FANTASTIC MR FOX – purely enjoyable cinema
Staff Review
Bill Murray heads to our very own The Little Theatre Cinema
Wes Anderson has taken Roald Dahl’s source material, a reformed thief is tired of the quiet life and comes out of retirement for one last job, and adapted it into a story that could almost be classified as THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS 2. Charismatic patriarch: check. Family dysfunction: check. All the lead characters are animals: check. No, wait a minute. But if you actually close your eyes while in the cinema it could pass as a regular Anderson film.
The cast are all on top form, with the likes of Clooney, Streep and Gambon gelling well with Anderson regulars Schwartzman and Murray.
The decision to use stop-motion animation is perfect, and just like Wallace & Gromit, it adds to the overall quirkiness, charm and Britishness of the story. I honestly don’t think it would have worked nearly as well with Pixar-style CG.
As with all good animated films, there is something for everyone to enjoy. Children will be captivated by the action set pieces of Fox’s raids on the farms, or the daring rescue mission, while adults will warm to the characters and surprisingly touching storyline.
It is also absurd and laugh-out-loud funny at times (“you wrote a bad song Petey” being a highlight), but be warned, there are more ‘cuss’ words in this film than any other PG-rated film in history. The trick here is that all the swear words have been replaced with the word ‘cuss’ for example Bean declares their latest attempt to capture Mr Fox a “complete clustercuss”.
Get down to your local Picturehouse cinema for 87 minutes of pure cinematic entertainment, which I guarantee you’ll think, is fantastic… oh cuss it!
(Also, look out for our very own Little Theatre Cinema in Bath making a cameo appearance during the final rescue mission)
Dallas King - Manager, The Belmont Picturehouse Aberdeen
Whole heartedly agree. Saw it last night, loved every minute of it. Also, it’s probably one of the most successful adaptations of one of Roald Dahl’s books. Whilst the narrative differed (as you can imagine) the film felt like a Dahl story through and through.