Brandon: Among movie snobs, the topic of "Wes Anderson movies" often inspires heated debate. As a filmmaker, his movies inspire a very strong love/hate reaction in viewers. In a couple of our past posts, I've mentioned how much I enjoy Wes Anderson movies. I love the way he frames a scene, his excellent use of music and wardrobe to set a tone, and his world of quirky, yet completely sincere characters. I think he's a great storyteller.
Jenni: I'll agree with you to a point. Sure, I enjoyed The Royal Tenenbaums, I loved The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, but then with The Darjeeling Limited I found myself realizing something a little unpleasant - I had seen that movie before. In fact, I realized that all of Wes Anderson's movies are pretty much the same plot and storyline, just set in different exotic locales. All of his movies have these selfish, entitled characters that struggle relating to each other until some tragedy strikes the group, which then brings the characters together and recognizing their dependence on each other.
Brandon: You speak the truth, and I feel sadly disillusioned. Oh, how the great have fallen in my eyes!
Jenni: Don't let my words take away from the movie of the week, though. Sure, I went into Fantastic Mr. Fox expecting the worst, but I came away completely surprised. Yes, the movie actually follows the same plot of all of Wes Anderson's other movies, but the stop-motion animation was fascinating! I really think that if Wes Anderson were to continue making his future movies in this same manner, I would totally forgive him for being stuck in such a storytelling rut.
Brandon: Yes, Anderson found redemption in my eyes too. Just as I pointed out all of the reasons that I loved Wes Anderson movies before, his stop-motion animation employed in this movie only served to emphasize all of his movie-making strengths. This movie was whimsical and funny and brilliant. I absolutely loved this flick.
Jenni: So even if you're a life-long Wes Anderson hater, you should give this movie a chance. With that, the snobs are out. Peace!
You can watch the Fantastic Mr. Fox trailer here.
Anderson's films can be distiled down to Salinger/nouvelle vague mashups. Though I have always been partial to that sort of thing. Also, in relation to your comment about liking the stop motion, it should be noted that this film is 12fps rather than the traditional 24 so as to make the stop motion more noticeable.
ReplyDeleteI was honestly quite shocked at how much I liked the movie. I saw a couple of grassroots reviews much like this one that pointed out how little it focused on Ash (and complained bitterly about that fact), though I found that aspect of the plot much more fleshed-out than they had made it seem. Overall, I was very impressed, and as I have not seen any of Anderson's other work I have no such reservations nor disappointments about it. Which is nice, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteAnd in reply to tthew's comment above, the stop-motion was VERY noticeable at 12 fps, sometimes almost too much, but it still stayed just below the threshold at which I would have stopped liking it.
Your post and the comments have me intrigued. I will have to watch the movie. Any other recommendations?
ReplyDeleteI am so glad to hear that you were pleasantly surprised by this. I have have been kind of skeptical myself but now I will make sure to see this one!
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