Sunday, February 14, 2010

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox was released in Canada on November 25, 2009. The voice cast for this movie is just brilliant, featuring George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe and Owen Wilson.

This is another wonderful animation. What I love about it is not the usual bells and whistles that have become standard for animations. In fact, this film is severely lacking in this area. For that reason, I can't imagine it really grabbing the attention of most kids who have become accustomed to constant silver screen eye candy. What I loved about it was the screenplay. Adapted from the Roald Dahl novel, it is the story of Mr. Fox (Clooney) who is struggling to transition from the wild ways that come natural to him to the responsibility of fatherhood. On a side note, perhaps there was not a lot of acting involved for Clooney. Mr. Fox develops a plot to carry out "just one more raid" of the local farmers. In doing so, he buys himself and his family more trouble than he bargained for.

Fantastic Mr. Fox has been nominated for two Academy Awards; it appears in the animation category, of course, as well as the original score. It will not win either of the awards, even though the music is very strong. In an era of trying to recognize these creative works, an adapted screenplay nod might have been appropriate for this film. That said, the category is very competitive.

I went to see Fantastic Mr. Fox because of its nominations, and because I could not imagine missing any motion picture that has both Clooney and Streep in the cast. I thoroughly enjoyed all 87 minutes and found myself laughing out loud many times. A fun watch.

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