USA Today has the preview gallery, and quotes like this, from Meryl Streep: “When else am I going to be Mrs. George Clooney?”
Wes Anderson: “In animation, the tradition is to make everything smooth and beautiful. That wasn’t my instinct. Using puppets with fur appealed to me. It’s why I wanted to do the film in stop-motion. Usually fur is considered bad news. But I liked how it moves around by itself. It’s funny.”
We talked before about how many eligible animated film submissions the Academy needs before they expand the category from 3 titles to 5. But I forgot the answer. With Coraline, Up, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, 9, Ponyo, A Christmas Carol, and The Princess and the Frog all looking so strong, the 5 Best Feature Animation nominees might be more consistently prestigious than some of the eventual 10 Best Picture contenders.
Opens November 13th. Several more shots after the cut, all clickably enlargeable to better appreciate details of the production design.
More from USA Today:
Anderson, 40, feels he was destined in a way to do a screen adaptation of the 1970 adventure, which recounts the relentless efforts of three nasty British farmers to halt the crafty critter (voiced with daredevil gusto by George Clooney) who brazenly poaches their poultry.
“It was the first book I ever owned,” says the auteur behind The Royal Tenenbaums and The Darjeeling Limited. “My brothers and I loved Mr. Fox and all the digging. We were obsessed with underground forts and tunnels.”
…The much-expanded plot has been tweaked to include many elements found in Anderson’s other films, including a dysfunctional clan and a male rivalry. The four Fox children in the book have been whittled down to one handful: Ash (Jason Schwartzman, channeling his Max character from Rushmore), a petulant social misfit who wears a superhero cape and resents his cousin Kristofferson (Eric Chase Anderson, Wes’ brother) for being good at everything.
Schwartzman, a veteran of three Anderson features, proclaims Mr. Fox as “the ultimate.” “It’s funny, but also visually beautiful. Instead of adapting his style of directing to animation, he brought animation to him. He made a Wes film.”
12 Responses for "Fotos from The Fantastic Mr. Fox"
Im very interested in this film, Im a big fan of Wes Anderson and this not only looks great but the cast is also amazing.
There’s a childlike innocence to every one of Anderson’s films and he pays such attention to detail that more and more I think a stop-motion animated, slightly twisted children’s story is the perfect thing for him.
As I said in the Wild Things thread, this is among my most anticipated movies of the rest of the year. Wild Things has the advantage but only because we’ve seen trailerage. These photos of Mr. Fox though even the odds a little bit.
Can’t wait.
Am I a little creeped out by this? Yes, but only slightly…
I CAN”T WAIT for this! My anticipation was pretty high before, but these pics have helped drive it through the roof!
Anthony,I know what you mean. Stop motion always looks kind of weird when it’s not in…you know…motion…but I think the real deal will be 47% less creepy.
(sorry for posting with two different names. those responsible have been sacked)
animated films are just getting better and better, great cast, and desplat as well, should be great
this movie looks so great. the scenes look amazing, the cast is great,
i mean, it’s just really outstanding. i CAN’T WAIT for this.
too true. I started to tag the cast members at the bottom of this post, jake, but it would’ve gone ridiculously out of control.
Michael Gambon … Franklin Bean
Helen McCrory … Mrs. Bean
George Clooney … Mr. Fox (voice)
Meryl Streep … Mrs. Fox (voice)
Bill Murray … Badger (voice)
Owen Wilson … Coach Skip (voice)
Willem Dafoe … Rat (voice)
Jason Schwartzman … Ash (voice)
Wes Anderson … Weasel
Adrien Brody … Rickity
Anjelica Huston
Brian Cox … Boggis
Roman Coppola … Squirrel
Garth Jennings … Beans Son
Jarvis Cocker … Petey (voice)
Wallace Wolodarsky … Kylie
Mario Batali … Rabbit
There’s already more than five animated films that are good enough/seem like they will be good enough to merit nominations, so the Academy would do well not to limit the category to three.
Sleeper movie of the fall…
Will Mary and Max be released in time? I just saw it at the Wellington International Film Festival and loved it, definitely a contender.
it looks like 20-30 % of it is digital on top of the stop motion, i was hoping it would be all stop motion
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