Fantastic Mr Fox is an animated film based on the book by Roald Dahl. The film was prety good and worth a watch, read more to find out all about it...
Mr Fox is a master chicken thief but when his wife tells him that she is expecting he promises to stop and find a better honest job. We then see Mr Fox and his family a few year later when he is writing for the newspaper and living in a hole in the ground with his family. He feels poor and wants to live the high life above ground in a tree.
Mr Fox goes to see a tree for sale and immediately buys is against the wishes of his lawyer. His family move in and are soon visited by their nephew whose father is ill. The boys don’t seem to get on as the nephew is athletic and the son is not. Mr Fox is not happy with his life and has to look out ever day at the three farms on the opposite hills.
He has the urge to undertake one last job to make the family a little better off but will his master plan work or will he risk loosing everything?
I have been undecided about watching this film for a good few weeks now, I recorded it at Christmas but only just got around to watching it. I have heard of the book, written by Roald Dahl but it is one which I have to confess I never read so I had no idea what the story for the film was about. There seemed to be a good cast list for the voices of the animated characters and I liked the style of animation which I had seen in the trailers so I finally decided to give it a watch. I did find the story was good if not a little confusing in places, I found I had to concentrate quite hard for some parts of the film to understand what was going on and I think this may be a bit of a hindrance to the target audience of this film. The story was a little predictable in places but I did enjoy the way it all turned out and felt it was like no other film I had seen before.
The characters were all quite good and easy to get to know. I found the lead role of Mr Fox to be good despite the fact he was a little hard to understand at times. I felt I got to know him more as the story moved on and he did move away from the self centred fox he came across as at the start of the film. The voice for Mr Fox was given by George Clooney and I think this was a great choice, he really managed to bring the character to life and spoke with some lovely expressions which helped get across feelings and emotions. The appearance of Mr Fox was nice and it was not too far away from what foxes actually look like, apart from the fact he always wore a suit. There was a lovely connection between Mr Fox and his wife and this was helped with the vocals his wife had. She was voiced by Meryl Streep and again I think this was a lovely choice. She came across as softly spoken but quite strict when it came to her family and the problems they faced.
We had some other good characters, the two children were good and I enjoyed how they faced a normal everyday problem boys have with not being athletically good enough and I liked how they seemed to be more human than fox like with the things they did. We also had some very good friends which were not just foxes but other animals and I am pleased about this as it did bring some depth to the story. Some of the great voice over’s came from actors such as, Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, Willem Defoe and Owen Wilson, they all did a great job in bringing their characters to life and giving them depth and feelings.
The animation was quite different from any modern film along the same lines. I felt it did have a puppet feel to it and there was a distinct lack of colour. The film seemed to all be very brown for the majority and I know we were underground and in tree but for me I would have liked more colour. I also did not enjoy the animated humans as they came across as quite evil looking and I felt they could be quite intimidating for a young audience. There was also a lack of could when in the human world and they had no reason not to add colour to this aspect of the film.
There are a few laughs in the film and one character really did bring the majority of them, Petey was a possum who was slightly dumb, he never seemed to be understanding what was said to him and he did just make me giggle a few good times during the film. This film is not classed as a comedy so don’t expect a lot of laughs, they are more understated and aimed at the parent audience.
I found the music was good and fitting for the film, it was all quite orchestral for the majority of the film but there were a few tracks which were more modern and these came courtesy of Mr Fox and his personal radio player. I found it all helped to tell the story and get the feelings and drama of the story across.
I am only reviewing the film so there are no bonus features to speak about. The running time of the film is 87 minutes and I did find this was quite long enough. The rate is a PG and I do agree with this, there is no swearing or fighting in the film but I feel there are one or two characters which may upset or scare very young children. The DVD can be bought for under £5 now and I think this is an OK price.
I was pleasantly surprised by the film and did enjoy the story. I felt the animation was good and different but there was a lack of colour. I am happy to give this film a recommendation and 3 stars and say it is worth a watch. I would wait for this to come on the TV though and save a few pounds.
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