For almost 3 years, this site has been following the goings-on behind a pretty funky-looking flick: Wes Anderson's stop-motion adaptation of Roald Dahl's 1970 kids' book, The Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Now movie site JoBlo managed to scare up a first image from the movie, featuring Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney), Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep, replacing the previously cast Cate Blanchett) and Badger (Anderson regular Bill Murray). It's nothing to write home about, since stop-motion images rarely look good; the proof is when they're moving.
Nevertheless, it's good to see that The Fantastic Mr. Fox might actually hit theatres sometime before the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup.
George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Michael Gambon, Owen Wilson in Wes Anderson's The Fantastic Mr. Fox
For those of you who aren't familiar with Roald Dahl (what are you waiting for?), the story follows the titular Mr. Fox as he steals food from 3 evil farmers: Boggis, Bean and Bunce. When the terrible trio go all-out in their attempts to eliminate Mr. Fox and his family, our hero teams up with the other animals to outwit the humans.
This film is looking pretty good so far. Writer/director Anderson is best known for arthouse flicks like The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore: not always successful but never dull. Clooney isn't known for voice acting, but has managed to do well in both dramatic and comedic roles. Streep's previous voice acting stint was in the 2006 bomb The Ant Bully, but has achieved some small success in films like Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie's Choice and The Devil Wears Prada.
Michael Gambon (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince), Brian Cox (General Hemmer in the bomb Battle For Terra) voice two of the evil farmers, Bean and Boggis. It's currently not known who will voice Bunce, but the film's IMDb page lists Owen Wilson (Cars) in the cast but not who he's playing. A different take on Bunce, perhaps?
Longtime Anderson collaborators Jason Schwartzman, Anjelica Huston and Adrian Brody return to fill out the voice cast, along with Willem Dafoe and Roman Coppola. Celebrity chef Mario Batali (Iron Chef America) voices a role in the flick, as does former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker.
The British vocalist, best known for his 1995 hit "Common People," has written 4 songs for the movie including a children's choir rendition of Dahl's rhyme: "Boggis and Bunce and Bean/One fat, one short, one lean/Those horrible crooks/So different in looks/Were nonetheless equally mean."
The only downside is that Twentieth Century Fox has shuffled this flick to their arthouse imprint, Fox Searchlight, which means it will get a lower promotional push than other Fox fare such as Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. That's a shame since The Fantastic Mr. Fox looks like the more memorable time at the movies.
Can Wes Anderson dethrone against the current king of stop-motion animation, director Henry Selick? Find out when The Fantastic Mr. Fox sidles into theatres on November 13th.
 |
