Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Caught a matinee of this yesterday. I didn't just love it, but I did really enjoy it, especially the look of the thing. It's definitely a Wes Anderson film, both in the brittle self-reference and in the troublesome, narcissistic father figure and the cast of eccentrics who surround him. Mr. Fox is a self-centered jerk, but he is clever and powerful and charismatic at the same time. The story revolves around his animal need to raid farms and the threat of destruction that his lack of self-control brings down on his family and friends.

It's based on a Roald Dahl story, which may be the source of some of the best aspects of the movie: the large cast of eccentric animal and human characters, and the knowing dilemma of the animal characters, who are, as it were, neither fish nor fowl. They are humanoid characters based on animal traits, and they are quite aware of the contradictions.

The visual design, however, is almost certainly down to Wes Anderson. As others have commented, this animated movie makes you realize that he's been making animated movies all along. His set designs have always had a toylike, miniaturist quality. The pocket universe created for this movie is simply wonderful, and the handmade, household-material style of stop-motion animation (with water made from plastic foil, for example) is reminiscent of Michel Gondry.

One thing that nagged at me throughout was that the main farmer figure looked familiar. I was sure his face was based on an actual British actor, and I thought it might be the one who did the voice. That ended up being Michael Gough Gambon, however, and that's definitely not who it looks like. He looks a little bit like Ben Kingsley, but that's not it either. Maybe somebody I've seen on TV, I dunno. I kept getting flashes of this actor's face, half-shaved and glumly brooding. It was a little bit distracting at times.