Jason Schwartzman at the North American premiere of Fantastic Mr. Fox. The feature opened AFI Fest 2009. Photo by Ed Rampell.Wes Anderson gets animated
By Ed Rampell
During Opening Night at AFI Fest 2009 last Friday night, I asked Wes Anderson, the co-writer/director of quirky character driven pix such as 2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums and 2007’s The Darjeeling Limited, “what’s the difference between directing live action and animated films?” The rail thin, long-haired 40-year-old replied: “Animation is lots slower.”
Director Wes Anderson at the North American premiere of Fantastic Mr. Fox at the AFI Fest 2009, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood. Photo by Ed Rampell.Indeed. The excruciatingly executed handmade stop-motion techniques pioneered in classics such as King Kong and Ray Harryhausen’s Sinbad, Gulliver and Argonauts flicks must require tons of patience and perseverance to pull off. But Anderson acquits himself well in Fantastic Mr. Fox, based on the story by Roald Dahl (who may have been strange but whose work is no stranger to animation).
In a nutshell, Fantastic Mr. Fox is an animated parable about the struggle for survival that children of all ages will enjoy. Top actors provide the characters’ voices, including George Clooney as the rascally Mr. Fox, Meryl Streep as foxy Mrs. Fox, Jason Schwartzman as their klutzy cub Ash and Bill Murray as Badger – who, in that hallowed Hollywood tradition of typecasting, an attorney. Let’s hope, however, that Anderson didn’t typecast himself by playing Weasel! A good time is had by all, on and off-screen, in this saga of the survival of the foxiest – which is, but of course, a 20th Century Fox release.
(Fantastic Mr. Fox screened as the opening night gala, Oct. 30, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. For more information: 866/AFI-FEST; www.afi.com.)
