Fox is a HoundThere are some animated films out there that are to be admired solely for their attempt to tell an interesting story without being confined to the shackles of misleading marketing. For instance, there was a small Australian film called Mary and Max that came out this year. Like this film, it's stop motion but is nowhere near kid friendly. I didn't think the film was magnificent, but I applauded its attempt to be a little edgier without dumbing itself down to appeal to kids. Only in America, it seems, are animated films always sold as family fare. With this film, the marketing makes it seem like its for the whole family, but with so much quirk and slow jokes, I have a hard time believing kids will go all out for it. I am not a small child, and even I grew restless with this often humorous and tedious exercise.
From the book by Roald Dahl to the offbeat interpretation of Wes Anderson, the film centers on Fox (George Clooney), an ambitious and sneaky chicken thief who promises to settle down into a normal job after his wife (Meryl Streep) announces she's pregnant. Fast-forward tow fox years, and Fox is working as a newspaper writer and living in a hole in the ground with his family, now added by son Ash (Jason Schwartzman). But across the fields, three big-top farmers and their hordes of livestock tempt Fox back into his illegal ways, until they turn on him.
I admit that I'm not the biggest Wes Anderson fan. I do admire the style of his films, but sometimes it's all a little too quirky for me, and it tends to cover up some rather shallow characters. Even though Anderson has never worked in animation before or adapted someone else's work, this film still retains the offbeat humorous edge that all his films comply with. Some of the humor is right on and delivers a smile or light chuckle, and all of it is aided by the great texture the old-school style of stop-motion. Most of it, though, doesn't register much and instead overindulges a bit on the fancy. The script by Anderson and Noah Baumbach (big fan of his since The Squid and the Whale) doesn't have much traction in providing a concrete storyline to invest in from beginning to end. Not every character works, but I will say the script does offer a fair amount of funny lines and surprisingly poignant moments balanced out with ones that offer little and make a film under 90 minutes feel quite long.
The voice acting here is actually quite good, and is almost a saving grace for the film. Clooney and Streep provide the right amount of humor and sorrow in their characters, and find the balance quite well. Schwartzman's quite sarcasm and snippy attitude attract much glee, as well as Eric Anderson as the cousin who comes to stay with the Foxs and gets begins a rivalry with Ash. Michael Gambon also has some nice time as the most notable farmer, and his voice always pierces through the dull moments of the screen. Other talent like Wally Walodarsky as a meek possum friend, Bill Murray as Fox's badger lawyer, Willem Dafoe as an antagonistic rat are not present enough to get a good sense of their importance. Their presence on screen is enlightening, but not too much depth to their personas.
I don't think this is a terrible film, and in some parts of it I think it's quite excellent. I like the voice talent behind the film, I like the look of it, and I even think it's quite funny in some parts. However, there's just too many moments of slow patches and uninspired humor for me to fully recommend the film. I do applaud Anderson and his company for trying something different with the animated genre, something I wish more people were willing to do. If that were the case, then we'd get movies that are a little different from the rest, but still offers something just as good as the live action stuff. It'll be a good day when animated films can be looked at as not just family films, but just films. **1/2 / ****; GRADE: B-
A Christmas GoryThe hate now brewing inside the film loving community against Robert Zemeckis and his new found love of motion capture animation is extremely palpable. With every new announcement of an upcoming Zemeckis project, the haters seems to be ready to pounce directly on his doorstep and tear his ideas to shreds. I can't quite figure out why, but my guess is that they feel the animation doesn't look realistic, which is Zemeckis's intention. That's not really an issue for be because I recognize that it's animation and I don't go in looking for a realistic face. I look for an interesting story, which is something that Zemeckis's two previous films The Polar Express and Beowulf have been without. I can't say the same this time as Zemeckis is working off of a universally praised story and comes up with a thing or two that is really inventive.
Everyone should know of what is perhaps Charles Dickens's most famous story about the stingy old miser Ebenezer Scrooge and his Christmas eve visits from three spirits that send him on a change in character to become a merry philanthropist. Jim Carrey inhabits the role of Scrooge, as well as the three spirits that haunt him throughout the night. Also showing up are Gary Oldman playing Bob Cratchit and Marley, Colin Firth as Scrooge's more joyous nephew and Robin Wright Penn as Scrooge's long lost love from the past.
The number of Christmas Carol adaptations are countless (my favorites are the Disney animated one with Mickey Mouse's characters and the updated Scrooged with Bill Murray), but this one manages to offer something the previous incarnations don't have. This is perhaps the closest adaption to the book, and a lot of the power and creepiness is retained through Zemeckis's direction. He handles many of the silent moments quite well, and manages to showcase all the right moods when necessary, whether that be suspense from the ghosts or tenderness from the sadder moments. I do think Zemeckis lets his faithfulness get in the way a bit, and sometimes allows the dazzle of the animation to take over from the story, particularly in an extremely out of place chase scene during the third ghost's arrival. Still, I think Zemeckis is getting better with each new film.
Carrey's Scrooge is helped both by the animation and his performance, and both do well at their respective jobs. Scrooge is always going to be a familiar character, so while his character arc is predictable, it's still fascinating to watch his sunken features change as the story progresses. As the ghosts, Carrey also does a good job with them, though I think he piles on the Ghost of Christmas Present on a little too thick. The older version of Scrooge obviously had the most attention, and other characters seem to look like similar molds of the background players, with the exception probably going to Cratchit, who bears a good resemblance to Oldman. We're still at a point where it's difficult to judge a performance here as credit to the actor or the animator, but both tend to do their jobs well here.
Zemeckis still has a bit of a way to go with this technology, but he has come a long way from the creepy children's eyes in The Polar Express. It's difficult for a film like this to have many surprises, but it manages to pull off quite a few, as it manages to provide the same amount of emotion from the other incarnations as well as adding a level of genuine suspense that has never been achieved before, unless I just didn't see another film adaptation of this film in which Marley's jaw falls off; I could be mistaken. Maybe Zemeckis can finally get it right with his remake of Yellow Submarine. I doubt it, but one can dream. ***1/2 / ****; GRADE: B+
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