FANTASTIC MR. FOX – Wes Anderson's Animated Acceptance Speech. FoxSearchlight. January 13, 2010. Archived from the original on January 14, 2010 . Retrieved May 17, 2011– via YouTube. These puppets have joints at almost every spot that we have joints, but their heads are especially complex; without organic facial muscles to contract, the puppet makers had to craft remarkably intricate and tiny mechanisms to contract the characters’ faces into various expressions: Ever since I saw that this book existed- a scrapbook full of pictures, concept art, interviews all of my favorite movie of all time- I knew I had to get it. It's another gift that I am grateful for, and I plan on keeping this one to be a coffee table book of sorts in a future home. I refuse to not read my coffee table books. I want to be honest with my guests and read them for myself before I expect them to enjoy glancing at them. Coffee table books deserved to be loved too. Brent DiCrescenzo (July 17, 2008). "From the UK to the Magic Kingdom". Time Out. Archived from the original on July 31, 2008 . Retrieved August 8, 2008.

Set Photography by Ray Lewis is a small gallery presenting photos of the various models, puppets, sets, and landscapes used in the film, along with costumes, eyes, and the tunnels. There’s also an interesting picture presenting how they created the various point-of-view shots that appear in the film. Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox gets a dual-format special edition from The Criterion Collection, making this their first animated title since their 1992 Laserdisc release of Akira. Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 this new high-definition transfer supervised by Wes Anderson is delivered in 1080p/24hz on the dual-layer Blu-ray. A standard definition anamorphic transfer is provided on the first dual-layer DVD.The last time I saw Wes Anderson, seven years ago, he was wearing a tight, beige corduroy suit. He's still wearing it today. On the previous occasion, though – a Q&A for his film The Royal Tenenbaums – it was accessorised with plastic-framed glasses and a preppy scarf. Now the glasses have gone, there's a stripey tie, and the hair is longer and more luxuriant. He looks less geeky, as if he's been spending more time outdoors. Does he go hiking in his corduroy suit, perhaps? "I rely on corduroy," Anderson admits. "I've been here in London a week – this is all I've got." It's not the same suit, though, he stresses. "They last a couple of years. I have a guy who makes them specially for me. They're very inexpensive and I can just call him up and say, 'Can I have another one please?'"

Debruge, Peter (July 30, 2008). "Vanessa Morrison". Variety. Archived from the original on February 16, 2022 . Retrieved February 16, 2022. Landesman, Cosmo (October 25, 2009). "The Fantastic Mr Fox". The Sunday Times. London . Retrieved May 17, 2011. Criterion then includes the wonderful 61-minute BBC documentary Fantastic Mr. Dahl. Through interviews with surviving family members it offers a rather extensive portrayal of the author and the many ups and downs throughout his life. It covers his loves and marriages, and the tragedies that occurred throughout his life, the death of his daughter Olivia from measles being the most traumatic from the sounds of it. It looks at his work and the various influences, and how he wrote to appeal to children. It’s a rather thorough and engaging documentary, filled with quite a few surprises and doses of humour (like an archival interview with the author where he recalls his first sex-ed class.) A rather wonderful inclusion on Criterion’s part.

Soon after the Foxes move in, Felicity's nephew Kristofferson Silverfox comes to live with them due to his father receiving long-term medical treatment for double pneumonia. While Mr. and Mrs. Fox welcome him, Ash finds this situation intolerable, as his soft-spoken cousin is superior to him at almost everything and is charming everyone at his expense. Longing for his days as a thief, Mr. Fox and his opossum friend Kylie, the superintendent, steal produce and poultry from Boggis and Bunce's farms. They take Kristofferson along on the raid on Bean's cider cellar, which deepens Ash's resentment. Mr. Fox conceals these outings from Felicity, who becomes suspicious when unexplained food appears in their larder. The group encounters Badger and many other local animal residents whose homes the farmers have also destroyed. As the animals begin fearing starvation, Mr. Fox calls them together and leads them on a digging expedition to tunnel to the three farms, stealing all of their prized goods. While the animals feast, Ash and Kristofferson begin to reconcile after Kristofferson defends Ash from Beaver's son.

Pols, Mary (November 13, 2009). "Wes Anderson's Return to Form". Time. Archived from the original on February 14, 2011 . Retrieved May 17, 2011. While raiding Berk's Squab Farm, Mr. Fox triggers a fox trap caging himself along with his wife Felicity. She reveals her pregnancy to her husband and pleads with him to find a safer job if they escape, and he agrees. Annual Critics Choice Award Nominees". ScreenCrave. Archived from the original on July 26, 2011 . Retrieved December 14, 2009.The format is beautiful and works well without beating the reader over the head with tiresome details of the process. It intersperses interviews with spectacular stills and simple line sketches in an easy to follow format. I read this book cover to cover in one sitting. Stop-motion students will smile in awe reading this book. Casual readers who love the movie won't be bogged down with technical details of rigs, sets and character costumes but will find themselves drawn to the artfulness and attention to detail that went into creating this work of art (the film and the book). Who Are the Animators on Fantastic Mr. Fox?". Lineboil. January 12, 2010. Archived from the original on January 28, 2010 . Retrieved January 17, 2010. Academy Awards nominees". AMPAS. Archived from the original on April 8, 2010 . Retrieved February 9, 2013. For those concerned that the extras from the original Fox release wouldn’t make it, fear no more! Criterion carries over the material from the original release under a section called Publicity Featurettes. Running about 40-minutes and divided into 6 subsections: Roald Dahl, Adaptation, Puppet Makers, The Cast, Designing the World, and Bill and Badger. I’m glad this made it over as the material was better than most of the fluff most studios will jam on their releases. It includes footage of Gipsy House (where Dahl lived) and his writing shed, and then also includes some more information on the process of adapting the story (including a somewhat creepy video put together of Anderson acting out a lot of the parts, which surprisingly was not included as a feature.) There’s also more footage of the puppets and the design of the film, including an interesting bit on lighting the cider cellar. The best segment may be the last, featuring Murray visiting the set and talking with the animators, allowing us to examine the animation process a little more. Again, much better than most studio featurettes and I’m happy Criterion carried it all over, meaning there is no reason to keep the old Fox Blu-ray. The film was nominated for the 2010 Critics Choice Awards for Best Animated Feature, [39] the 2010 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, [40] the 2010 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and Academy Award for Best Original Score, [41] but ultimately lost all the nominations to Up.

In some ways (Wes Anderson's) most fully realized and satisfying film. Once you adjust to its stop-and-start rhythms and its scruffy looks, you can appreciate its wit, its beauty and the sly gravity of its emotional undercurrents. The work done by the animation director, Mark Gustafson, by the director of photography, Tristan Oliver, and by the production designer, Nelson Lowry, shows amazing ingenuity and skill, and the music (by Alexandre Desplat, with the usual shuffle of well-chosen pop tunes, famous and obscure) is both eccentric and just right. [31]Ben Child (July 28, 2009). "Fantastic Mr Fox to open London Film Festival". The Guardian. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014 . Retrieved July 28, 2009. Self-consciously quirky movie that manages to be twee and ultra-hip at the same time, it qualifies as yet another wry, carefully composed bibelot in the cabinet of curios that defines the Anderson oeuvre. [36] There are details that I missed watching the films several times, that come to life in this book. Like the text of the news paper article, which I imagined was just gibberish, but it turned out it's an engaging newspaper column written with a ton of wit and care for developing a complete character (image attached here). Such is the level of detail that went into making this movie and is beautifully chronicled here. People watch Anderson's movies precisely because they're not about the real, grown-up world. That heightened, self-referential, beautifully-designed reality that's so alluring in his films is only really possible in hermetic environments: schools, homes, ships, trains, underground. "I guess that's what happens if you're going to try to invent something with the way the movie is designed and where it's set. Often it means you can't stray too far off the set because it's not like that any more over there," he laughs, pointing across the room.