Quite original but would be NOTHING without Mr. Fox

Rating: 8/10 (23 June 2010)

A fox, formerly a bird thief, tries to keep living a straight life. He has a family, a job with the newspaper, and a fancy new house in a strong tree. Unfortunately his tree overlooks the farms of Boggis, Bunce, and Bean (one short, one fat, one mean), three of the meanest farmers in the world. Along with his Badger friend, Mr. Fox plans one last big heist: stealing from all three men. Unfortunately, they don't just roll over and take it, and Mr. Fox is soon in quite a predicament.
This movie is animated....kind of. It is done in a similar stop-motion style such as that of "The Nightmare Before Christmas," only much creepier. Honestly if I saw this movie as a kid, it probably would have given me nightmares - not because the movie is scary, but the animation itself is quite terrifying, in my humble opinion.
For those of you who know me, you are aware that I am not a big fan of what I call "artsy films," and Wes Anderson is a major creator of these. Such movies as Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and The Darjeeling Limited are all critically acclaimed films that I really didn't care for...maybe it's just me. SOME parts of Mr. Fox are quite reminiscent of these previously listed movies, but somehow it is not as annoying.
I had low expectations after the first few minutes. Even when the movie was over I really didn't know what to think about it. However, after letting it marinade in my brain for a few hours, I reached the conclusion that the movie was pretty good.
The Good: George Clooney definitely made Mr. Fox a more intriguing character than he would have been had anyone else done the voice over. I also thought Franklin Bean was an entertaining (and quite vicious) villain. Too bad Boggis and Bunce weren't as interesting. Also Willem Dafoe was awesome as The Rat. Two great scenes that stand out to me are when Mr. Fox is making the final plan and calling everyone by their Latin names, and the part at the end with the wolf (Canis Lupus!), though don't ask me why. I loved that the movie had extremely dirty language but still got a PG rating---the solution: replace every place where a swear word was used with the word "curse." GENIUS! Someone can just say "What the curse are you talking about?" Adults can fill in the blank and kids don't know what he meant. Very original. For a technical compliment, the music and scenery were also quite good.
The Bad: Most characters that are not Mr. Fox are not very interesting. The movie is not lying about being about Mr. Fox. Was it just me or did his wife only have about 4 lines in the entire movie, all of which were extremely dry and mono toned? Mr. Fox's son was also terribly annoying as the angsty teen fox. Also like I said before, the animation is horrifying.
Overall Fantastic Mr. Fox was *just* shy of being fantastic, but I'd definitely give it a recommendation, especially if you like Wes Anderson. I would probably watch it again, but not until after the nightmares stop.
Final Score - 7.5/10