With the sharp motion and crisp body language, it’s hard to tell that it’s a stop motion animated film. Wes Anderson only directed this film because of the author of the book from which this film was made, Roald Dahl is one of his favorites. Though this movie has few additional scenes than the book because Wes thought it would help the storytelling, it really helps grip the characters early in Act 1 of the film. The story from the novel only is Act 2 of the actual movie, Even Act 3 was added by Wes.
This film is of a bright color pallet, amazing production design, and really great animation.
I was blown by the expressions of the characters and the on-point music cues made it feel solid. This is only the second movie that I have seen from Wes Anderson, First being the “Grand Budapest Hotel” which is one of his recent works. But I could clearly observe his style that has evolved to what it is now. Fantastic Mr. Fox was the first animated movie directed by Wes Anderson and it seems that he did an amazing job at it!
The best element about this movie is the well-infused humor. Be it a line, a character, or an action the joke is well received by the audience. Plus with the well thought out characters in the film its amazing to be a part of their world. And the cast that gave voice to the characters of their world were: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murry, and Owen Wilson.
The amazing part of the production was that the dialogue recording was done before the animation was started and that’s not it, the recording was not recorded in any studio but in forests, huts and they even went underground to record some part of it. This resulted in them capturing the true feel of the surrounding, though I don’t feel they didn’t post edit the sounds, that’s what you have to do when it comes to the authenticity of the film and the feel.
FINAL THOUGHT:
Being a personal fan and an active hobbyist of stop motion animation, I thoroughly enjoyed every frame of this movie. Knowing the fact of how difficult and tedious the process of stop motion is, this film manages to make the storytelling element strong with its amazing animation.
The story credits really go to the author of the book but the way it was brought to life by Wes Anderson and the team is worth an Applause. This movie wasn’t that popular in India as during the same time “UP” by Pixar animation studios was released. But I really wish it was seen by all as this movie shows the true potential of the evolving motion pictures.