The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

There are very few movies that I wait for with incredible excitement. I’m pretty completely in the video game camp now. I only ever see movies when Essner invites me. That’s always enjoyable, but, you know, I rarely have a movie that I desperately need to see.

Fantastic Mr. Fox was that movie.

I’ve had plans to see it forever. I wanted to see it while I was in Arkansas, but it wasn’t out yet. I wanted to see it opening night, but I got sick. Last week, I finally got to see it.

It met all my expectations.

I admit those expectations were high. I mean, it had anthropomorphic, talking foxes, so you know I was interested. But even without that, it was a Wes Anderson movie, and he is, by far, one of my favorite directors. It had all the great actors involved for voices that he uses time and again because they’re totally awesome. It seemed like a winner. I wanted it bad.
And it was every bit as wonderful as I had hyped it up in my head to be.

This movie is not for kids. Sure, it’s rated PG, and is a stop-motion animation film with talking animals, but it is completely for adults. Characters say proxy f-bombs using the word “cuss,” which is kind of humorous in is own right. There’s fairly extreme violence. The plot is completely based off of a mid-life crisis plot that children will likely not resonate with, and has consequences that do not magically disappear at the end of the film, though it does come to a sort of happy ending. It’s a very adult movie, and a very excellent one.

This is completely a Wes Anderson movie all the way through. The stop-motion may be considered by some to be a gimmick, but I think it works incredibly well. Wes Anderson has always had a sort of weird retro kitsch style about his films. It makes them look very distinct. Therefore, it makes sense that, when making an animated movie, he would use a sort of outdated method that gives it a weird, but unique outdated look. It works just great.
The dialog, too, is completely Anderson fare. It is both hilarious and subtle, bringing out some fairly deep characters, certainly deeper than you might expect from a family of stop-motion foxes. Mr. Fox is a full-featured person, who’s dealing with a lot of issues having to deal with settling down and having a family when he feels himself a wild animal, not to mention dealing with the fact that his “fun” may have brought down an entire community later in the movie. Ash, his son, is dealing with issues of “being different,” something everyone tells him even though he thinks he’s just another member of the group, even while his cousin, who has moved in with the family and is better than him at every activity he tries, is seemingly proving otherwise. These A and B character arcs give the main plot, which, honestly, can get incredibly silly at times as Boggis, Bunce, and Bean spend insane amounts of money to take down Mr. Fox, some really strong depth.

The film is just incredibly fun. It was very enjoyable to watch, and it wasn’t mindless in its construction. What more could someone want from a movie? If you like Life Aquatic, Rushmore, or any of Anderson’s movies, don’t overlook this one just because it’s animated. You’ll enjoy it just as much, I promise.

Also, it is supposedly about penises. So, you know, that’s exciting too, right?