• Wednesday, November 25, 2009

• Country:

  USA

• Language:

  English

• Runtime:

  87 min

2009

Mr and Mrs Fox live an idyllic home life with their son Ash and visiting young nephew Kristopherson. But after 12 years, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr Fox's wild animal instincts.

Soon he slips back into his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief and in doing so, endangers not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community. Trapped underground and with not enough food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil Farmers -- Boggis, Bunce and Bean -- who are determined to capture the audacious, fantastic Mr Fox at any cost.

It is the story of one Mr. Fox and his wild-ways of hen heckling, turkey taking and cider sipping, nocturnal, instinctive adventures. He has to put his wild days behind him and do what fathers do best: be responsible. He is too rebellious.

He is too wild. He is going to try "just one more raid" on the three nastiest, meanest farmers that are Boggis, Bunce and Bean. It is a tale of crossing the line of family responsibilities and midnight adventure and the friendships and awakenings of this country life that is inhabited by Fantastic Mr. Fox and his friends.

Taglines

• Dig the life fantastic.
• His life is fantastic... his wife is fantastic... his neighbors, not so fantastic.
• This year, forget super... ignore incredible... it's all about fantastic.

Trivias

• Cate Blanchett was originally the voice of Mrs. Fox, but was replaced by Meryl Streep.
• Neil Gaiman was originally going to work on this together with Wes Anderson, but backed out to direct Coraline (2009).
• The first stop-motion animated film distributed by 20th Century Fox.
• Both the first animated film distributed by Regency Pictures and the first stop-motion animated film distributed by 20th Century Fox.
• Henry Selick, who had worked with Wes Anderson on The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) (and who had directed another film based on a Roald Dahl work, (James and the Giant Peach (1996), which was also in stop-motion,) was originally set as the film's animation director, but left the project to direct Coraline (2009). Selick was replaced by Mark Gustafson.
• Mr. Fox's whistle is the one used by Hawkeye Pierce in MASH (1970). Both 'Wes Anderson' (director) and Jason Schwartzman (voice of Ash) are fans of "M*A*S*H" (1972), and in an online video where the two went shopping for CDs and DVDs, both picked it as a classic.
• The look of the film was inspired by Great Missenden, a village in Buckinghamshire, England, where Roald Dahl lived and worked.
• Shot digitally using a Nikon D3, which offers a significantly higher resolution than even that of full High Definition.
• It is rumored that Brad Pitt makes a voice cameo appearance. During the making of the film, Wes Anderson directed Pitt in a 30-second TV advertisement for Japanese cellphone company Softbank Mobile.
• According to Henry Selick, Wes Anderson would act out scenes while in Paris and send them to the animators via his iPhone.

Quotes

• Mr. Fox: What? Since when?
• Badger: Demolitions expert.
• Mr. Fox: Badger?
• Rabbit: I'm fast.
• Mr. Fox: We can use that. Rabbit?
• Mole: I can see in the dark.
• Mr. Fox: Mole! What d'you got?
• Mrs. Fox: If what I think is happening is happening, it better not be.
• Mr. Fox: A TITANIUM Express card?
• Mr. Fox: I try.