If you're gearing up for a movie this weekend with the family and not inclined to catch the "Christmas Carol" just yet (after all, the yuletide season is a bi far off) you may consider slapping down a few bucks for a top-notch animated feature that opens Nationwide this week:
"Fantastic Mr. Fox"
The project was directed by Wes Anderson and is a beautifully-crafted animated tale about a family of foxes which was adapted from Roald Dahl's best-selling children's book of the same title.
At a screening last week, Anderson was on hand to discuss his creative process, which I reported on.
Post: 11/04/09
http://ijulian.blogspot.com/2009/11/fantastic-mr-foxwes-anderson-jason.html
Dahl was known for penning "Charlie & the Chocolate Factor".
Unlike most films with animation, the special effects utilized here (stop action motion) render a 3-D quality so much more appealing to the eye than normally-flat cartoons like the ones broadcast on the idiot box during the children's hour on the weekends.
"Stop motion" is an animation technique which magically makes a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own.
The object(s) are moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, and thus, create the the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence.
Clay figures are often used in stop motion because they are easy to re-position during the creative process.
Stop motion techniques are traced back to two turn-of-the-century filmmakers Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton.
In 1898 they created and produced - The Humpty Dumpty Circus" - which was a film about a toy circus of acrobats and animals that come to life.
Instead of looking like flat cartoon images, the characters appeared to be dressed up in puppet outfits and 3-D in scope.
As is the case with Anderson's "Fantastic Mr. Fox".
By the way, in addition to securing the blessings of Mrs. Dahl, the quirky director also managed to land the remarkable talents of George Clooney, Meryl Street, and Bill Muarray to head up the lead voice-over roles.
What a coup!
Fantastic Mr. Fox is not just for the kids because parents will get a hoot out of the Fox Film release, too.
Check your local listings!
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