Fantastic Mr. Fox

[2.5
stars] [IMDb Link]

[Amazon Link]
(paid link)

I've noted before that I'm underwhelmed by director Wes Anderson; he's a critical darling, and I'm sure he's a heckuva guy, and I keep falling asleep during his movies. But this, I thought, might be different: instead of an unfunny comedy about a rich dysfunctional family, this movie was a stop-motion animation of a Roald Dahl book for kids. Netflix's prediction engine said I would love it. IMDB rated it high, as did Rotten Tomatoes.

Well, sorry Wes. It's not bad, but… eh.

The title character is voiced by George Clooney; Meryl Streep voices his wife, Mrs. Fox. (One of my heroes, Bill Murray, is in there too.) They are trying hard to maintain their foxy identities while living on the edge of civilization; this is difficult when Mr. Fox seems compelled to swipe domesticated birds from the local farmers. (Predictably, the farmers are the unattractive villains, even though Mr. Fox is ripping them off.) The conflict quickly grows into a small-scale war, with quite a bit of destruction on both sides.

And there's lots of good music. I especially liked the song that played over the end credits. "I don't like a lot of that new-fangled music," I said to myself. "But that's pretty good."

It turned out to be "Let Her Dance" by the Bobby Fuller Four, their first top 40 hit … back in 1965. So much for my cutting-edge musical taste; depressingly, it's wedged firmly in the sixties.

I picked up "Let Her Dance" at iTunes anyway. It really is a fine song.


Last Modified 2024-02-02 5:49 AM EDT