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Hotbox! Review of Fantastic Mr. Fox

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fantastic-fox-steal_-550x290 The Lugubrious Mr. Lydon has been away from the Latest Distraction for some time, doing schoolwork and teaching kids how to read, so just ahead of Christmas, I’m back to give you my short review of Wes Anderson’s stop-motion rendering of Roald Dahl’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox“.

I’ve been a fan of stop-motion animation since I watched Nickelodeon in the 80s. This love was only bolstered by Christmas specials by Rankin and Bass, and old Sinbad movies featuring the work of stop-motion god Ray Harryhausen.  Though the love affair hasn’t been nearly as long, I’ve loved Wes Anderson’s movies since I saw Rushmore… what, ten years ago? So, marrying the twain together was a like a dream come true for me.

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Full disclosure: I did fall asleep once during Fantastic Mr. Fox, but that wasn’t because of the story/the film itself. Haven’t been sleeping very well with end-of-term woes, and had only slept like 3 hours the night before. Bygones. What I did see (which was most of the film excepting like 10 minutes) was great! The colors, the character design, the sets, everything wowed me like I haven’t been wowed since Wallace and Gromit’s Curse of the Were-Rabbit! And hey, include George Clooney and Jason Schwartzman, and I’m up for the downstroke.

Not going to get into the story for you; you can read the book or see the movie for  yourself. Be wary, though, if you are not already a fan of Wes Anderson movies, or stop animation, you probably won’t think this is so fantastic. Pacing is very much like Anderson’s other movies, as is the writing. They’re not for everybody, as my friend Bill’s dad still reminds me to this day. I told him to rent The Royal Tenenbaums, and he STILL wants the 3 bucks it cost him to rent the movie.

But, if you’re like me, you’ll love this movie. Also, anybody wanna get a whackbat team together?

HOTBOX!