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The Fucking Fantastic Mr. Fucking Fox

post #1 of 80
7/30/09 at 4:42pm
Thread Starter 
http://chud.com/articles/articles/20...FOX/Page1.html
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post #2 of 80
7/30/09 at 4:46pm
I know the animation is supposed to be retro and everything but I can't help but think how much I would have liked the look more if it was Coraline-level smoothness.
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post #3 of 80
7/30/09 at 4:48pm
Whoo hoo! Namechecked on the CHUD main page. My life is complete.

Anyway, this trailer definitely lives up to the fantastic part of the title (fuck, now I'm starting to sound like Fleed...kill me), and the voice cast for this is simply crazy with talent. Nick is right...between this and Wild Things, all other children's movies should be embarrassed. Unfortunately, I have a really bad feeling these two are only going to make a fraction of what G-Force pulls in.
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post #4 of 80
7/30/09 at 4:54pm
Reminds me more of Cosgrove Hall's WIND IN THE WILLOWS series (which I friggin adore), than Aardman. Gives a "what if Wes A directed OCEAN'S 11 with forest fauna" kinda vibe.

Looking forward to it. It doesn't look anything like I imagined. Which is cool.
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post #5 of 80
7/30/09 at 4:56pm
I don't understand the backlash for this that is starting. It looks fantastic to me, and I love the Anderson style in this format. The shot of Mr. and Mrs. Fox walking and talking reminds me completely of the walk Royal and Etheline have along the river in Tenenbaums. I like the look of his flat, symmetrical tendencies transfered to the animation. The voice cast, as well, is stellar.

Russ mentioned on twitter that he felt alienation instead of involvement from the trailer. But is that not pretty typical of Anderson's oeuvre?
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post #6 of 80
7/30/09 at 4:57pm
Jesus, the dialogue in that trailer was fucking great. Really sharp, delivered well, it looks amazing.

"I'm a Demolitions expert"

"What! Since When?"

I literally can't wait for this film.
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post #7 of 80
7/30/09 at 4:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DARKMITE8 View Post
Reminds me more of Cosgrove Hall's WIND IN THE WILLOWS series (which I friggin adore), than Aardman. Gives a "what if Wes A directed OCEAN'S 11 with forest fauna" kinda vibe.
That is a seriously great way of putting it, and I'm totally stealing it when describing this to people who haven't seen it.
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post #8 of 80
7/30/09 at 5:02pm
Looks good. But I guess I've been spoiled now by Coraline and Corpse Bride because the unsmoothness of the animation was jarring.
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post #9 of 80
7/30/09 at 5:02pm
That's pretty charming.
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post #10 of 80
7/30/09 at 5:09pm
I just hope the foxes are wealthy, WASPy and have father issues. I wouldn't want Anderson to stray too far from his wheelhouse.

Looks cute.
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post #11 of 80
7/30/09 at 5:13pm
I bet Best Animated Feature is going to be an actual race at the oscars this year, between this, Up, and Coraline. It's a chance to give Anderson an oscar without actually giving him one. Although this might get crushed by Wild Things.
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post #12 of 80
7/30/09 at 5:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spike Marshall View Post
Jesus, the dialogue in that trailer was fucking great. Really sharp, delivered well, it looks amazing.

"I'm a Demolitions expert"

"What! Since When?"

I literally can't wait for this film.
Yeah that was classic Anderson--something that might have been in Rushmore or Bottle Rocket.

This looks incredible. I guess I'm not as cynical as some others cause I can't get behind the hate for this. It looks wonderful. Now I just need to have kids so I can share it with them.
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post #13 of 80
7/30/09 at 5:21pm
This just leapt near the top of my most antcipated list for the end of the year. Looks like a blast, and I love the retro animation. It's almost like the classy, upscale version of Rankin-Bass.
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post #14 of 80
7/30/09 at 5:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by zikade zarathos View Post
But I guess I've been spoiled now by Coraline and Corpse Bride because the unsmoothness of the animation was jarring.
And intentional.
You fucking kids today, I swear...
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post #15 of 80
7/30/09 at 5:28pm
Ditto.

+

Looks incred.
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post #16 of 80
7/30/09 at 5:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DARKMITE8 View Post
Reminds me more of Cosgrove Hall's WIND IN THE WILLOWS series (which I friggin adore), than Aardman.
That's what it is! I knew it was something British and '80s. I kept thinking Paddington Bear, but after watching some Youtube clips it was far too clunky and low-budget.
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post #17 of 80
7/30/09 at 5:31pm
I am and always will be an Anderson apologist, so take everything I say with a pinch of salt, but I thought that was brilliant. Best trailer I have seen in ages (even with the release of the new Coens one).
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post #18 of 80
7/30/09 at 5:37pm
I love the animation but found almost every celebrity voice to be jarring. Damn it.
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post #19 of 80
7/30/09 at 5:41pm
I adored this book when I was a young'un. The trailer pushes all the right buttons for me - love the hand-made, organic feel of the stop-motion and I love the colors Anderson is choosing to work in.

I'm a long way from being a kid, but this trailer makes me feel like one.
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post #20 of 80
7/30/09 at 5:41pm
This definitely looks like something from a bygone era of stop motion animation like those old Curious George and Padington movies from Nick and Disney waaaay back in the day. But even with it's looking intentionally dated it looks like it'll be a blast. Also that whistle thing Fox does is that Hawkeye's thing from M*A*S*H?
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post #21 of 80
7/30/09 at 5:45pm
I dunno if the kids'll go for it, but I'm certainly all in.
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post #22 of 80
7/30/09 at 5:54pm
this does look awesome.. err fantastic. Must see.
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post #23 of 80
7/30/09 at 5:56pm
Yup, definitely modeled on Wind in the Willows. It kind of blew me away to see something that looks so much like something I would have seen in my childhood. I love the use of Anderson's stagey, diorama-esque compositions. This is what animation needs: more fresh blood from live-action auteurs who can inject their own sensibilities, and not fall prey to the groupthink that plagues animation.

The trailer itself was a little bit noisy and frantic for my taste, but I can tell it's just the marketing trying to make it look appealing to kids. Between this and Wild Things, looks like this fall will be a bit of a renaissance for quirky, non-corporate-looking kid's movies.
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post #24 of 80
7/30/09 at 5:59pm
I love the feel that the fur has with the stop motion. It has the constant movement that reminds me, in fact, of the original King Kong. I dig it.
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post #25 of 80
7/30/09 at 6:02pm
What a great year for children's movies that adults can appreciate too.
I can't wait for this one either.
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post #26 of 80
7/30/09 at 6:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr_Cellophane View Post
I don't understand the backlash for this that is starting. It looks fantastic to me, and I love the Anderson style in this format. The shot of Mr. and Mrs. Fox walking and talking reminds me completely of the walk Royal and Etheline have along the river in Tenenbaums. I like the look of his flat, symmetrical tendencies transfered to the animation. The voice cast, as well, is stellar.
I'm in the same boat. Stop motion was definitely the way to go and the awesome cast doesn't hurt.

The film looks great. It's kind of neat to see some recent non-pixar family films (this, Wild Things, Coraline) look like they are actually trying.
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post #27 of 80
7/30/09 at 6:19pm
I'm mildly conflicted about this trailer. On the one hand, the dialogue was great, but on the other hand, the celebrity voices stick out like a sore thumb for me (especially Mr. Clooney). I love that it is stop-motion, but part of me wishes for just a *tiny* bit more detail in the movements, mostly for lip synch.

That said, this trailer still managed to sell me on the film, something the still frames weren't able to do. My butt will be in the theater for most animated movies (mostly because its my occupation), but I am genuinely looking forward to this now. Between Fantastic Mr Fox, 9, Ponyo, and Princess and the Frog, it seems like there is huge potential for a lot of animated goodness in the second half of 2009.
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post #28 of 80
7/30/09 at 6:20pm
Yeah, I'm not a huge Anderson fan so I was fully expecting to hate this. It's just that there's nothing in there to hate. Seriously, Bill Murray playing a demolitions expert Badger! How do you screw that up?
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post #29 of 80
7/30/09 at 6:20pm
That trailer felt like a Wes Anderson guest-directed episode of Robot Chicken. It'll take some getting used to (like Bob sorta referenced, when us kids today think of stop motion, we think of Nightmare Before Christmas-level smoothness, not old school 70's fare) but it does feel like the right direction to go.

The most astounding thing is that Wes Anderson seems to be leaving his comfort zones. It's still obviously his style, but he seems to actually be taking it in a different direction. I can't believe that I'm excited to see a Wes Anderson movie.
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post #30 of 80
7/30/09 at 6:25pm
As Life Aquatic is my favorite Anderson film, I've always known children's fare would be his best work. His eye, set designs, handling of multiple characters -- I mean he'd be great at adapting Hey, Arnold! No joke.
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post #31 of 80
7/30/09 at 6:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DARKMITE8 View Post
Reminds me more of Cosgrove Hall's WIND IN THE WILLOWS series (which I friggin adore), than Aardman. Gives a "what if Wes A directed OCEAN'S 11 with forest fauna" kinda vibe.
I was thinking this very thing.

I have to admit it looks pretty good, though I'm torn between admiring the guts of going with such a deliberately rough, old-school animation style and being slightly annoyed by it as yet another smug Wes Anderson affectation. But at least by its very nature this film shouldn't have many of the things that usually annoy me about his films.
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post #32 of 80
7/30/09 at 6:39pm
Fucking beautiful. That was charming as a motherfuck. Mr Fox was always my favourite Dahl book and this looks to have adapted it in a witty, canny way. From the first second I was hooked, but damn that was funny. And the aesthetic is right fucking on.
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post #33 of 80
7/30/09 at 6:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fritz Chrome View Post

I have to admit it looks pretty good, though I'm torn between admiring the guts of going with such a deliberately rough, old-school animation style and being slightly annoyed by it as yet another smug Wes Anderson affectation. But at least by its very nature this film shouldn't have many of the things that usually annoy me about his films.
I don't get smug from Anderson, he just only cares about rich white people. He's Woody Allen, just swap the Jewish neurosis for WASP neurosis.

I think the animation style on this looks great. Clooney's voice is distracting though; I just picture him smirking in the ADR booth.
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post #34 of 80
7/30/09 at 7:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sebastian OB View Post
I don't get smug from Anderson, he just only cares about rich white people.
He cares about Danny Glover.
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post #35 of 80
7/30/09 at 7:11pm
Oh come on, Clooney sounds fantastic as a fantastic fox.
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post #36 of 80
7/30/09 at 7:14pm
Clooney, Murray, Huston and Schwartzman all sounded absolutely fantastic as their characters. I really don't get the hate.
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post #37 of 80
7/30/09 at 7:17pm
Who is hating?
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post #38 of 80
7/30/09 at 7:19pm
It's been a LONG time since I read Fantastic Mr. Fox (or, I should say, had it read to me). If I recall correctly it was one of Dahl's more mainstream stories correct? Fewer strange twists than even, say, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Then again I always forget that Dahl wrote things like Danny: Champion of the World, which was the decidedly realistic (or at least not magically realistic) take on a boy and his poacher father. So Fox may be more out there than I recall.
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post #39 of 80
7/30/09 at 7:20pm
IMDB claims Mario Batali is playing "Rabbit." Wes Anderson, you are a delight.

Anyone read Beaks' Schwartzman aricle about the production of this movie? Sounds like the filmmaking process was a bit odd with Anderson directing the stop-motion animation by video and e-mail from his home in France. Love that he took a "natural" approach to recording dialog though.
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post #40 of 80
7/30/09 at 7:36pm
I find the use of the word jarring to be jarring.
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post #41 of 80
7/30/09 at 7:41pm
This is going to be a hell of a fall for childrens films.
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post #42 of 80
7/30/09 at 7:49pm
I think they should have kept the same cast, but had everyone do British accents. It IS a Roald Dahl book, and all.

Do you know how funny it would have been to have Bill Murray doing a British accent? REALLY fucking funny, that's how much.

Aside from that, looks awesome.
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post #43 of 80
7/30/09 at 7:51pm
When people point out the animation in the negative I can't help but wonder what it must be like to be so faggoty a human being.
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post #44 of 80
7/30/09 at 8:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JazzyJustin View Post
I think they should have kept the same cast, but had everyone do British accents. It IS a Roald Dahl book, and all.

Do you know how funny it would have been to have Bill Murray doing a British accent? REALLY fucking funny, that's how much.

Aside from that, looks awesome.
Yeah it'd be much better to have a terrible product to ironically appreciate, than what looks to be a well designed, well scripted, well voice acted, kids film.
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post #45 of 80
7/30/09 at 8:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sebastian OB View Post
I don't get smug from Anderson, he just only cares about rich white people. He's Woody Allen, just swap the Jewish neurosis for WASP neurosis.
That's never been my problem with him. What bothers me is his films always feel like painstakingly constructed surfaces with not that much substance underneath. For a guy who supposedly makes subtle comedies for smart people I don't think his dialogue is all that witty or intelligent, and when he goes for emotional resonance he tends to depend on heavy handed suicide/death sequences and songs which do all the emotional heavy lifting for him, and it doesn't feel earned to me. A lot of people disagree, obviously.

Like I said though this film might be able to sidestep a lot of the things that usually bug me about him. Just giving his own obsessions a rest and adapting someone else's story and characters was a good move for him I think.
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post #46 of 80
7/30/09 at 8:46pm
I love that Wes decided to go this old-fashioned route but, at first anyway, it does look a little jarring to me, because the textures feel a little off. With clay I don't "miss" the way hair moves because clay doesn't have that property, but when real fur's involved like this there is an unconscious barrier there that acts as a distraction and stops me being drawn in. I love everything else about the look though, and the sound, and I think after five minutes I'll be sucked into the film and the jarring will cease to be an issue. God I hope there's a lot of Bill Murray's Badger, I fucking love his voice so bad.
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post #47 of 80
7/30/09 at 9:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spike Marshall View Post
Yeah it'd be much better to have a terrible product to ironically appreciate, than what looks to be a well designed, well scripted, well voice acted, kids film.
I'm just saying, shitbeak. Roald Dahl books are very British in their humor and language and tone.

I was going to say he should have just cast British actors, but then I decided that the entire cast could have spoken in British accents very well, and in Bill Murray's case, it would have been funny, and still good.

Ironically nothing.
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post #48 of 80
7/30/09 at 9:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Beldar View Post
IMDB claims Mario Batali is playing "Rabbit." Wes Anderson, you are a delight.

Anyone read Beaks' Schwartzman aricle about the production of this movie? Sounds like the filmmaking process was a bit odd with Anderson directing the stop-motion animation by video and e-mail from his home in France. Love that he took a "natural" approach to recording dialog though.
I read it, but I think it just indicates he took a fairly hands off approach to the animation. Looking at the familiarity of shots in the trailer, and bts stuff of his earlier work, I imagine he storyboarded the whole thing himself to begin with. Either that or the people doing the work have mastered the art of Anderson-parody.

I'd have liked English voices, though I reckon the relative commercial failure of Wallace and Gromit in the US meant that it was a no go.
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post #49 of 80
7/30/09 at 9:26pm
No hate here, but I don't get it. Why is this cool? The sub-par animation is obviously a choice, but strikes me as off-putting. Clooney sounds like he's playing Clooney. Meanwhile, Wes Anderson could be making real movies.

Of course, those are just knee-jerk reactions from a two-minute trailer, but if it were a horse race between this and the "Where The Wild Things Are" trailer, Purina might be leering at TFMF in an uncomfortable manner.
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post #50 of 80
7/30/09 at 9:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grimoald View Post
I read it, but I think it just indicates he took a fairly hands off approach to the animation. Looking at the familiarity of shots in the trailer, and bts stuff of his earlier work, I imagine he storyboarded the whole thing himself to begin with. Either that or the people doing the work have mastered the art of Anderson-parody..
It doesn't bother me much, cause it sounds like even if he wasn't in the room, he was very precise. And obviously he was on set some of the time. I don't see it as that much different than regular hand-drawn or CG animation where the animators might be in Korea and the director's in the US. I'm guessing Anderson doesn't know much about the animation process, he just knows what he wants and what he doesn't want, and as long as he makes those decisions, he's the director.
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