Remember When People were Doubting 'Fantastic Mr. Fox'?
Now it sits at 93% on RT and is challenging 'Up' for Best Animated feature
I remember back in July 2009 when many folks from the online movie blogger community were coming down on the first trailer for Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox. The hits kept coming as rumors and negativity surrounding Anderson's direction of the film was challenged as director of photography Tristan Oliver and director of animation Mark Gustafson told the Los Angeles Times Anderson directed the film from a remote location via email.
Oliver was quoted saying, "I've never worked on a picture where the director has been anywhere other than the studio floor!" While Gustafson added, "Honestly? Yeah. He has made our lives miserable." Bloggers caught wind of this and "Wes Anderson Directed 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' by Email?" headlines were all the rage.
"If true, it's hard not to assume that this is why the footage and photos we've seen from the movie so far have felt a little lacking in quality. How can a director truly convey his vision via soulless electronic messages?" wrote Tim Gomez at Cinema Blend. Did he do it? Yes. Is it as simple as the headline suggests? No.
From an interview with Anderson at Wired.com:
"Because there are so many people working at once, and because there's so much detail, the system of communicating everything was crucial," says Anderson, who was able to supervise production from a "virtual command center." He could weigh in instantly on QuickTime clips sent straight to his iPhone or watch dailies that were emailed to him at all hours. "I could even pull up a unit's live feed and see how things were shaping up," he says. If a prop or character didn't suit his famously fastidious eye, he would ask individual set designers and animators for an immediate fix. When a character’s mannerisms were off, Anderson would whip out his Flip videocam and record himself acting out the part.
Anderson's response to Chris Lee at the L.A. Times was to say, ""It's not the most pleasant thing to force somebody to do it the way they don't want to do it," Anderson said. "In Tristan's case, what I was telling him was, 'You can't use the techniques that you've learned to use. I'm going to make your life more difficult by demanding a certain approach.'
"The simple reality is," Anderson continued, "the movie would not be the way I wanted it if I just did it the way people were accustomed to doing it. I realized this is an opportunity to do something nobody's ever seen before. I want to see it. I don't want afterward to say, 'I could have gone further with this.'"
In an interview with Jeff Wells (visible to the right) Anderson says the "L.A. Times" interview was from earlier in the year and that Oliver told him had been misquoted when he said, "I think [Wes is] a little sociopathic."
Either way, these are details bloggers and movie critics were clinging to and passing on to their readers as the film made its way to its November 13 release. Strangely enough none of them were judging the final product. And after all the negativity, rumors and speculation the film earned a 93% rating from critics at RottenTomatoes and an 83 at MetaCritic. It's gone on to earn Best Animated Film of the Year awards from the Los Angeles and New York Film Critics groups and two days ago Brooks Barnes at the New York Times wrote an article headlined "Look Out, Pixar, Here Comes Fantastic Mr. Fox" as the film is now considered by some as being poised to potentially upset Up at the 2010 Oscars. Funny how things work out eh? Bloggers love to take credit for a film's success, but how about a film's box-office demise?
Unfortunately, the film only earned $19.6 million at the domestic box-office, $173 million less than Up (you know, the film everyone loved sight unseen?).
I mention all of this because today I received the video featured below of Anderson accepting his special achievement award from the National Board of Review via a stop-motion animated vignette in honor of the film he was awarded for. Right now I still believe Up will take Oscar's Best Animated Feature award, but I will be cheering hard for Fantastic Mr. Fox, the film you will find ahead of Up on many critical top ten lists.
Now excuse me… I'm going to go play a little Whackbat.
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I find Up to be a better animated film. Honestly, Pixar's films amaze me. Can they ever have a bad idea? Sure, Cars wasn't the best, but it certaintly wasn't a bad film. Anyway, Brad I think Up also was doubted. Obviously not anywhere as much, but everyone I knew and saw thought a movie about a widowed seventy year-old would be terrible. After I made them see it, they were amazed. Result? %98 on Rotten Tomatoes & $700 Million worldwide.
Honestly, I would rather see Up nominated for Best Picture than to win Best Animated Feature. It deserves a nod there, like most ignored animated films.
I remember when I first saw the trailer and was less than impressed with it.
I was wrong though – I thoroughly enjoyed it and I agree that it is a better movie than Up. I didn't think Up was that great though except for that four minute montage at the start.
Despite this, the animation in Up was much superior, probably meaning that it will win the best animated picture oscar.
The script was VERY good. I can't wait to see the movie!
I'm a huge fan of Wes Anderson and was skeptic of Fantastic Mr Fox but never doubted its potential. I watched it yesterday and I must say I loved it! A great twist to the way he films his movies. I'm defiantly rooting for Fantastic Mr Fox to win the academy award!
I guess I'm in the minority of people that loved the trailer, and was super excited about it from the get go. I paid to see it and will definately be buying it. Everyone should see this. If for nothing else than Bill Murray's perfect delivery.
I was so disappointed with Fox's trailer, in fact I literally stopped it half-way. Then I read it was getting good reviews so had to give it a shot….and guess what? I absolutely loved it (it's in my top 3 of the year) and really hope it upsets Up (liked it too) for the win. It just felt so refreshingly good and was one of my most enjoyable cinema experiences.
They are both excellent films. I'm just glad that 'I' don't have to make the choice of which is best.
Fantastic Mr. Fox has finally continued Wes Anderson's trend of making good movies. For awhile it seemed that the director of Bottle Rocket, Rushmore & The Royal Tenenbaums could do no wrong. Then came the quirky but unrealized film that was The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and utterly incomprehensible mess that was The Darjeeling Limited; I'd begun to lose faith in the guy or just in ability to make a good film that began with the word "the". Thankfully, he's redeemed himself in both respects. He's made an utterly fantastic (sorry, been using that word long while before the release of this film) successor to his earlier work and what-do-ya-know? it began with "the" :-)
Still, I think Up is the best animated film of the year; although I must admit, I've yet to see Ponyo. Anderson's film is a close second. While his film may be the most surprising of the year, I'd give the award to Up based on the opening 10 minutes alone – it had me in tears.
My prediction:
UP will get a Best Picture nomination and voters will see that as a "win" in itself..Then they'll turn around and vote for another film for the animated category be it Fox or Frog or Coraline.
Why is nobody talking about Ponyo?! It has an 86 on metacritic, a higher score than all other animated contenders except for Up, yet it seems to be completely out of the discussion. I don't understand.
I personally liked Mr. Fox the best out of all of them, but Ponyo is a close second, followed by Coraline, then Up.
I can't cheer one over the other. That would be like choosing from one of my own kids–I love them both so much. If one wins, I'll be happy. If the other wins, I'll also be happy.
An earlier poster pretty much summed up what I believe will happen. UP will not win the animated oscar because it will garner a Best Picture nomination. The voters will then pencil in another animated film for the animated oscar. The already threw Pixar their long overdue sizeable bone, the Best Picture nod, so they'll turn around and throw the little bone, the Animated oscar, to Fantastic Mr. Fox.
In summation, this was a great year for animation, but Wall-E from last year still trumps all of this year's offerings.
If I don't consider the legacy of Pixar when I compare Up and Mr. Fox, I have to admit that Mr. Fox is the better film. I had such a fun time watching it! The colors, the dialogue, the music… everything came together to create an incredibly entertaining movie. As much as I love rooting for Pixar, I may have to abandon my fanboy status this awards season.
Wes Anderson is one of my favorite directors. I can't get enough of his movies. I've been exited for this since before the trailer. And the trailer didn't disappoint once i saw it. But unfortunately Fantastic Mr. Fox didn't come to a theater near me. So I have yet to see it. So I eagerly await the DVD. But though I haven't seen it yet I'm hoping it wins. I'd like it to take the crown from pixar. I think pixar is highly overrated. Toy Story, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo and Wall-e are the only pixar movies I like but still aren't as spectacular as everyone are making them out to be. Maybe amazing compared to their competition at the time, but the older 2-D animation disney movies still blows any pixar movie out of the water in my opinion. As do any stop-motion animation films. And Fantastic Mr. Fox fits in the latter category and looks better than all the other nominees.
First, let me say that I haven't seen "Fox" yet, but I'm really looking forward to it.
I don't think bloggers have nearly the power over the wide audience that they think they do, and I certainly don't think that stories about how Anderson directed "Fox" had much of an impact on the final box office total… the film just looked way too quirky for mainstream success from the beginning. The writing seamed geared for adults, but the visuals seemed like preschool television animation. That was always going to be a tough sell.
Considering that, aside from "The Royal Tennebaums"'s $52m, all other Wes Anderson films topped out at under $25m, and that stop-motion at its most impressive can't seem to gross beyond the $50-106m range (Chicken Run being the sole $100m+ earner), surely this was never going to be a movie to compete financially with the likes of "Up".
The good news is that with the Academy Awards attention, if they time the DVD release correctly they should be able to recoup some of that $40m budget… but I don't think we're going to see Wes Anderson given that kind of money for an animated film again.