VERY conflicted feelings about this one...

Rating: 5/10 (10 June 2010)

What a conundrum. It's impossible for me to give this movie one star because in many ways, it's far from a bad movie. The merits which it does have, and there are some, definitely exclude it from that general category. It is, in all fairness, visually stunning, technically brilliant, flawlessly directed, and an all-around treat for the eyes. It's loaded with a great voice cast, wicked creativity, witty dialogue, and a lot of clever ideas. Yet nor can I give it ten stars either. Because in spite of all of this, its stunning visuals and innovative imagination does not mean that I enjoyed it. I didn't. One bit.
For starters, hello? Helllooo, Road Dahl's story? Where are you? Look I understand that when you have a fairly short children's book you often need to pump it up with extra material in order to bring it up to the two-hour mark. No protests there. What I DO have protests about is when you not only add extra ideas but remove the old ones as well. Extra material can be forgiven as long as it's still entertaining and stays faithful to its inspiration. What isn't forgivable is when it's anything BUT faithful, to the point of betraying the book's spirit with its presence. Make no mistake, only a handful of references to the book manage to make it into this rendition - and even then, it almost feels like they're only there because the producers knew that they couldn't really get away with dropping ALL of the old stuff, so they added it as filler, as if to assert that they haven't forgotten what it is taht they're adapting. So woe big fans of the original story. Fantastic Mr. Fox was one of my favourite Road Dahl books when I was little but the manner in which they've twisted it here ensures that the joy which I remember is not captured. Spoilers FYI...
One of the things that made the book so heartwarming was the fact that Mr. & Mrs. Fox had such a sweet and loving relationship. In the movie, perhaps in an attempt to modernise it (and God knows why, it's a kid's story people! Why the cynicism?), Mr. & Mrs. Fox have been altered into a squabbling married couple. The sweetness of the story is almost entirely absent here. It crosses over the line into being depressing. It comes complete with a fight scene in which she hits him, making him cry, and leaving a claw mark across his face which he has for the rest of the movie (domestic violence?). Cripes, there's even a scene where she says that she shouldn't have married him; a comment which she never takes back. And by God, there's another scene where he goes on a suicide mission, agreeing to turn himself in so that the other animals can be spared, and she makes no attempt to stop him. This isn't exactly what I would call uplifting. OK, so it has happy ending, but by that stage I was so disheartened by what had happened up to then that it was impossible to feel moved. This is because the falling-out scenes were painfully drawn-out, while the make-up scenes were merely glossed over. The result, I have to say, makes the ending highly unsatisfying.
George Clooney has a sexy voice as always, and Meryl Streep is great for this kind of role because her voice is so maternal and softly-spoken that it creates the perfect Ying to George's Yang. As I mentioned earlier, the voice cast is great; Jason Schwartzman is brilliant as the son, as is Eric Anderson as the nephew, and everybody else fits their roles like a glove. But the charm of these characters has been so diluted that the actors behind them can't make up for the total lack of engagement, connection and poignancy. Even the jokes, which admittedly can be very sharp in a number of scenes, are not able to take your mind off just how uninvolving the story is. Basically, this is a movie in which they've tried to be edgy so as to appeal to older audiences. Which is fine because this CAN be done successfully; when done right you get a film which keeps adults and children ntertained in equal measure. When done wrong, you get the likes of this, which tries so hard to be watchable for adults that it ends up losing its heart.
Elsewhere, certain scenes are taken in totally unnecessary directions before they have a chance to really get interesting in order to make way for the story's new trappings. The best character in the movie, by far, is Rat, who is superbly and flawlessly voiced by William Dafoe. But what's this, Rat is in it for all of two scenes, and is then killed off. Man. There was so much more room for him, and instead they got rid of him early so that they could go into the all-new (and completely pointless) suplot of Fox's nephew being kidnapped. That's the all-around approach with this movie - bumping off things which could have been entertaining in favour of focusing on things which aren't. There's a scene involving a wolf which I asbolutely failed to see the point of; conversations which don't go anywhere; scenes which ended after two minutes without serving any integral purpose to the plot; and who knows why Owen Wilson was given fifth billing, he's in it for ONE scene!
So those who enjoyed the novel with have trouble with this. Its energy, slickness, animation and special effects are of such an astonishing standard that they're worth the five stars that I gave it alone. But due to the way in which they warped the story with only a pedestrian payoff at the end, that's all I'm giving it. Dahl virgins approach with open mind; Dahl fans beware.