Wednesday 18th November 2009

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Director: Wes Anderson
Year: 2009
Stars: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Eric Chase Anderson, Michael Gambon (voices)

Now here's something a bit different. For different, you might want to read odd.

Another movie I wasn't 100% sure about seeing, it was a choice between this and Bright Star at the cinema. Being in the mood for something a bit more fun, I went with this. Adapted from the Roald Dahl book of the same name, the film certainly tries to evoke the same oddness Dahl does in his books - down to having what (I presume) were the chapter titles appear throughout the film.

Filmed in stop motion, the whole film actually feels a little amateurish. I presume this was intentional, but it was certainly a strange experience to watch. A lot of the reviews for this film have bemoaned the Americianisation of such a quintessentially British book, but as I don't really remember the exact details of the book, I have to say this didn't really bother me. For me, it most definitely had a Dahl "feel" to it.

Unfortunately though, I just can't get away from the fact that I found it all a little dull. This is possibly slightly unfair on the film, as I found the book fairly dull as a child too (probably why I don't remember it very well). Don't get me wrong, I love Roald Dahl books - Boy, Matilda, George and his Marvellous Medicine, the BFG, The Twits, The Witches - all amazing - just not this one.

It's just hard to recommend a film that you found boring when it's running time is less than 90 minutes.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5