Fantastic/Awful

Rating: 7/10 (8 November 2009)

I'm a big fan of Wes Anderson's films. Fantastic Mr Fox is my favourite Roald Dahl book. But their styles aren't compatible - and that's what ultimately sours this movie for me.
Visually, it's brilliant. The animation is wonderful. It looks just like any other WA film. Lots of detail. Lots of camera pans and "square" shots. Title cards. Fantastic.
Music: another great selection of songs. Appropriate to FMF? No. However, with a better script, they might have made for a good eclectic counterpoint.
The script is the problem. It was obviously considered "cute" to add a a whole lot of "fake" swearing. And by that I mean using "cuss" instead of that four-letter expletive beginning with f. But these cuss-es are plain irritating to me (a Brit). Even more so when Michael Gambon says them. The Americanization of the story is akin to putting a giant yellow M on Big Ben. If you're an American, you may not care about this - YMMV.
If this had been an original story - not an adaptation - and without Cuss-Gate, it would be another WA masterpiece to add to the collection. As it is, unfortunately I feel generous giving it 7.