, you were exposed to Wes Anderson‘s genius take on the children’s book of the same name. After watching the movie, many of you probably walked a way with a few favorites in terms of scenes and characters. So, we want to know what your favorite part of Fantastic Mr. Fox was? Did you enjoy the animation, the dancing, the chase, or the infamous “cussing” scenes?

Take our poll and tell us what you think…

My favorite part of this film included anything that featured the young cubs, Ash and Kristofferson. They were so adorable and out of the loop, but they had their own little storyline going on. Jason Schwartzman and Eric Anderson did a great job of bringing those characters to life. Even though you couldn’t see the actor’s faces, you could still imagine them delivering the lines in your head, which made it even more hilarious. Between the karate, and their homemade bandit hats, they stole the show.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

What was your favorite part of Fantastic Mr. Fox? If it’s not listed in our poll, leave a comment telling us what you liked best.

Wes Anderson’s Not Crazy Says Bill Murray

Krystal Clark — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:06:55 +0000

Wes Anderson is a very unique individual and a talented director. Unfortunately, the man behind Fantastic Mr. Fox was trashed a few weeks ago by the film’s cinematographer Tristan Oliver, for his unconventional directing methods. According to the NYDailyNews, Fox co-star Bill Murray had a few things to say in defense of Mr. Anderson.

Oliver was originally quoted as saying, “Contact with people disturbs him. [He'd rather] spend an entire day locked inside an empty room with a computer.” Recently, Bill Murray (who plays Badger in the movie) was cornered at a premiere party for the film and chalked up Oliver’s response to Anderson’s methods as “crazy talk.” He also went on to say,

“There’s no way you can make that movie unless you isolate yourself. Tristan should be happy he got this job.”

Touche, Mr. Murray, touche! Fantastic Mr. Fox is an amazing film that may find itself as one of the front runners for a Best Animated Feature Oscar if all goes well during awards season. Anderson may not play by the traditional rules of filmmaking, but whatever he’s doing works!

Interestingly enough, shortly after the statements of Oliver were released, he retracted saying that he was “misquoted.” We’ve all heard that excuse before. Someone wanted their career to have some type of longevity, so they tried to minimize the damage. Fantastic Mr. Fox opened as a limited release this past weekend, and will expand everywhere on November 25th.

What do you think about Murray’s defense of Anderson? Was Oliver wrong to dish to the media?

Movie Releases: 2012, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Pirate Radio…

Kara — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:36:19 +0000

We have quite the coverage this week. We literally have interviews and reviews for every movie coming out from Roland Emmerich’s 2012 to Women in Trouble. Then there is the more family friendly, but still fun for the adults, Fantastic Mr. Fox by Wes Anderson. Pirate Radio is the a comedy with an all-star cast about the radio stations in the 60′s that set up shop off the British coast. There are quite a couple of indie movies coming out this week, but they’re definitely worth checking to see if they are playing near you.

Check out all the movies hitting theaters this week with reviews and interviews…

2012 | ScreenCrave Review | Press Conference | Reviews | Tickets and Showtimes
Fantastic Mr. Fox [Limited] | ScreenCrave Review | Reviews | Tickets an Showtimes
Pirate Radio | ScreenCrave Review | Nick Frost Interview | Talulah Riley Interview | Tom Sturridge Interview | Reviews | Tickets and Showtimes
The Messenger [Limited] | ScreenCrave Review | Oren Moverman Interview | Ben Foster Interview | Reviews | Tickets and Showtimes
Dare [Limited] | Adam Salky and David Brind Interview | ScreenCrave Review | Reviews | Tickets and Showtimes
Women in Trouble [Limited] | ScreenCrave Review| Reviews | Tickets and Showtimes

Watch the trailers below…

2012

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Pirate Radio

The Messenger

Dare

Women in Trouble

Fantastic Mr. Fox: Movie Review

Krystal Clark — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:30:43 +0000

It’s been almost 40 year’s since the classic children’s book, Fantastic Mr. Fox hit shelves in America and the U.K. to the delight of kids everywhere. Author Roald Dahl told a simple story about a fox and his attempts to outwit and for lack of a better word “outfox” three of the richest men around. The story is brought to life on the silver screen by director Wes Anderson, using stop motion animation that literally makes you feel like you’re a kid again. His feature version is charming and stays true to the source material, while keeping it fresh for younger viewers.

Check out our review below…

The Players:

Director: Wes Anderson
Writers: Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach
Starring: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Michael Gambon, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson

The Plot:

Mr. Fox (Clooney) is an animal that’s wild by nature but forced into a life of domestication when his wife Felicity (Streep) announces that she’s pregnant with their first child. Fox reluctantly agrees to give up his shady ways to become a family man that she and their son can be proud of. Unfortunately after years of living on the straight and narrow he begins to get that itch for mischief and makes a plan to rob the meanest, nastiest and ugliest farmers in the valley, Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. With his careless antics in full swing, everyone he loves ends up in danger, causing him to finally grow up and change his foxy ways.

The Good:

Stop Motion Technique: One of the best things about this film is the use of stop motion animation. It’s a refreshing step away from the heavy CGI based movies that have flooded theaters in recent years. You can see the hard work that went into the character’s movements, because they are so fluid.
Jason Schwartzman: Usually name actors in voice over roles can be very distracting in a film, but that’s not the case here. Schwartzman was perfectly cast as Ash, the awkwardly small son of Mr. Fox. He’s able to convey the insecurity and humor of the character without being over the top.
Eric Anderson: Anderson is the younger brother of Wes, and has made bit appearances in several of his other films, but this is the first time he’s taken on such a meaty role. As Kristofferson, Ash’s athletically inclined cousin he has amazing comedic timing and is still able to play up the vulnerable side of his character.
Production Design: The overall production design on this film including the costumes and the sets were extremely detailed. In every close up you could see the tiny life-like fibers on Mr. Fox’s face and even the threads in his peacoat. Everything was very well crafted.
Screenplay: One of the main concerns you may have going into this movie is whether or not it will be able to play out the original story and still appeal to all ages. Without a doubt, this film delivers in both areas. There were comedic moments, as well as a few emotional scenes, and they all progressed the story. Everything served a purpose and was put to good use.

The Bad:

Nothing: This may be a bold statement, but Fantastic Mr. Fox is a well adapted, polished piece that Wes Anderson transformed into a legitimate feature film.

Overall:

If you’re a long time fan of Anderson’s body of work it’s a given that you will enjoy Fantastic Mr. Fox, and even if you’re not you will walk away with a smile on your face. This film is funny, sweet, and most importantly it’s entertaining. You won’t leave the theater feeling as if you wasted your time and money. Fantastic Mr. Fox sets out to make you feel like a kid again and it delivers tenfold.

Rating: 10/10

Fantastic Mr. Fox hits theaters on November 13, 2009

Photo Gallery:

Trailer:

LFF: Fantastic Mr. Fox Press Conference

Ben McCarthy — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:50:05 +0000

A few weeks ago the London Film Festival began its first press conference of the festival with the Opening Film, Fantastic Mr Fox. On the panel was the writer/director, Wes Anderson and the stars, George Clooney, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Eric Anderson, Jarvis Cocker and Wallace Wolodarsky. What follows was a really funny press conference; Bill Murray was the standout, with some fantastic one-liners and rants. The only problem with the press conference was the fact that most of the questions were to George Clooney and half of them was about his personal life, which seem out of place, but George Clooney was on top form and dodged the gossip news bullets aimed at him (for those quotes check out our Why Press Conference Suck story). Hope you enjoy.

George, what for you is the appeal of Roald Dahl’s storytelling and characters?

George Clooney: I just showed up for the paycheck because I heard it was a big one. This is a fairly well-known book for a long period of time for a lot of us and there was an opportunity, not only to work on a really interesting and fun story, but also to work with Wes, so I was excited about the whole process. It was a very different process than what most people go through when they work on an animated film. We were out in the middle of nowhere, people’s farms, doing sound effects and things like that; rolling around in the field. The whole process what is exciting and fun to do. If wasn’t an interesting answer, I apologize for that.

Mr. Clooney, can you talk about Mr. Fox? It seems to be a George Clooney performance without your face.

Clooney: Thank you. Although have you noticed the suit and the suit. There is something a little scary about that. For me this guy was just an optimist and I really thought it was a fun character to play. I remember reading the script and saying to Wes, “Listen I love it, and I’m thrilled and excited to do it. I don’t know who’ll see it because it’s sort of made for grownups and sort of made for kids. You never know how that plays.” And he said, “Don’t worry about it. Let’s just go make a movie and have some fun.” And I thought that was a great way to approach making a film, so for me it was about the process of working with Wes, working with these guys. I didn’t enjoy working with Bill, that’s fair to say. We fought a lot.

Bill Murray: That’s accurate George.

Clooney: But I let go of some of the anger and we seem to get along fine now.

Wes, what brought you to the project? And why this style of animation?

Wes Anderson: Why stop motion? Yeah. This was the first book I ever personally owned; officially my property. It was a book I loved as a child. It was a book that introduced me to Roald Dahl’s work in general. It made a big impression on me. About ten years ago, I approached Liccy Dahl, Dahl’s wife, and asked for permission to do it so it’s been a long process. I always intended for it to be stop motion. I wanted to do a stop motion movie. Stop motion movie with animals with fur because I always liked the way that looks — that odd, sort of magical style. That’s the process.

Wes, returning to the stop motion and the choice that you made with that. I’m wondering whether you intentionally approached the cultural history of that form and specifically and Czech filmmakers like Jan Svankmajer used it for politically subversive ends. And I’m wondering if it had any link to the anarchic spirit of Roald Dahl’s novel?

Murray: That’s the kind of question we’ve been hoping for. That’s why we flew over here. Go get ‘em Wes.

(Laughs and claps)

Wes: That kind of eastern European animation was one of the inspirations for me. It’s the most esoteric thing; it isn’t what we thought we were going to talk about onstage, but it’s a very good question. I hadn’t thought about the political links but I do think the movie and Dahl is kind of anarchic. The movie is a bit of a Robin Hood story so it’s a bit communist, I think…

Murray: Or English.

[Laughs]

Wes: But there’s another animated film also that’s a French one, it’s called Le Roman de Renart, do you know that one? And that was a great influence on us because they use — this is too esoteric for this –

Everyone in the panel: No, no, go on.

Wes: One of the techniques that it uses to have multiples scales, so there puppets that are this size, but there also puppets that are tiny that are meant to be the same characters for big-wide shots and it’s very charming and that was something we stole from that movie and used it quite a lot in ours. That’s it. That’s the end of my answer.

Jarvis and Jason, Wallace and Eric, briefly explain your experience voicing the character?

Jarvis: I don’t actually know if I got a line anymore.

Wes: You do.

Jarvis: That line, I put everything into it.

[Laughs]

Jarvis: I hope that when people see the film, they’ll be able to sense the preparation that went into doing it.

Wallace: I have had some experience in animation, mostly in American television with The Simpsons. We use to record theatrically, all the actors there subsequently in future animation that never happens, so this was really a very fun, dynamic experience. We got to run around. When we were running, we ran. When we were hiding behind bushes, we hid behind bushes. It was actually quite fun. I’m not really an actor, but I had a great time working with all these people. It’s been a unique experience for future animation.

Jason: I loved being a part of this movie. I think we’ve talked a lot about all getting to go run around and dig in the dirt and make eating noises and growling noises and how much fun that was to do together, but I can, I really can tell you what a thrill it was to work with everyone. And this is weird to say, but like often time if you’re working with people you really admire, you’re working with them and you can’t really stare at them and take it in of how amazing the whole thing is. Because there were no cameras on this, when George would get to do a scene, make a speech, it was nice because I could just look at him and really admire him. I admire him too, to watch the work and look at it, and to be with Bill and watch Bill work and watch Wes. It was really nicety be able to work, but also watch and have that kind of a privilege. I know it sounds like an odd answer, but that was the thing I liked most about this experience. Thank you.

Eric: My experience started out with all these people having a great time standing in for Jason because he wasn’t there at that moment, and then my part began to work afterwards, once it was all over. It was a series of transatlantic phone calls with my brother, which was sort of like visits because I wasn’t talking to him that of often, he was working very hard. It was sort of like when we were kids, making movies only no cameras, in a darken booth with Wes on the headphones. Occasionally it would be such an abstract experience he would say, “Eric remember, you’re an animal.” I had to keep reminding myself that, but ti was magical.

George or Bill, could you relate to the feeling of something being your last?

Clooney: This is your last film Bill. [Laughs]

Bill Murray: I was just with Felicity Dahl yesterday and she made me feel that way too. [Laughs] She brings out the real fear in you. You always feel like this is the very end of it, but the nice thing about being animated is there going to have a big of difficulty picking me out in an audio crowd. That’s what I’m hoping for. I don’t know what were talking about here, but she seems okay. He’s dead now, so he’s safe. There’s nothing to worry about. She can’t do him any damage now. He’s a great guy and she must have roughed him up pretty bad. [Laughs]

Whatever happened in there household should stay there. We saw where they lived; it’s an amazing place and she’s quite a person, so they had quite a life together and she’s very devoted to him, even now. So I’m sure that in that moment it must have been very forceful to her to realize there’s nothing I can do for him now because it’s just an anxiety that no person can help you with. It’s just your own fear of about yourself. You came to it time after time, it’s just somebody must have roughed him up once upon a time and doesn’t go away so easily. She’s a wonderful, wonderful woman. If I were to remarry, I’d take a chance with her.

Bill, do your improvisational skills help or hinder animation?

Murray: It really has to do with the director and the actors you’re working with. The creatures don’t come into it much. It’s just like any other character — you’re sort of put in this – it’s as if I were here. It’s not a big problem. The improvisation is a function of good the script; the script was good, the story is great. The worse the script is, the more you improvise; it’s as simple as that. Whether it’s a Badger, or a doctor, or a housewife, if the script is lousy you’re going to see more and more improvisation from me, especially if I’m a housewife. Worming with these characters was great, and I just want to say before we go any further, I think the real stars of this movie are Eric and Jason and Wallace because their amazing performances. Their the things that delight me the most in the movie, but they wouldn’t of been possible if George hadn’t really stepped out in front and made a character that we all maple around. This is some of the best work I’ve ever seen somebody do in any kind of voice work. I mean that very sincerely.

Clooney: He’s setting me up for something.

Clooney: I guess now you can officially be described as foxy. What other attributes you think you share with Mr. Fox, other than foxiness?

Clooney: Well I tried a daily wax. Let’s see, I seem to be considerably taller than this character.

Wes: Sometimes when I’ve been writing a script, I had an actor in mind. In this one, we were just thinking of animals, until the script was done. I thought, I would like to have Cary Grant, would have been good, and –

Clooney: Thanks for that.

Wes: Within 20 seconds of thinking of Cary Grant, I was talking about George Clooney. That was the casting process.

Clooney, does this make you want to do more animated films in the future?

Clooney: No. We worked for a few days out on a farm together, and ran around and played in barns and out in fields. Wes worked for a year and a half, or two years, or so on this project. In some ways, us being up here is a little silly. This is Wes’ job and so certainly I would do any of this again. It was an incredibly fun experience for all of us. I would imagine that the real question would be to him, whether he wants–

Wes: The one thing that I learned over the course of the movie is how much the voices — these actors siting up here — how much they give the animator to work with. You record the voices first and the animators, they spend all this time animating these puppets, but their inspiration comes from these moments with these actors.

Wes, how did you work with the animators?

Wes: I did have a wonderful time with the actors. That was a very exciting process and very brief. Animating is a very slow and painstaking process and the animators become the actors at that point. At the most , during this movie, we had 30 units going on at once. So we kind of created a system. I was not in London thought the whole shoot. I was sometimes here and sometimes in other places, but it’s very consuming. You have to work on it all the time while you’re shooting, and we had a computer system where I could look through 30 different cameras at once and see what’s on each set and work with all the different people, which is hundreds of people. Designing and preparing and executing the shots. Getting the systems to do it was as much part of the process as actually doing it, but I loved making this film. Stop motion is something I feel it part of my arsenal of things to use for movies now, I really enjoyed it.

Roald Dahl was thought to likely scaring children. Did you make this story a bit darker than it was and did you enjoy scaring children?

Wes: I remember being scared by Roald Dahl and I loved that. I don’t think we made it any darker, but we tried to keep it as dark. While we were writing the script our goal was to try to see if we could imagine what doll, how he would have expanded the story into a movie. That was out ideal. This is a movie they’re not in danger of getting hurt, they’re in danger of getting killed, and that’s the way it’s in the book. Mr. Fox tale is shot off and doesn’t grow back. We tried to keep that.

Wes, why does it tend to be American actors with American accents rather than British ones?

Clooney: That’s it. (Stomp) [Laughs]

Wes: Noah Baumbach and I adapted the script together — we’re American. I feel we were better writing American voices, so we decided that we would make all the animals American and the humans would be British. That’s the way we did it.

Murray: Because they’re the bad guys. [Laughs]

Clooney, what is the moral lesson from this fairytale?

Clooney: Stealing is good. I don’t know. What’s the moral lesson? Anybody? It’s honoring thievery. Let me try again. I think we just want to be true to our animal nature.

Check out the film in theaters November 25th!

Why Press Conferences Suck: The George Clooney Example

Mali Elfman — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:28:17 +0000

You get someone like George Clooney sitting in front of journalists and despite the integrity of the film and media outlets, certain journalists will use all their skills to try and pull pointless personal BS from the talent. At the London Film Festival‘s press conference for Wes Anderson‘s new animation The Fantastic Mr. Fox certain “journalists” just couldn’t stop asking Clooney about was his personal life. The problem with these “journalists” is that they are like fleas, once they start biting they just won’t stop until they get something they can manipulate into a cheesy headline.

Check out when a good interviews goes bad below…

To set the stage, it’s never just one question that is asked, it’s multiple. Maybe one they could get away with, but no, these blood-suckers are incessant. They start up with….

Q: Clooney, there’s some lovely onscreen moments between yourself and your son. Something about broody.

Clooney: That’s a word that Americans don’t understand. Broody means when you have kids?

He obviously doesn’t want to answer the question so the flea goes in from another angle…

Q: Did it make you want to start a family?

Clooney: Just having Jason (Schwartzman) here next to me, I feel like a father. And he just got married, so I feel like almost a grandfather. Yes, I’m jumping right into it. I’ll bring lots of kids on the red carpet.

At this point, Clooney was still stepping politely step around the issue. If you’re another journalist in the audience, or I imagine if you’re Clooney, you’re now thinking “I hope that person shuts up and everyone else gets the idea that these types of questions are pointless.” But they don’t. They try other things like…

Q: Clooney, I guess now you can officially be described as foxy. What other attributes you think you share with Mr. Fox, other than foxiness?

Clooney: Well I tried a daily wax. Let’s see, I seem to be considerably taller than this character.

…which isn’t too bad, but then as the end of the 30 minutes approachs you finally get some idiot stepping over the edge….

Q: Clooney, in the first production by Smokehouse you played a character that needed to grow up and get responsibility, in this film as Bill [Murray] says your character needs to find responsibility, do you think that’s why everyone keeps asking you if you are going to have kids or are you going to get married?

Well at least he was creative. At this point Clooney has basically called him an asshole to his face, so what does he add?

Clooney: Wow. That was — you went from there — that was good, man. I actually have to applaud you on that. That’s a hard swing.

But that wasn’t enough, he then added?

Q: Do you intend to adopt?

Clooney: I am. I am going to adopt some of Brad Pitt’s kids. [Laughs] I owe him a few. Thank you for that question. I will now have to consider the other jobs I was going to play — Peter Pan, I’ll have to rethink those along the way. That was a good question though, I got to say. Good swing. I don’t have an answer obviously.

As you can see, it seems as if Mr. Clooney is rather skilled at dodging bullets while even creating a few witty comebacks, but for the life of me I can’t understand why these vermin ask him four times if he wants to have kids. The answer, as always is, “it’s none of you’re goddamn business.”

Makes you wonder why he’s even a good enough sport to show up to these things at all. He’s a great actor who was just in a great film, come up with some decent questions or keep your mouth shut!

What do you think about their questions?

LFF Review: Fantastic Mr Fox

Ben McCarthy — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:19:35 +0000

Note from the Editor: Straight from London, comes one our latest addition to the team Ben McCarthy with his first response to Fantastic Mr. Fox at The London Film Festival. At the festival I had some issues making the film because, well, London traffic rivals the best in the world. Luckily, I met Ben who I thought had a rather interesting opiniong of the film. Check out his thoughts below…

You know you’re watching a Wes Anderson film when you see a dysfunctional families, quirky characters, and 70′s style clothing, look at The Royal Tenenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited and now his adaption of Roald Dahl’s book, Fantastic Mr Fox. The film tells the story of Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney) trying to out wit 3 farmers named Bean, Boggis and Bunce to gain more food for his family. I was nervous about the film after watching the trailers, but Anderson has pulled it off and I was deeply impressed with the look of the film.

The set, costumes and creatures are fantastic, you really do get caught up in their environment. The amount of detail, that they incorporate into the creatures is wonderful, especially The Foxes themselves (I kept on thinking back to a character called “Sully” in Monsters Inc). The film is in tune with the book’s time, all the sets and costumes are made to look like they where from the 1970′s and with a soundtrack featuring Rolling Stones you’ll feel like you’ve been transported.

The voice casting was perfect, George Clooney oozes with charm in the role of the daring Mr Fox, sly and witty. With Clooney’s clever voice, you feel as if Mr. Fox can get away with anything. Meryl Streep provides the emotional center of the film as Mrs. Fox, with her soothing voice and Bill Murray as the Badger is of course wonderful at comic relief. But to me, the real star of the film was Jason Schwartzman work as Ash, Mr Fox’s son, trying to seek approval of his dad. It may not be the most original character in the world, but your sympathies are always with him and you desperately want him to succeed.

There are problems with the film, it feels stretched at 87 minutes. It doesn’t help that the writers, Anderson himself, and his writing partner Noah Baumbach, decided to fill the film’s stretching points with chases between Mr Fox and the dogs. It feels as if the writers had to make changes for its American audience, so they just put a collection of chase scenes in to liven up the film, which towards the end becomes a little bit relentless and slightly tedious for the audience. The film also, somewhat runs out jokes towards the end of the film, which is disappointing because the film starts brilliantly. Which then leaves me to my last critique, and that is I have forgotten most of the film already. I saw the film on Wednesday morning, and by the afternoon, I found it quite hard to remember the chase scenes and even the jokes of the film.

Overall, this is a Wes Anderson film in its truest form. Full of quirky characters, smart jokes and a great soundtrack, but it is ultimately let down by its own narrative and the story running out of ideas.

Check back for news from the Fantastic Mr. Fox press conference!

Our full review will be on it’s way with the films release on November 13th!

Wes Anderson Responds to Crew’s Backlash

Krystal Clark — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:41:13 +0000

Any bad news regarding the upcoming film Fantastic Mr. Fox, makes by blood boil. Mr. Fox has to be one of the most highly anticipated films of the fall, and is definitely at the top of my must see list. Lately, there has been a bit of bad press hovering over the film questioning director Wes Anderson‘s work ethic. Anderson finally confronted these rumors and set the record straight once and for all.

Over at the LATimes a piece was ran that featured a few unkind words from the film’s director of photography who didn’t agree with the way Anderson handled his directing duties. Tristan Oliver stated, “It’s not in the least bit normal. I’ve never worked on a picture where the director has been anywhere other than the studio floor!” According to him and several other crew members Anderson was rarely seen on set, and aggravated everyone with his unconventional ways.

Them sounds like fighting words! But Oliver was quoted when the film was still in production and months later clarified that his words were misinterpreted. You can checkout Anderson’s video response in this interview below.

Who do you believe Wes or Tristan the DP?

New Behind the Scenes Fantastic Mr. Fox Featurette

Mali Elfman — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:23:50 +0000

If this clip shows anything, it’s how putting together a movie is all about having a great team of people. Even when you have someone like Wes Anderson at the helm it’s never any one person who makes a movie good or bad, it’s of combination of everyone involved. With a stop-frame animation, there’s a lot of down time. Thanks to technology, Anderson was rarely on set for his latest film The Fantastic Mr. Fox, but always involved. He was able to run more than 30 stages at once from a different locations all thanks to the Internet.

The new featurette is on the making of of the film and titled “Cutting Edge” and you see the absence of Anderson on set as well as the in-depth, day to day process that the cinematographer, producers, artists, and stop-frame animators all took part in.

Check out the video below…

Pretty interesting how everything is Anderson, without Anderson being there. I don’t see how anyone could have the patience to take 5,229 shots and 621,450 frames, only moving fractions of an inch between each take.

It’s beyond me and yet yet has my full respect. Well done team!

Would you ever have the patience to make something like this? And what do you think about directors not needing to be on set the whole time? Will we be seeing more and more of this as use of different types of animation continues to grow?

ScreenCrave.com » fantastic mr fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox: DVD Review

The Players:

The Plot:

The Good:

The Bad:

Overall:

Rating: 10/10

Trailer:

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