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My Top 10 Movies of 2009 – Fantastic Mr. Fox

02. Mar, 2010 0 Comments

Over the next month I’ll be posting my favorite movies of 2009. Why so late you ask? Well, a lot of movies came out in 2009. And now that I have seen 78 of them, I feel as though I have covered all my bases. Like any good critic, before I get to the list of my favorite 10 movies of ‘09, I have some honorable mentions. Let’s kick things off with a movie featuring Bill Murray as a badger.

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” is a Fantastic Mr. Film. It’s clever, witty, full of eye-popping animation, and features great voice acting. If you are fan of Wes Anderson, or animation, or Roald Dahl stories, then you should see this movie.

This movie was written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson, who is perhaps one of America’s most quirky modern film makers. He began his career in the mid 90’s and has quickly established himself with a clearly defined sense of style, character, and emotion. If you are unfamiliar with his work, I would encourage you to check his movies out. You might as well start with Bottle Rocket and work your way through the library, although some will claim he has faltered in his latest movies (I’m not in that camp).

This original Roald Dahl story has been brought to the big screen through some very intense and clever stop-motion animation. Each character is a carefully hand crafted puppet, and all the sets and scenes are built largely with natural materials. For example, sand, leaves, and clothes were all used in the puppets and sets to mirror a more traditional live-action production.. This use of animation and texture allows some very fun action sequences, such as when Mr. Fox is sneaking into or escaping from a farm house or when a fight breaks out between two barnyard animals. Anderson’s typical head-on framing of scenes combines with the animation perfectly.

Fantastic Mr. Fox Crew

George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, and Eric Chase Anderson, in addition to a host of other great actors, provide some great voice acting. Clooney is particularly well suited for the dry wit and sure-fire attitude of Mr. Fox.

And of course it’s worth mentioning that Anderson has maintained a great selection of music to accompany the movie. Songs from The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones accompany other well known bands while resting comfortably on an original score by Alexandre Desplat.

So at this point you may be asking: Why didn’t this make my top 10 list? Although I love this movie, at times it feels like it was just following a recipe for movie success without taking any real risks. Take a great author’s story, an interesting animation style, and a bunch of great actors and what could possibly go wrong? Perhaps there weren’t any serious twists, turns, or risks because Anderson wanted to keep it child-friendly, but ultimately the movie suffered for it. In addition, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” doesn’t really hold up when compared to other movies on my list. This was definitely a tough call, but ultimately I think it’s the right one. I still want a copy of this in my library though…

Read more about “Fantastic Mr. Fox” on IMDB, Netflix (log in required), and Wikipedia. Take a gander at Wes Anderson’s Wikipedia page while you are at it.