Word: mr
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...would think then, that a trip with him down an actual hole, albeit one dug by a family of foxes, might be pure torture. But Anderson's stop-motion Fantastic Mr. Fox is both a delightful amusement and a distillation of the filmmaker's essential playfulness. It's not quite tongue-in-cheek but very self-aware, in a good way. "Why yes," Anderson seems to be telling us. "I do like to play with dollhouses. And look what I can do with them. See the way Mr. Fox's fur stirs in the nonexistent breeze, isn't that marvelous...
...even if it's different from Roald Dahl's children's story about a fox clever enough to outwit three mean farmers named Boggis, Bunce and Bean, one fat, one short, one lean (no one can say that just once). Dahl's spirit is there, but the cinematic Fantastic Mr. Fox comes fortified with Andersonian pouting, parental issues, self doubt and philosophical conundrums. "Who am I, Kylie?" Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney) muses to the sidekick Anderson has created for him, an opossum voiced by Wally Wolodarksy - then clarifies: "I'm saying this as an existential question." (Read about...
...question arises because Mr. Fox, who it must be noted wears slightly too tight, too short suits made of corduroy or tweed, just like his director, is feeling stymied. In a prologue, set two years before our story begins (that's 12 fox years), Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep), announces she's pregnant and forces him to give up fowl thievery for a safer profession. Now he's a newspaper columnist (which hardly qualifies as safer), but he longs to return to the hunt, specifically to Boggis, Bunce and Bean's farms, all of which are laid out in glorious, tempting...
...Dahl's Mr. Fox is cocky and clever, although maybe not as clever as he makes himself out to be. Anderson's Mr. Fox is the same, but more so. He's like a mid-career tribute to Clooney: bold, charming but naughty, dependent on his smile, but well aware of that. And because of his urges - "I'm a wild animal," he reminds Mrs. Fox - he's not altogether trustworthy, which seems like a nod to a reputation that Clooney happily feeds every time he parades a fresh piece of arm candy about the red carpet. Seven-year-olds...
...craft used to maximum effect. If Fox Searchlight wanted to double its box office, they need only set up a booth selling models of Anderson's Fox family right outside the door of the theaters; they're as appealing as any stuffed toy Steiff has ever made. As for Mr. Anderson, he, like Mr. Fox, has dug himself out a hole by going deeper into it. Fantastic...