DVD Reviews

Fantastic Mr. Fox – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Mar 24, 2010, 15:05 GMT

$The mean old farmers - fat Boggis, squat Bunce and skinny Bean have joined forces and have Mr. Fox and his family surrounded. What they don\'t know is that they are not just dealing with any old fox - it\'s$

The mean old farmers - fat Boggis, squat Bunce and skinny Bean have joined forces and have Mr. Fox and his family surrounded. What they don\'t know is that they are not just dealing with any old fox - it\'s "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and he has a fantastic master plan to save the day. ...more

Wes Anderson adapts Roald Dahl’s short story into a feature length stop motion animated film. Although the creative critters are voiced by high-end Hollywood talent the results don’t seem as fantastic as Mr. Anderson envisioned.

Mr. (George Clooney) and Mrs. (Meryl Streep) Fox are sneaking into a squab farm to steal one for dinner. During their clandestine shopping excursion they’re trapped in a cage. Mrs. Fox then reveals that she’s pregnant and if they survive this trap then she wants Mr. Fox to get a less dangerous job.

Two (fox) years pass and the Foxes obviously escaped and Mr. Fox has taken a job as a newspaper columnist. They live in a burrow with their son Ash (Jason Schwartzman). Mr. Fox is missing his thieving days and thinks that no one reads his column. He decides to move his family, who has added one more when nephew Kristofferson (Eric Chase Anderson) comes to stay with them, into a new home.

The one he’s looking at is in the middle of three greedy farmers, Boggis (Robin Hurlstone), Bunce (Hugo Guinness), and Bean (Michael Gambon). Mr. Fox visits his lawyer Badger (Bill Murray) to complete the deal for the house. Badger advises him against moving into the tree as surely no good will come of it.

No good does come of it as Fox goes back to his thieving ways and draws his possum superintendent Kylie (Wallace Wolodarsky) into his schemes - although Mr. Fox underestimates the fiendishness of the farmers, especially the violent Bean.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox is based on the short novel by Roald Dahl. It’s been adapted by director Wes Anderson and peopled with Hollywood talent. Some of the actors are not too unfamiliar to fans of Anderson, such as Bill Murray. It’s done in stop-motion animation and that has a certain charm to it as it reminded me of those great holiday specials from my youth.

With that in mind, there were several factors at play that made me want to like the movie. When all was said and done, I can’t say that I actively disliked the film, but there was some spark missing that didn’t endear the film to me. I can’t exactly put my finger on it.

The voice cast was good. The stop-motion was good. Maybe it was the additions to Dahl’s work, which needed it to bring to a feature length. There’s some good byplay between the clumsy Ash and the more liked Kristofferson. I’ve liked Anderson’s films as well.

I think the film seemed to lack some soul as I wasn’t as interested in the travails of the Fox family as I should’ve been. I started looking at my watch, which is never a good thing. There’s a slow spot in the middle.

There’s a big rescue finale that amps things up some more, but by then the damage had been done (at least in my case, your mileage may vary). I never wanted to press stop and put in another film, but I was halfway disinterested by that point, just watching to see what happened.

The younger tykes might be a bit shocked at some of the more violent aspects of the film, but certainly vengeful farmers would take the same tack as the ones in the film do. It was not a homerun, but it wasn’t terrible either. I guess I wanted to like it more than I actually did.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include the 7 minute “From Script to Screen” about transitioning from Dahl’s book to Anderson’s film. The 7 minute “Still Life” details the creation of the puppets.

The 1 minute “A Beginner’s Guide to Whack-Bat” is a humorous look at the convoluted P.E. game in the film. Finally you get the 2 minute theatrical trailer and looks at other Fox products.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox isn’t as fantastic as I wanted it to be. It has some charm, but not enough. However, it still is a watchable movie - you just may want to watch it once and not be too interested in seeing it again. Maybe in time, it will grow on me but right now I was only okay with the Fox.