A thread for Wes Anderson's "The Fantastic Mr. Fox"

i love this re-imagining

yalls is blowin mines

will ILX even still be here by the time this is released, I wonder

it's just really smart to introduce modern-day weaponry into the mix. makes it less dated.

Word is Peter, Paul, and Mary are reuniting to record the title song for the sdtk?

Sophie Dahl zero gravity nude scene

the tagline on the poster is apparently "DON'T F--K WITH THE FOX" with like a little "censored" sign over the word fuck

I'm a pretty big fan of Dahl, but I never read this one (or even heard of it until recently wtf). The plot summary on wikipedia makes it sound like its a story where nothing happens.

(or rather "fox steals chickens. farmers hate him. the end")

couldn't you use that exact same plot summary to describe the holocaust?

i havn't read mr. fox since i was very small, but i recall it being way, way better than the witches or the chocolate one. i remember it being sort of an ongoing saga between these farmers, who keep coming up with ways to catch the fox, and the fox very cleverly outsmarting them in a variety of ways. i guess not a lot "happens," in that nobody writes a play or shaves their head and tries to kill themselves or goes on sea adventures, but as a kids' flick it might be pretty neat.

I don't know this one either.

a story where nothing happens.

hence WA attraction

the holocaust: a story where nothing happens.

that's what you guys are basically saying.

the holocaust: a story about chickens where nothing happens. also there is a fox.

http://www.dictatorofthemonth.com/Hitler/eva17.jpg

eh i dunno what do you wanna do today?

i asked you first!

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1433/rommelportraitiz4.jpg

i read this book as a kid but i can't remember it very well. i think i liked Danny The Champion of the World better.

Best invocation of Godwin's yet

also, FOKKER

STAR FOKKER

what the hell s1ocki

I think I ruined this thread. ;_;

http://www.stewwebb.com/FoxnewsNazi.jpg

Jarvis has signed up to contribute to the soundtrack

Hmmm.

i heard he's just giving WA "this is hardcore" to use

OMG

the farmers are called boggis, bunce and bean
one is short, one is fat and one is lean

fond (albeit fuzzy) childhood memories.

Mr Fox film to premiere in London

And the trailer should be around any moment now.

i like that anderson's doing something different

Also lots of pics at the official site

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3464/3765277378_bd610d2229.jpg

the farmers are called boggis, bunce and bean
one is short, one is fat and one is lean

Farmers look great.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2630/3765283310_1b1f8dd4ea.jpg

GO BACK

keener about this than about alice in wonderland i reckon.

http://www.themovieinsider.com/images/p/600/10409.jpg

Was very fond of this particular Dahl as a kid, although even then I thought Mr. Fox was a bit of a smarmy cnut.

trailer

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810028004/trailer

I know it's childish and I shouldn't be irritated by such things but couldn't he have found one English actor to be one of the good guys instead of using them just for the bad guys? I say we go back to using German accents to denote evil.

I don't mind being the bad guys

But we're always the bad guys now*. I blame Sir Anthony Hopkins.

*completely unscientific opinion based on about 2 films.

I am excited for this movie!

Viceroy just said to me, "I bet I'll like this more than you."

:O

looks pretty great. would be cool with my daughter seeing this but she'll probably still be too young for movies by the time this comes out

will ILX even still be here by the time this is released, I wonder

― El Tomboto, Tuesday, November 6, 2007 1:19 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

countdown to extinction

Word is Peter, Paul, and Mary are reuniting to record the title song for the sdtk?

― n/a, Tuesday, November 6, 2007 1:27 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i have literally no idea what possessed me to post this ... it's not even a joke?

trailer irritates, is it really going to be the clippy looking?

Still waiting for
http://www.globalhermit.com/ilx/caboodle.jpg

ha what?

From this thread:
What do you look like now that ILX is back up? (December 2004 edition)

life is weird

Looks fun though it'd be nice to see Schwartzmann do something other than the usual intense/dorky thing

who is the last voice in the trailer?

it's bugging me

also, apparently jarvis is in this playing a puppet

That trailer is horrible. Not surprised, as Anderson hasn't been worthwhile as a director for nearly a decade.

i'm pretty excited about dis one, i like anderson's style and it looks like it could work well for this.

disagree that anderson hasn't been worthwhile as I think Darjeeling is his best film. but this doesn't look very appealing to me, in fact it looks annoying

darjeeling his best film really?? i'm ok w/ this trailer but maybe the animation looks a bit wack

"i'm ok w/ this trailer but maybe the animation looks a bit wack"

that's exactly what I liked the most!

i knew a chap
his name was bert
he ate the buttons
off his shirt

http://www.cinemablend.com/images/news/14721/_1252617455.jpg

http://www.quizilla.com/user_images/K/Knockturn/1054615486_adimageCJ5.JPG

Trailer uses the great Bobby Fuller Four song "Let Her Dance." So good job, guys.

"Dig The Life Fantastic" is definitely a worse tagline than "Don't Fuck With The Fox" imo.

Roffle. Can be summed up as "Wes Anderson acts like a jerk and is surprised when told he was acting like a jerk."

this movie looks rubbish and annoying

"Dig The Life Fantastic" is definitely a worse tagline than "Don't Fuck With The Fox" imo.

― ian, Saturday, September 12, 2009 5:56 PM (4 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

OTM X A ZILLION

I wonder if it was a good idea for him to come out in support of a child rapist shortly before the release of a children's film.

Not everyone could muster a magnanimous word for Anderson's M.O. -- especially his on-set absence. "I think he's a little sociopathic," cinematographer Oliver said. "I think he's a little O.C.D. Contact with people disturbs him. This way, he can spend an entire day locked inside an empty room with a computer. He's a bit like the Wizard of Oz. Behind the curtain."

Informed of Oliver's discontent, Anderson said: "I would say that kind of crosses the line for what's appropriate for the director of photography to say behind the director's back while he's working on the movie. So I don't even want to respond to it."

ha

tbh i don't think it's that big a deal for a director to not be on-set for a stop-motion film, because (a doy) it's not being made in real time, and there's no benefit in his responding in real time

otoh three mills does look pretty nice for london:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5c/Three_mills_island.jpg

i think this movie looks great btw, although it seems weird to me that wes anderson is 40

btw the people who work on film crews are usually infinitely more dbaggy than the directors and actors, in my experience

not knowing about the situation, to me publicly bitching about the guy to the papers is way worse than being a little distant and controlling... as a movie director

yeah, I wouldn't really call myself a big fan and I don't think I'll like this movie very much, on the other hand, he was the director of the film, not the director of photography or the cinematographer or a variety of other more hands-on important tasks, which unfortunately aren't often given the credit in culture that "director" is given. That's too bad, but with something that takes as long to make as this, I see no reason why he would have to be on site every day for three years, that's preposterous. Architects aren't onsite on construction projects every day all day either.

actors and directors are often a little distant and weird but not actively awful. DPs, PAs, assistant directors, editors, mid-level producers, grips....those people are really doing Important Work and they don't want to hear about it, they're Fucking Busy Right Now.

I feel like if I was an animator working on a project by a famous auteur and he was letting us do our own thing rather than stopping in all the time to pick over everything that it would make it a less stressful situation.

i kind of wonder how familiar they are with him as auteur, actually. there's one guy bitching about how normally animated film you do wacky crazy camera angles and make shit exciting, and all this wes anderson guy wants to do is boring static shots

yeah, wes anderson doesn't come off too badly in that article imo

Jarvis Cocker's contribution.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/oct/12/jarvis-cocker-fantastic-mr-fox

The trailer got a good reception, i.e plenty of laughs in the cinema on Saturday. Was rather sceptical of it based on what I saw previously but warmed to it quite a bit after watching it with an audience.

I really enjoyed it. Gambon is the best thing about it, I reckon.

I liked this a lot. Takes about 15 minutes to bed in but once Michael Gambon appears, smoking and swearing, it's all gold. Haven't enjoyed a Wes Anderson film as much since Rushmore. Absence of "crazy camera angles" not a big problem.

it seems weird to me that wes anderson is 40

Well, it's less weird if, based on the ending of Darjeeling Limited, he has finally forgiven Daddy.

Swearing? Cussing, you mean.

xp

wes anderson sounds like the kind of guy who'd come downstairs for breakfast having shaved his moustache off and everyone would know not to mention it, ever

Sounds more like animators having no idea what will make the thing unique and being irritated because they cant use conventional modern wisdom and all their fancy tricks they learnt to do, completely failing to understand why...

Should have just showed them the clangers and said LIKE THAT BUT FANCY tbf

yeah i mean it's totally fair to want to use ancient techniques or whatever the fuck but it sounds like W.A. is maybe not the world's greatest communicator/expectations setter

perhaps for his next movie wes anderson can shoot "the very hungry caterpillar" on tri-x reversal and edit it on a steenbeck

Shouldnt have hired animators at all imo, thats like getting genius maestros to be a Ramones cover band or something, but I guess he compromised his vision by wanting it to look GOOD HUH

Pussy

This film should only ever have been made in his own attic with whatever discarded crap was lying around

yeah i'm still trying to figure out how slavishly imitating a style that's 30 years out of date is "unique"

probably should have chiseled the film on stone tablets

after that he could fuck off

i loved this book when i was a kid and the movie looks awesome

i love the book too but not everything has to be a fucking movie

on a related note the museum of childhood in bethnal green had until very recently an exhibition on the second floor about roald dahl, which included the original notes dahl took on a yellow legal pad when he was laying out the plot of this story.. pretty cool

it probably makes an appearance in the bottom left corner of minute 21 of this movie

actually everything has to be a fucking movie, sorry

i agree, not everything has to be a movie, but at the same time this looks like a fun movie.

again, mr. que, everything has to be a movie

a fucking movie

if you cant deal with it move to lesotho

i can't wait until wes anderson turns this thread into a movie

He'll have to it in Futura bold.

the fantastic mister fucks

ahem, have to do it in Futura bold.

more like

the fucking fantastic fucking mr. max fucking

james and the pliant peach

danny, the chamferer of the girls

i'll stop now

esioshit

Yeah, its not particularly unique as such, but in terms of animation now it kind of is just because it's different, and charming in that it's not pristine. obv Wes Anderson himself doesnt have any other tricks though.

Irked me primarily with the whole bit about 'Anderson, who know NOTHING of stop motion techniques' insisted on using real fur, animator explains why they dont use that nowadays, anderson explains thats the look he wants - and I can imagine them resisting (lobbying, sorry) - and saying 'yes, but we dont it that way because it causes this effects you see..." "Oh yes, that effect I want?" "BUT WHY" etc

Smacks to me of someone who uses illustrator all the time not understanding why you *wouldnt* want something that looks live traced and all smoothed out. Like they get so in to things looking that way that nobody can see a different way, even if it's an old way because things have *progressed* since then and now they know better.

Fuck progression. I'm also still annoyed because I read a review of an animation (Lilo & Stitch IIRC) that said 'the drawings might look crude and flat to the post-Pixar viewers'. wtf, srsly.

Went to sleep to this being read on cassette many a time & would expect this to be an appropriately horrific adaptation, but seems that they're drawling quietly at least.

Wes Anderson thanks everyone who has helped him:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef0120a5ede22a970b-500wi

And more about that kerfluffle earlier.

I'm also still annoyed because I read a review of an animation (Lilo & Stitch IIRC) that said 'the drawings might look crude and flat to the post-Pixar viewers'. wtf, srsly.

I miss movies with hand drawn animation.

you're looking forward to the princess and the frog

Ponyo was nice.

rubbish

this was good.

you're looking forward to the princess and the frog

If Disney never made another princess movie they would still have done way too many.

except that 'enchanted' was awesome.

this was really rubbish

Sadly this week's New Yorker article isn't online, with its comparisons to Hemingway and Howard Hawks.

man i already hate this movie

actors and directors are often a little distant and weird but not actively awful. DPs, PAs, assistant directors, editors, mid-level producers, grips....those people are really doing Important Work and they don't want to hear about it, they're Fucking Busy Right Now.

― omar little, Sunday, October 11, 2009 5:04 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

stuntmen are the chillest dudes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tNUP_gW_C0

Interesting that the big Wes drop-off occurred after Owen Wilson stopped co-writing. The last couple are proof that character quirks are really no sub for story, or at least that Noah Baumbach and b-list Coppolas are no sub for Wilson.

I enjoyed this. Maybe because it mined, sometimes literally, the same vein as The Royal Tenenbaums. Could do without the Jarvis Cocker song and puppet, it was plenty self indulgent enough already without him joining in.

Incidentally this was the emptiest screening I've ever been to with only 7 people, including myself, and this on the night they reduce tickets to £4 each.

Best movie I've seen this year, probably (out of the two dozen or so).

Plot incoherent in places, but I'll agree it's one of the year's best. I have a crush on Kristoferson.

For some bizarre reason I went along to this thinking it was directed by Wes Craven. Kept waiting for the nasties to happen.

haha my friend was thinking that too, she told me as the credits began, and i'm like, wait, you sat through this whole movie and didn't realize it was like every other wes anderson movie all of which i know you have seen?? lols. i think it was a case of knowing-but-not-knowing. half-knowing. anyway.

i liked it a lot.
probably more than other wes anderson movies. or at least found it funnier than the others. (yet still weird and sad and existential and all that of course.) i couldn't stop laughing at the way the foxes eat.

I have a crush on Kristoferson.

Ha, me too. I kept wondering why everyone kept calling Ash "different" when it seemed totally obvious that Kris was the "different" one.

I enjoyed the cuss out of this.

i'd really like to see this. has it been doing well at box office?

seeing this tonight tbh

xpost apparently not very

(Meanwhile, wtf at The Blind Side tracking to top $150m?)

saw it thursday, thanksgiving eve, the day after it opened in seattle. theater was mostly empty for the 8 pm show at a downtown multiplex, but i guess that's to be expected under the circumstances. FUCKING GREAT! easily my favorite of the handful of films i've seen this year, and while anderson's clearly running familiar paces, he's doing so in fine style. found it much more engaging and satisfying than the life aquatic or the darjeeling limited. up there with rushmore and the royal tenenbaums (which yeah it strongly resembles), and that's extremely high praise as far as i'm concerned. expect that it won't be a big u.s. theatrical hit, but that it'll enjoy a long and successful shelf life afterward.

my kid wants to see this but it looks way too talky and plotty to me, so I'd better hold off until dvd.

is rather talky & plotty, also a bit emotionally heavy. appropriateness probably depends on the age/kid.

i don't know if any kids will actually like this movie. it was cute, though, i was entertained.

It's about as talky and plotty as any kids' film.

Took my kid (age 5) this afternoon. He liked it pretty well, although he didn't quote the movie too much afterward, which lends credence to the overly talky element. It moves along at a pretty good pace and is pretty action packed. Not emotionally heavy at all as far as we were concerned. None of the peril was too real, I guess. A much more entertaining choice for the kids than Wild Things Are.

i took a nearly 4 and nearly 6 y/o, it was fine. if anything its just too overtly meta-- the theme is "who am i and how do i authentically express that without endangering or estranging my loved ones." and its not like the theme lurks somewhere in the background, it's express.

i liked it, the kids had fun. there were fewer real moments of great delight than some of the better recent pixar stuff for me tho.

i dunno about this guys, something about it rubbed me the wrong way... just how WA seems to need to really consciously put his stamp on everything... it's getting so tiring

i was into it for the first half or so and then at some point it just lost me... i was spending more time staring at the wallpaper and stuff than caring about the story

also this trend of grown-up directors making children's book movies where every character acts like an emotionally tortured wacky indie rocker is just too much already.

I think you'd have to really be stretching to say every character in FMF acts like an emotionally tortured wacky indie rocker. iirc, only the two teen boys act that way because, well, it may be because they're teen boys and would obviously be expected to act like emotionally tortured wacky indie rockers.

i.e. I'm not prepared to lump this in with Spike Jonze's thing I haven't seen

i dunno, when mrs. fox says "i should have never married you," i mean i guess the off-the-cuffness and the contrast to the storybook visuals is supposed to give it a surprising emotional oomph but it left me cold.

if it helps eric i haven't seen the spike jonze thing either haha

yeah, i had no problem late-arriving on that particular movie

also the way he shoots conversations with each character looking straight into the camera in the middle of the frame bugs the hell out of me

i found it weird that he's taken on a totally new medium and genre and subject and method of filmmaking and yet it still feels weirdly unambitious... like he's just content to do his thing with the fonts and the beach boys and the nice outfits and make sure we all know it's a wes anderson movie

this trend of grown-up directors making children's book movies where every character acts like an emotionally tortured wacky indie rocker is just too much already.

― 311 is a joek (s1ocki), Sunday, November 29, 2009 6:04 PM (36 seconds ago) Bookmark

what, two frickin movies? how is that a played-out trend?

would agree in theory that wacky indie kids' flix should suck, but this was way better than yr (perfectly fair) capsule description makes it sound. then again, i never became disconnected from the story & characters.

thought the "i should never have married you" line worked very well. not as a big emo stomach kicker, but as a rather poignant and honest moment. no big deal, but nice.

The Wes Andersonisms didn't really move the entire thing one way or the other for me. I simply thought it was at least as good as a Wallace & Gromit movie. And that was enough.

ya tbh i'm not sure exactly WHAT bothered me about this movie that i should have in theory really liked! just trying to unpack it a little. i certainly didn't hate it, and i enjoyed probably about 50% of it... but then it just lost me somehow...

Plus, the movie seemed in on the joke that despite the kid's whining the Fox household reminded me of the Huxtables, i.e. the husband loved his frostier wife more than hanging out with his child.

might wanna consider that wa's stylistic hallmarks could be more than wallpaper applied to things in order to remind us that he is he. an artistic reflection of his interests, taste and pov, f'rinstance.

tbh, i'd like to see a bit more variety in that regard myself, cuz it's true that he doesn't seem to be growing/exploring/experimenting much as a filmmaker (beyond the obvious technical challenge of making a stop-motion film), but i don't think his surface style is disconnected from deeper content.

ya i guess it just bugs me that his particular "trademarks" don't always serve the film first and foremost... like i just felt a bit overwhelmed by them. and it didn't really feel dahl-ish at all, which it didn't HAVE to, but that would have been nice.

i can't help but think of tarantino, or michael mann, who are also always revisiting their obsessions and their stylistic fixations but who still seem to do something new or surprising or fresher every time.

i haven't seen this movie yet but i get the impression sometimes that wes should just be a set designer or something and leave the story to someone else

but this was one of my favorite books as a kid, so i will be seeing it

Do you want him to grow and experiment as a filmmaker (I think he is in Fox, btw, insofar as he acknowledges that the animated film puts his limitations in their most attractive context)?

Most mainstream Hollywood stuff is so awful that I understand looking at Anderson, PTA, Coppola, Jonze, and so on as figures around whom equal parts provocative ideas and twaddle cohere, but the pressure to look at this crew as Great Filmmakers is oppressive.

It is admittedly a thematic step backwards after the end of Darjeeling, in which he seemed to finally acknowledge that his stylistic attitude was at a dead end.

i see it more as an artistic restatement of core strengths & principles after the disconnected, running-on-fumes mess that was the darjeeling limited. in that sense a bit safe, but it's a safety that's 100% appropriate to a big bucks kids' flick. i really liked how back-to-basics anderson it was. showing that he can still do what he does, showing that he can control a narrative without wilson as a creative partner, and showing that his aesthetic can both appeal to mainstream audiences and actually serve a story.

ymmv, of course...

Depends on how "back-to-basics" you think Anderson needed to go; the guy reveled in his limitations as far back as Bottle Rocket.

well, i mean back-to-basics in that the story and style very closely resemble both rushmore & the royal tenenbaums, though packaged in a more family-friendly manner. in that light:

"the animated film puts his limitations in their most attractive context"

otm

i guess i felt like in darjeeling limited he WAS doing something kind of new. not breathtakingly new, and not really on the thematic level, more on the stylistic and narrative levels. but new enough that i didn't really feel like he was just repeating himself. and the one excruciatingly "Wes Anderson" detail--the stylized louis vuitton luggage--was such that it almost felt reflexive.

relative to what i meant, both the darjeeling limited and the life aquatic are experimental films, in that they find anderson attempting to employ his basic narrative and visual devices in a somewhat novel context - and both films fail to some extent, imo. they both seem watered-down and emotionally disconnected.

i suppose mr fox is experimental in exactly the same sense, but here the experiment is successful, largely because he's always been making nostalgic children's films - or young adult films, anyway - and here he finally admits it.

(I think he is in Fox, btw, insofar as he acknowledges that the animated film puts his limitations in their most attractive context)

i haven't seen it yet but this is what i was thinking, too. however, i don't think that is incompatible with saying that he isn't growing or that he's moving towards being more of an art director than a director. i mean, don't the links up thread basically say that his "technical" involvement with the animation was very, very limited? like, he just gave 'em storyboards and specs and said have at it?

xpost

and it was the most crushingly obvious metaphor for all the stuff he felt like he was dragging around with him. i didn't love darjeeling, but it did feel like a conscious struggle with his own arrested development, an acknowledgment that he had these same themes he couldn't avoid repeating. i haven't seen mr. fox and i want to, but even just the fact that he's gone and made an animated film of a children's book feels like sort of a lateral move -- not pushing past any of his own boundaries or obstacles, just sort of taking a break from them at most. but having done that, it'll be interesting to see what he tries to do next. he can't keep making man-boy movies forever. or can he?

I'm the regressive one. I recognized Anderson was trying to do something different with Darjeeling but didn't much like it. In this case, I recognize that this is very much the animated version of Tenenbaums and isn't really doing a whole lot I haven't seen before (from either Anderson or Nick Park), but I enjoyed it a ton.

(oops my post was an xpost to the post about the LV luggage)

i guess i've always imagined that he heavily storyboarded ALL of his films (they're so formal), so animation is kind of a move towards what the rest of his movies have suggested

so basically what contenderizer said?

he's always been making nostalgic children's films

most OTM thing in this thread, probably

'll be interesting to see what he tries to do next. he can't keep making man-boy movies forever. or can he?

That's what it looks like! When I saw The Royal Tenenbaums I thought, "Oh, Jesus, here we go again."

btw most of the crew of Serious American Directors I cited a few posts above are man-boys, including the one girl in the group (i.e. her films center around boys and girls of privilege, and I like hers best).

there was a fair amount of andersonian detail in the darjeeling limited. relentlessly symmetrical framing, contrasting colors, suitcases & contents, various diagrams and typographical announcements, traveling shots through the train, absent parents & wayward/shellshocked offspring, thoughtless dreams of romance with someone from another world, etc.

agree that it did was somewhat less reliant on his typical visual devices, and that it seemed to struggle against his characters' narcissistic inertia, but i found it such a failure as a film that it's hard to see this progress as positive.

most of the crew of Serious American Directors I cited a few posts above are man-boys, including the one girl in the group (i.e. her films center around boys and girls of privilege

this is probably why Ramin Bahrani's films are so much more appealing than any of these SADs; he's interested in underprivileged people forced to grow up.

but I'm still psyched about seeing Mr. Fox tomorrow!

btw no "The" in title

(waiting for freebie)

Finally saw Goodbye Solo this weekend

(xpost)

what you guys need to see is "historias extraordinarias." blew my dome open like no other movie in the past long long time.

btw most of the crew of Serious American Directors I cited a few posts above are man-boys, including the one girl in the group (i.e. her films center around boys and girls of privilege, and I like hers best).

ha, true. here's where i say, i wrote a book about that. tho i also included linklater and haynes, who are more "mature" in various ways. (and david o. russell, who may or may not be.)

well wouldja look at that!!

cool!

yeah, it's ok. it coulda/woulda/shoulda been better. but that whole thing of trying to grow up, what that means or how to do it, was an obvious theme to tie together a lot of that group.

John K.'s h8rtacular post on this cracks me up hard.

saw this today, enjoyed it pretty much start to finish, whether despite or because of andersonisms gets sort of hard to day past a point.

it's a really imaginative movie. and pretty funny too.

hard to SAY past a point...

yeah it's kind of both, I mean I rolled my eyes a little when the Beach Boys came on because it's so predictable Wes Anderson but OTOH Heroes and Villains is a great song and that was a great scene

The models on this drove me nuts because half the time they didn't have proper elbows and knees! Sometimes they bent like proper joints and others their arms and legs curved like pieces of macaroni. Sometimes it looked like they had proper quality armatures & others like they were built around the unyielding wires found in Gumby and Pokey toys.

The characters weren't really built to make facial expressions, either. Any reaction shot where a character had to pull a face totally took me out of the moment. Half the time I only knew what type of face they were supposed to be pulling due to context & musical cues. Also their crying = freaky eye leakage was wrong. People blink when they cry, they don't just drain fluids everywhere.

I thought it was a decent movie & the human characters were good at facial expressions. I bet the animals could have made more readable, nice-looking expressions if Wes Anderson hadn't imposed constraints on them. I felt so bad for the animators after reading that article linked upthread where they talked about all these stupid demands Wes made.

The characters weren't really built to make facial expressions, either. Any reaction shot where a character had to pull a face totally took me out of the moment. Half the time I only knew what type of face they were supposed to be pulling due to context & musical cues.

this, completely.

But that's ok, cuz in Anderson's human movies the actors aren't built to make facial expressions either.

any link to john k's blog should be accompanied by a porn-style disclaimer that he is a complete lunatic.

fantastic! at the moment, my fave US film of the year and the first great animated film I've seen since The Iron Giant.

I felt so bad for the animators after reading that article linked upthread where they talked about all these stupid demands Wes made.

nb: fuck animators.

^^^ this. buncha whiny bastards.

First time Morbs and I have agreed on a best-movie-or-close-enough since Inland Empire, iirc.

that's not exactly eons...

Feels like it.

you're young.

I was remarking to tipsy mothra that Mr. Fox's character flaws neatly complement George Clooney's shortcomings as an actor! His most fitting role ever?

You're going to have to spell that out for me. (Also, this is probably Meryl Streep's worst performance in eons, but that's neither here nor there.)

I haven't worked it out entirely. Something to do with how their semi-ironic deployment of charm is used in the service of morally abominable Jason Reitman films / stealing chickens.

I disagree, I liked Streep, but then I skipped Mamma Mia etc.

Kylie the possum A+

o brother where art thou? = equally fine use of clooney's strengths & weaknesses (both of which boil down to "getting by on charm")

plus mama mia was good (not great, see "getting by on charm") and streep was fine in it. she avoided embarrassing herself, which under the circumstances = heroic triumph.

Something to do with how their semi-ironic deployment of charm is used in the service of morally abominable Jason Reitman films / stealing chickens.

yeah i think clooney always seems like he's trying to put one over on you a little. he's too cagey, he holds something back that makes his more "serious" roles (e.g. solaris) seem not-fully-inhabited. which is why his best roles are as sort of shifty characters (out of sight, three kings, mr. fox).

First time Morbs and I have agreed on a best-movie-or-close-enough since Inland Empire, iirc.

― really senile old crap shit (Eric H.),

^^^^^^^^

and Streep was strangely forgettable in this -- not even noticeably annoying.

my three and a half year old managed to sit through the whole thing, probably for my benefit. triumph! I quite liked it. In no way do I think it's be first great animated film since Iron Giant (Morbious, you don't like any pixar films?), but it's quite good, and I originally didn't think I would like it at all.

i thought streep was good. the scenes with the two of them were some of my favorites. "i love you too ... but i shouldn't have married you." that hurt.

Ponyo and Coraline were better animated films of 2009.

The possum was totally great, also had the best voice acting imo. "I pay my bills on time...I've always had good credit!"

possum is a fine addition to the canon of goofy sidekicks.

Ponyo and Coraline were better animated films of 2009.

― mascara and ties (Abbott), Monday, December 7, 2009 12:04 AM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

so was up!

no, i'd say all of those were good, but not quite as good. all three much more structurally flawed for starters. mr. fox was some tight, solid, consistent storytelling (a nice surprise, since anderson had been getting wandery/spacey in that dept).

"structurally flawed" is too cruel a description for up, which i loved. but it was something of a jumble.

up was more inventive, more imaginative and more cinematic in pretty much every single respect than FMF, whether you prefer WA's taste in clothing and fonts or not

no i pretty much just enjoy anderson's taste in clothing and fonts

agree about up being, well ... being none of the things you mention, but it was much more moving than the fantastic mr. fox, which flirted with a lot of ache but never dove into it headfirst. foxes being all sly like that. if up's villain and third act had been as strong as the rest, i'd probably rate it the best animated film of the year.

loved up's 3rd act, but by then the story had got so structurally and tonally incoherent that i was pretty much just enjoying the roller-coaster value.

Because we're now just spouting off subjectivisms, FMF is just straight up more entertaining than Up and that's it and that's all.

my subjectivisms are elevated by lucid reasoning and good taste. so they're different from other people's.

this film still shit

for example

whistle click this film still shit

you guys should listen to conrad

this was def not shit - easily better than the last coupla Anderson movies - but in no way touches the awesomeness of prime Pixar/Miyazaki. it lacks that sense of wonder that the best family films (including The Iron Giant) tend to evoke.

Saw this yesterday, in a virtually empty cineworld, and found it to be a laugh-free zone - entire film seemed VERY disjointed, poorly paced/structured, boring, even. Hated the way the foxes were animated, thought that Clooney, Streep and Murray were all coasting - meh

I was thoroughly lost in a sense of wonder throughout, mostly that anything this crafty and visionary can still get spat out by the Hollywood Machine. It's been awhile.

Liked Coraline but it wasn't in this film's neighborhood; haven't caught Up and Ponyo so far.

and, yeah, Clooney is better looking as an animated fox than as rumpled Vanity Fair cover boy.

wasn't Fox's whistle/click an old film quote? Bugging the hell outta me.

(Way better Leone-Morricone vibe in the showdown than anyone else has managed btw)

u haven't seen Inglorious Basterds, opening sequence of which has a MUCH more convincing Leone vibe imho

Perhaps I'll go to a screening and walk out after 15 mins, then.

yeah morbs, i'd bet even you could appreciate the opening scene while hating the rest of it...the pacing/style/everything is way more focused

wasn't Fox's whistle/click an old film quote?

Hawkeye in MASH.

I don't think Ponyo really rates with these, it was alright but it was some substandard Miyazaki.

thx Eric, of course

i think i would have liked this better if all the voices were british, not just the bad guys a la star wars

I thoroughly enjoyed this.

in my mind you basically are the fantastic mr fox so that doesnt surprise me tbh

haw

lolz

which is why his best roles are as sort of shifty characters (out of sight, three kings, mr. fox).

how could you forget michael clayton, where his climactic monologue is basically a therapeutic rant serving for a sting job (and then he climbs into a cab and pays the driver to leave him alone for $50 worth of driving, lol. which I originally thought might go the way of The Long Good Friday but didn't)?

my favorite parts were the miniature motorcycle behind the larger motorcycle and every scene where kylie plays dead in the middle of a conversation

wish there was more of owen wilsons character

surprised at the Morbz love! If both Eric and Morbz like it it must be some kind of miracle.

Or it's totally inaccessible pretentious crap, obv.

Just kidding. I really did love this.

Is this movie okay for 8-year olds?

I'd think so (given ads, animation), but it's rated PG.

Yes. They swap out all the swear words with the word "cuss."

it's not exactly a kids' film, but there's enough kid-appeal to it. a guy i know took his 8- and 4-yr-old kids, said they liked it pretty well but not as much as he and his wife did. there's stuff that will go over kids' heads, and a few things that might be a little unsettling, but i suppose no more so than in a lot of actual kids' movies.

Good. I can't stomach going to Alvin and the Chipmunks 2, or whatever it's called.

(my other kids movie option)

I liked what Ebert had to say re: this movie's kid appeal:

Like the hero of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," also based on one of his books, the creatures of Dahl's valley seem to know more than they're letting on; perhaps even secrets we don't much want to know. Children, especially, will find things they don't understand, and things that scare them. Excellent. A good story for children should suggest a hidden dimension, and that dimension of course is the lifetime still ahead of them. Six is a little early for a movie to suggest to kids that the case is closed. Oh, what if the kids start crying about words they don't know? -- Mommy, Mommy! What's creme brulee?" Show them, for goodness sake. They'll thank you for it. Take my word on this.

whistle click this film still cuss

Ebert's right.

(xp)

no, james and the giant peach, which i saw yesterday, is some cuss.

I liked the scene in town that showed a wall or building in the far distance onto which had been painted, in neon graffiti, CUSS.

Will be freeze-framing my screener copy a lot. (I did go to a hi-def screening.)

If both Eric and Morbz like it it must be some kind of miracle.

We aren't THAT divergent, aside from Eric's hatred of classic comedy.

I liked the scene in town that showed a wall or building in the far distance onto which had been painted, in neon graffiti, CUSS.

what attention to funny detail again

ok morbs but what about you + eric h. + ME all really liking a movie

I'd go see this again in the theater for sure

Add me, tipsy, and amateurist, s1ocki (did HE like it?), and you got the closest thing to a consensus among the ILE Film Crew as I've ever seen.

saw this last night. this film redeemed w anderson for me in a big way. cannot understand some of the haters in this thread. smart, funny, tirelessly inventive, and entertaining. what's not to like ?

for me it felt flat, fussy, forced and tiresomely quirky

I know I keep posting on this thread

s1ocki (did HE like it?)

Doesn't seem like it.

I know I keep posting on this thread

we can just stipulate your comments from here on out if you want. like "every 40 posts, insert conrad not liking the movie."

make it every 25

s1ocki (did HE like it?)

Doesn't seem like it.

― Nuyorican oatmeal (jaymc), Monday, December 7, 2009 8:37 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i feel like arguing my points against the 99.999% of filmgoers has radicalized me a bit.. i certainly didnt HATE this movie, it just left me a little cold

that was my dad's criticism of it. he thought it was too "cool." but he also said, "i think i just don't understand wes anderson. i liked rushmore pretty well, but every movie since then, i've understood less and less what he's trying to do."

(my mom, otoh, liked mr. fox a lot. tonight she asked me if i thought they'd like the south park movie. i didn't know what to say...)

my wife and I have been discussing off and on lately why animated films just seem to have so much more verve than live-action lately (at least to us) and I think it may very well have a lot to do with the fact that live action adventure movies seem constrained to explain why there is a tiny replica getaway vehicle hidden behind the oversized getaway vehicle, instead of just letting it ride, so to speak

oh and "you wrote a bad song, petey!" AAAA++++ villain talk

i certainly didnt HATE this movie, it just left me a little cold

This is what life does to me, so.

I admit I'd probably be all about this movie if it weren't for the fact that Wes Anderson directed it.

let go, Ned!

what a funny thing to admit

let go, Ned!

You know, hearing the voice of Morbz in my head like Obi-Wan to Luke towards the end of Star Wars is disconcerting.

the last slow-mo shot in darjeeling goes so far around the bend of self-indulgent cockboarding that it actually redeemed him, for me.

like when mr. fox realizes he has to be a dick to farmers or he's just not happy, perhaps

oh and "you wrote a bad song, petey!" AAAA++++ villain talk

― El Tomboto, Monday, December 7, 2009 9:26 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

this. such a great moment, up there with the tiny motorcycle, the sock mask, climbing the electric fence and kylie's bit about having good credit. if it weren't for that line, jarvis cocker's presence and song would have been a grating indulgence. with it, they set up one of the film's best gags.

box office fell off 58% the second weekend, ouch

esp. since 1st weekend was nothing special

howd it do compared to other wandersons tho

Has to have done better than the last two.

I saw this about a week ago and I have to say I did not like it nearly as much as other Wes Anderson films. I was thoroughly entertained but I don't know -- the character interaction took a backseat to kid humour but that wasn't particularly strong either, imo. Also, Mark Mothersbaugh didn't score it so I will complain about that my ENTIRE LIFE.

Couldn't disagree more about ratio of (specific) kid humor.

s1ocki:
WA seems to need to really consciously put his stamp on everything

But you like lotsa other ppl's stamps, stamps can be good! My sister & bro-in-law have never seen a WA film, so maybe I'll watch this with them at Christmas and report.

i don't know, that seems an unfair complaint about a KIDS MOVIE

'cept if that's not all it is.

(or even primarily what it is)

it's hard to say how to classify it. i think you can broadly call it a "family" movie, in the sense that you can definitely take kids to it. but i don't think it's a kids' movie.

jazzgasms (Mr. Que):
i haven't seen this movie yet but i get the impression sometimes that wes should just be a set designer or something and leave the story to someone else

^^^^^^ this - OTcussinM!
I feel asleep several times. probably one of his better (best?) films though...

s1ocki is so otm itt... goddamn i hated this and i am one of the biggest stop-motion stans u could meet. he's so unimaginative, why did he even hire world class animators to do this when he clearly wanted it to look like fuckin robot chicken or something. i'd feel ripped off if i hadnt snuck in after seeing another movie - actually i still feel ripped off

the opossum was the only likeable character

All this time on ILX and you're drawn exclusively to likeable characters?

not exclusively, but i wasnt exactly drawn in by fox's roguish charm or w/e

also why were all the animals american

haha even british ppl aren't bothering with the 'why are we always the bad guys' whine for this movie

i'm just tired of his yarns about raffish fops & upper crust cumstaches

it's clear now that owen wilson was the engine behind his only good movies, which is weird/scary

speaking of which, there was a preview before it for noah baumbach's newest manchild movie, starring ben stiller as a charming unemployed guy i guess... who is this shit meant to appeal to

answer in question?

i think fmf is pretty good tbh. works for kids. liked how it acknowledges how artificial it is to make a film about wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiild animaaaaaaaaaaaaals as part of industrial-entertainment complex. also, funny.

i liked when the possum talked about his credit rating

i liked badger's tape recorder

Ben Stiller's best manchild work by far has been in Tenenbaums

Wow cankles we are 100% eye to eye on this.

I am not full cankles on this, but I left this movie feeling vaguely so-what about it.

i also sorta resented that it was so half-assed as a kids movie, it felt like he probably saw it as beneath himself to make something that kids would actually love

how half-assed as a "kids movie"? should it have been dumber and louder like Up?

Not that this line of reasoning would make anyone hate Anderson less, but I bet this movie reflects what he genuinely would have enjoyed as a kid. But yeah, definitely heard adults squealing more than kids in the theater despite roughly equal attendance.

as Ebert said, THE KIDS CAN ASK QUESTIONS.

Man, I don't want to hear parents explaining pregnancy or Jarvis Cocker while the movie's going on!

after.

I liked it and would say it's probably his best film to date.

best anderson since rushmore, or at the very least since tenenbaums. it might help if you read the book as a kid but have dim memories of it, so you remember some of the pictures and even chapter titles (the terrible tractors!) but not most of the specifics.

I would've loved this as a kid, just for the way it looked and the sense of giddy grownup adventurousness. ppl have somewhat warped ideas about what kids are and are not into, methinks.

weird that my two favorite films of the year both involve willem defoe confronting talking foxes.

how half-assed as a "kids movie"? should it have been dumber and louder like Up?

― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Thursday, December 31, 2009 7:16 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark

this is exactly the kind of arrogance i'm talking about! like he cant deign to make movies kids will enjoy, he has to make something that's identical to the crap he treats his normal audience of shiftless hipster bums to so he can then reassure himself that he's doing kids a favor by not talking down to them. kids are often sophisticated enough to understand movies that aren't made for them, but making a movie for adults with the veneer of a kids movie seems like a shitty worst-of-both-worlds compromise for an unimaginative filmmaker who doesnt have the courage to try something outside his comfort zone.

*kicks back, lights cigar*

When is he finally just gonna re-make Harold & Maude? Isn't that what his whole style/career is based on?

I'm sure Ben Stiller could play Harold with a bit of CGI assistance.

*slits wrists*

*covers self in gasoline, lights match*

*rolls eyes* *kills self*

*farts*

something is amiss when i agree with cankles

you know your a racist if...

you're**!

I want so desperately to agree with cankles on a movie. One of these days.

Saw this today. Not my favorite, but I did how it was set in your standard Anderson Neverwhen period, flatscreen and cell phone notwithstanding.

did what?!?!

cankles you must know a lotta stoopid kids.

Did LIKE how

a movie for adults with the veneer of a kids movie

fyi it is about talking foxes

Not that this line of reasoning would make anyone hate Anderson less, but I bet this movie reflects what he genuinely would have enjoyed as a kid.

coulda sworn i said something like this upthread, but yeah: anderson seems to make movies that he wishes he'd grown up with himself.

what you guys need to see is "historias extraordinarias." blew my dome open like no other movie in the past long long time.

― T.M.I. Friday's (s1ocki), Monday, November 30, 2009 4:15 AM (1 month ago)

i saw this! and you are OTM

When is he finally just gonna re-make Harold & Maude? Isn't that what his whole style/career is based on?

If so, he's improved on it every time (not that that's so difficult).

But in the end, he's just another dead rat in a garbage pail behind a Chinese restaurant.

this movie was funny!!!

i saw this! and you are OTM

― just sayin, Saturday, January 9, 2010 1:36 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

:D

xpost - What's not to like about Harold & Maude (besides maybe Cat Stevens)?

Ok, I think I was using bad terminology back when I talked about "kid humor"...

What bothered me was not kid humor. I am a fairly juvenile persona and most of the comedy in the movie was great, such mini-motorcycle, that acorn game (which was great), "cussing" and the animals easting like animsls) it was that the parts that seemed to be more adultish really lacked any kind of emotional poignancy that you except from Wes-And except for maybe the very first time the kids meet and Ash cries and they play with trains.

And I thought it was disjointed, moving way too quickly between funny stuff and serious stuff. It just seemed either too manic for what was going on or to flat.

Ok.

~Just been thinking 'bout that fantastic fox.

watched again, easily one of the 5 finest movies of the decade

every scene is just a visual marvel

& it's such a slyly funny movie

this was pretty good overall and had some really poetic moments. as with every wes anderson movie except for rushmore i didn't really connect with it emotionally. but i wasn't alienated from it either.

i rewatched his entire ouevre recently and the only film i didn't like, or like much of, was royal tenenbaums, mostly because he really overdoes the pop-song music cues, to the point that the film (especially 2nd half) felt like the few minutes in-between pop songs. the "outsourced" musical score worked way better in darjeeling ltd IMO.

Yeah, def feel like, in retrospect, Darjeeling > Tenenbaums

But Mr. Fox >>>>>>>> both

nothing in TDL on a par with Stiller-Hackman.

this is my 8 year old son's 2nd favorite movie

what is the first favourite??

ugh, I can't remember! I think I was so surprised this was his 2nd favorite that I blacked out

xYeah, def feel like, in retrospect, Darjeeling > Tenenbaums

o_O

could not disagree more

nothing in TDL on a par with Stiller-Hackman.

― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Monday, 5 April 2010 02:34 (15 hours ago)

succintly 100% OTM

left me so cold i was shivering. have decided i now hate wes anderson - i actually loved the royal tenenbaums but i'm scared to watch it again in case i see it for the rote anderson one-dimensional schtick-heavy facade that it is.

that's all that LYFE is man DO U C

would think twice about sitting through that again too

this is my 8 year old son's 2nd favorite movie

― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Sunday, April 4, 2010 11:18 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

what is the first favourite??

― mind crystals over matter (rrrobyn), Sunday, April 4, 2010 11:50 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark

I asked and number one favorite was 9 (the postapocalyptic puppet movie, not the bob fosse/rob marshall abomination)

although he now claims the LOTR trilogy occupies spots 1 to 3

left me so cold i was shivering. have decided i now hate wes anderson - i actually loved the royal tenenbaums but i'm scared to watch it again in case i see it for the rote anderson one-dimensional schtick-heavy facade that it is.

― the big pink suede panda bear hurts (ledge), Thursday, April 8, 2010 11:02 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

yeesh. sometimes i just like pretty pictures, you know?

saw this finally last weekend -- loved it! totally funny, nice to look at, good music. was a little bit scared because I did not like the way the animation looked in the preview, but it was quite lovely once I got accustomed to it.

Just saw this. Holy crap it was good! After just 5 minutes I knew it was going to be my favorite movie of 2009! When it switches to the TV displaying "LIVE" with a network news logo and the animals jumping out of a manhole covering and striking ninja poses, it's the funniest, most surreal thing I've seen in a movie in years.

this is my 8 year old son's 2nd favorite movie
glad to hear this! at first I thought Anderson had missed the mark in terms of a movie both kids and adults would like, but then i though that I would've loved it as a kid.

Yeah i can see alot of the jokes that i laughed at, a kid would laugh at, and maybe for different reasons. It's very well made!

I think I laughed the hardest at the made-up sport - stickbat or whatever it was called

yeesh. sometimes i just like pretty pictures, you know?

― by another name (amateurist), Thursday, 8 April 2010 20:04 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

?_?

films are more than just pretty pictures, if i want that i go to an art gallery.

also it wisnae that pretty.

oh, i know that films are more than that. but it was really pretty IMO.

it was charming, rather than pretty- it was also hilarious- some of the visual gags were inspired- fox eating for the first time, badger's eyes.

Love the scene in the second farm where the owner is in the foreground and we're watching the heist progress in steps across 5 TV sets. Very creative use of framing throughout this movie.

i've decided i unreservedly love this movie.

this was very enjoyable

Not everyone could muster a magnanimous word for Anderson's M.O. -- especially his on-set absence. "I think he's a little sociopathic," cinematographer Oliver said. "I think he's a little O.C.D. Contact with people disturbs him. This way, he can spend an entire day locked inside an empty room with a computer. He's a bit like the Wizard of Oz. Behind the curtain."

Informed of Oliver's discontent, Anderson said: "I would say that kind of crosses the line for what's appropriate for the director of photography to say behind the director's back while he's working on the movie. So I don't even want to respond to it."

this reads like dialogue from a wanderson film

just saw this and I loved it. who cares if it wasn't really a kids movie.

loved the photography in this - how everything was a straight on, flattened videogame 2D platformer perspective.

now I want wanderson to make a full length movie about the vietnam war play from rushmore.

Wasn't really a kids movie? My kid liked it.

I liked basic instinct when I was a kid

actually that movie has imbued me with lifelong pathologies about leaving screwdrivers near the bed

Yes, but that beaver wasn't a cartoon.

I dunno I guess I just got annoyed at the handwringing upthread about "was this really a KIDS movie???"

who cares

RIP cankles

I did have a long talk with him about stealing chickens afterward, though.

did you tell him to kill them in one bite?

My 3-year-old's into this now and after repeat exposure it feels like a classic.

also why were all the animals american

― doomed... to fart (cankles), Thursday, December 31, 2009 2:44 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark

yeah this is why i haven't seen it

One friend of mine said that this was the first movie that made his two sons (5 and 8, or so) shut up and pay attention all the way through.
It has created within me a desire to locate the Bobby Fuller Four song "Let her Dance" in a vinyl format.

is that actually why you haven't seen it? xp

pretty much
tho
hmm
maybe not -- think wes andy has sucked since 'tenenbaums'

I'm not a wes anderson fan at all and I guess tbh don't generally care for movies in general but I liked this one a whole lot fwiw. And I watched it after seemingly everyone I know recommended it, so had p. high expectations. Not dying to see it again anytime soon but I bet if I did I'd enjoy it again just the same

so so so good

re-watched last night. so good.

yeah really loved this

Goddamn anyone who doesn't like this movie.

Seriously. I need to get the dvd.

yeah, best movie. plus CRAZY beloved of the little kids in my circle. encouraging indicator.

best movie ever

I only saw it like a month ago but I'm excited about watching it on a cold rainy/snowy day soon

i just saw this for the first time last night, it was great, quirky maybe but in all the right ways and just terrifically pretty

maybe my favorite wes after bottle rocket

I can see myself getting this for my 5 year old nephew for christmas. I would ask if that's too young but he loves the Transformers movies so I guess it's cool.

get it for everyone for christmas imo

I don't like the way Wes Anderson shot this. Everything's centered and flat and brown. I didn't think this looked that good at all. I mean, the models and backgrounds were very well done, but it was unimaginatively staged. And the voice acting was some of the worst I've ever heard, no exaggeration.

still love the shit out of this movie

yeah it's the best.

how did you bastards watch this already

?

confused this for the Moonrise Kingdom thread.

Moonrise is has been out for a few weeks now, and Focus has ramped up the engagements cause $$$

This is the only Wes A. movie I could say I'd want to watch any day.

my daughter's most-watched movie

Watched it for the first time since theatres on Cartoon Network yesterday. Holds up. And is awesome.

This is the only Wes A. movie I could say I'd want to watch any day.

― old people are made of poop (Eric H.), Monday, June 18, 2012 2:17 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, for sure. it's one of the only movies, period, i could say that about. it's totally life-affirming.

i'd see rushmore every other week i guess.

both of you otm

this was on tv tonight and

best anderson since rushmore, or at the very least since tenenbaums. it might help if you read the book as a kid but have dim memories of it, so you remember some of the pictures and even chapter titles (the terrible tractors!) but not most of the specifics.

otm

I watched this again yesterday. so good, charming and fun.
It was also great to watch the bonus on the dvd because you could see the actors recording the voices and they actually played the roles, not just in the studio but outdoors (except for M. Streep apparently), etc.
the scene with B. murray and G. clooney cussing with each other is brilliant.
they should release the film of that "live" version !

so it's taken me a hundred years to finally see this

could have waited another hundred. I wasn't thrilled at all really. I liked the animation but once my enjoyment of that wore off I just became resentful of even having to watch the rest of the movie.

I don't know what I was expecting, but I didn't expect the actual Dahl story to only occupy 5 minutes in the second act. I should have known going in that the book itself would have just been an excuse for Wes Anderson to Wes Anderson It Up: NOW WITH ANIMATION.

I'm not even a Wes Anderson hater! But this made me get what everyone hated about his other movies. It was like some kind of animated Tenenbaums shit and I was not happy about it at all.

harrumph

and if I have to hear that Clooney click-click-whistle thing ever again in my life, acts of murder WILL happen

Sorry, a recent third viewing confirmed it as Anderson's masterpiece for me.

in fairness the book's plot would prob only fill like half an hour's worth of movie -- i reread it right after seeing the film and was shocked by how much shorter it seemed than i remembered.

That whistling thing is from M*A*S*H, innit?

I liked it when Sutherland did it

NO ONE ELSE EVER

plus the weird kid with the cape and Mrs Fox slaps Mr Fox across the face in a domestic argument...all it needed was one of the kids getting caught jerking off and we could have been watching the Squid and the Whale with Chase Scenes

idk

the whole thing annoyed me a lot

and if I have to hear that Clooney click-click-whistle thing ever again in my life, acts of murder WILL happen

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, March 17, 2014 7:48 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

that thing was the worst

glad someone on here finally got my back on this 1

Madness

I still nurse a crush on the cousin.

xxpost i got you boo

Veg, can you be my reverse barometer for all cinema?

yeah how often do you get Ursa, Non, and Zod to agree on a movie?

they have corrupted even the children of Andersonville

Morbs, I know you think just because you watched Showgirls I'm going to watch The King of Comedy, but it ain't gonna happen.

haha, I watched Showgirls about 2 years ago, I just had to chime in when I saw that fucking book title.

What if I leave you a copy of tKoC in my will, boo?

Morbs: anything for you, if it means we get to regularly disagree :D

i'll be happy to greet you with the MASH whistle

this was by far the most enjoyable of the last few WA movies for me because it was at least on a visual level a change of pace but i totally get where Veg is coming from. i can't think of any respected director who's as relentlessly straight-jacketed into his own aesthetic.

Woody Allen.

This is my best friend's favorite movie and she made me watch it last year when I visited but I didn't have the heart to tell her I hated it and so pretended it was great until I fell asleep and I think she caught on.

The only laugh I got from a recent WA film was Bill Murry as the lawyer.

haha enbb

lol that's awesome e

a recent WA film

... wait, which WA?

I'm still having a T-shirt made that says "I hate all your favorite movies."

Woody's output over the last decade has been far worse but it at least there's some unpredictability there, some hopping around into different genres, different approaches to storytelling, casting, etc. Wes is just headlong down this echo chamber where even the 'quirks' and details of each movie feel increasingly plucked from this readymade kit of stock Wes Anderson characters, actors, storylines, camera angles, music cues, etc.

Pretty easy to hate some WA stuff but this is one that seems really weird to get riled up about.

click click whistle
click click whistle
click click whistle
click click whistle
click click whistle
click click whistle
click click whistle
click click whistle
click click whistle

He click click whistled NINE times.

Nine times?

NINE times.

ppl pick weird things to hate

vegemitegrrrrrrl if it makes you so angry then Don't Watch the Movie.

Don't Read the Post

whistle click this film still cuss

― conrad, Monday, 7 December 2009 22:11 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

HOTBOX!

Don't Read the Post

― The Greta Gerwig In The Sky (some dude), Tuesday, March 18, 2014 5:53 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you mean all 85 of them?

watched the Criterion blu-ray of this the other night, it was an Xmas gift for our 7-yr old. He loved it, I thought it was better than it was the first time I saw it. completely entertaining throughout and there were more details i picked up on this screening. and the visuals are the best of any Anderson film I've seen, it's just a very beautiful looking fall colors kind of movie. love the wolf bit near the end too. I think WA's aesthetic really works for this film, and unlike some of his more recent films (most of which i actually do enjoy a lot despite saying this!) it makes his aesthetic seem fresh.

He's a maker of (consistently) excellent rather than all-time great films. FMF maybe comes closer than most. My controp is that he's never made a less than good film

Isle Of Dogs is a more than worthy follow-up though

your controp is i think correct. i guess The Life Aquatic and The Darjeeling Limited are considered his least worthy films, but i thought they were both good.

as did i

recently watched the grand budapest hotel and was richly entertained by that too, and that's a bit of a punching bag

I've seen this movie more times than I can count now, thx to my kids, and I have to say it still holds my interest, it's always so nice just to look at, and it is very well paced

grand Budapest really doesnt have any reason to exist but i mean its still p wonderful

isle of dogs is great

fmf and tenanbaums tied for his most complete works

moonrise kingdom great and i expected meh there tbh

Grand Budapest was not at all what i expected from the trailers, i expected a bit of a quirky hotel-based whodunit and not some weirdly alternate universe intrigue thriller comedy with an earned non-manipulative bummer ending.

Grand Budapest Hotel, FMF, and Rushmore are all I need.

But GBH got terrific reviews -- is there a backlash I know nothing about

too grownup for some?

yeah idgi I thought it was v well received. it's great

those FUCKERS

everyone really seemed to love that one, and FMF.

“You’re improving, let’s put it like that.”