Fantastic Mr Fox.

[Barry]

March 5th 2010

I approached this film with some baggage. That I couldn't get a job on it, and seeing the result obviously shades my feeing towards it, but you know what, I watched and put all that aside as much as I could. Obviously every bit of animation I judged as to whether I could have done that, and the answer is yes, no problem. It would have taken me a day or so to free myself to do such bold and loose animation, and it was certainly loose. So loose that at times it did fall to pieces, but it worked. Contrasting this deliberate, and it's not roughness as it is very studied, this deliberate acknowledgement of stop motion was some very fine character acting and observational details. It did look absolutely gorgeous, detailed, and with a stunning palette, and it was so dry it was parched; I loved the use of the frame, the theatricality, and the sustained long takes - all qualities I could certainly have applied (in my sleep). The story did not grab me, and I was surprised that so little narrative or character or screen time was invested in the human characters, as they were stupendous puppets, more realistic than even the more realsitic ones of mine. I did love the aggresive wife in jodphurs - what superb tailoring. So you can see that I was enjoying the craft of the film, and came away very impressed indeed, but whilst i loved the individual scenes, Mary and Max still holds the best animated movie experience of the last year - simply for the fact that I was riveted and burst into such tears at the end. The other films I have sat at some distance and admired enormously.

[Kerry]

Agree with all you've said, also for me Mary and Max was the film of last year. Will a film this year, or next top it?