My Rant on 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' VS. 'New Moon'

This is a perfectly mismatched double feature...or is it? On the one hand, there's 'The Fantastic Mr. Fox,' a stop-motion animated family film directed by Wes Anderson and based on the book by Roald Dahl (of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,' 'Matilda,' 'James and The Giant Peach' and 'The Witches' fame) and on the other hand, there's 'Twilight Saga: New Moon,' the highly anticipated sequel based on the second book on the Twilight franchise by Stephanie Meyer. Although I came with an open mind when I saw the films, I also had low expectations, even lower for 'New Moon.' The result: 'Fox' is a winner and 'New Moon' is a complete dud.

The sad news is that 'Fox' will never reach the wide audience that has embraced 'New Moon' because it is probably one of the weirdest animated and children's films to be released in any year. And although all the elements that make 'Fox' so quirky, witty, and enjoyable, including the amazing voice acting, old-fashioned animation with great production design, and a cool soundtrack that features The Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys and even a song from Disney's 'Robin Hood' as a nod to that other famous anthropomorphic fox character, it is not the kind of film that would appeal to most moviegoers. Sure, George Clooney and Meryl Streep are billed on the poster as voices, but the fact of the matter is that unless you are a fan of animation, Wes Anderson films, or just want to take the family to a movie that isn't 'The Blind Side,' then you are most likely to ignore it, which is a shame.

The film has a lot going for it. When I first saw the trailer, I doubted that Wes Anderson, who had never directed an animated film and whose live-action films tend to contain the kind of humor that goes over most people's heads, would be able to make 'Fox' into something worth going to the theater to see. Boy, was I wrong! Yes, the animation is a bit choppy at times (and the size of the animals seems odd -for example: a rat character is almost the same size as Mr. Fox), but ironically it becomes part of the charm. In fact, the whole film has a feel and look of another era, added to the fact that fox fur never looked this good on the big screen. Plus, stop-motion has that creepy, yet appealing quality of blurring the lines between animation and live-action, for what we are seeing is a collection of puppets and sets being moved ever so slightly every shot to achieve the illusion of life. Unlike this year's 'Coraline', 'Fox' feels more homemade. There are no big special effects or CGI enhancements. The special effect here is an effective, quick-witted script that delves deep into the psyche of the characters and delivers top-notch dialogue that most live-action films could only dream of having. I won't reveal much about the plot, because I urge everyone to go see it. Let's just say, 'Chicken Run' meets 'The Royal Tenenbaums'...and then some. Themes about marriage, paternal figures, fitting in, loyalty, honesty, and morality abound. That might be a lot for a "simple" little movie about a fox to tackle, but from a Wes Anderson film, well, you really really wouldn't expect any less.

Now for 'New Moon'...so after watching an excellent film about a fox, I sat through this hodgepodge of sappy drama, awkward dialogue and bad acting, that featured a teenage wolf (there you go...a wild dog connection between the two films). After all, the first film, 'Twilight,' provided me and my friends with a different kind of entertainment: making fun of it. The only way we could enjoy it was by quoting lines and acting out scenes to make a point about how horrible it was, even as a guilty pleasure. This second installment, however, is no laughing matter. Only Twi-hards (what the 'Twilight' fans call themselves) would really find something enjoyable here, as the movie's plodding pacing makes way for a rather uninteresting plot. The camp of the first film dies here as the movie actually tries to make itself feel more professional and better made, but a bigger budget does not a better movie make. Vampire leaves girl, girl becomes depressed and starts falling in love with her best friend, who turns out to be a werewolf, and then, decides to go find her vampire lover when she is told that he is about to commit suicide because he thinks she's dead. That is, in one sentence, everything that happens in the film. Too bad it takes over two hours to get to that, which means, that the film, like the book, is rather inconsequential. Aside from the werewolf revelation, this chapter in the series seems rather unnecessary. It ends the way it begins, but for those who are fans of the films, the books, or the characters, nothing more needs to be provided, and that sucks (pun intended) for the rest of us.