Down in the Valley there were three farms...

Roald Dahl has been one of my favorite authors ever since I was a kid. Fantastic Mr. Fox being well...fantastic! Needless to say I was excited to see Wes Anderson's movie version. I've always been a fan of Anderson's work (Bottlerocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Life Aquatic) George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Wallace Wolodarsky, and Willem Dafoe provide an all-star cast of voices for the film. Now, I bought this for my son's 2nd birthday thinking it would be more for him, but I was pleasently surprised that it was typical Wes Anderson and didn't keep my son's attention much, but I fuckin' loved it! Mr. Fox begins secretly raiding the farms of three of the nastiest men in the valley – Burgis, Bunce and Bean – who in turn devise a dastardly plan to kill Mr. Fox that puts the entire animal community in danger. That may sound about as exciting as a nature special, but Anderson turns it into a hilarious crime caper, with Mr. Fox assuming the role of a Danny Ocean-like character as he enlists the help of his fellow critters to fight back against the farmers. What makes it all work is the decision to give the animals more human characteristics, while still utilizing their wild animal traits to comedic effect. Watching Mr. Fox speak Latin one minute and devour a stack of pancakes the next is hilarious, but not nearly as much as the addition of replacing all swearing with the word "cuss." The real highlight of "Fantastic Mr. Fox," however, is the animation. While Anderson could have easily gone the CG route like most animated movies these days, he’s chosen to film it in stop-motion instead, and it looks absolutely incredible. I definitely recommend this to any fan of Dahl and/or Anderson.

(Here's the one I grew up on)

Below I've included some great screen shots and concept art I found on the net:

Sundays growing up...

I remember most Sunday mornings coming back from church, my Dad would stop and get a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts for the family...he'd go home, read the paper at the kitchen table and joke with us, I'd grab two donuts and the comic section just to read Calvin and Hobbes...

Tex Avery

some of my childhood favorites...

It's the History Eraser Button, You Fool!

Ren and Stimpy is my favorite cartoon show of all-time! Ren's psychotic rages, the nonsensical adventures, the parodied "cat and dog" genre, and of course the amazing music! It was very intense to watch as a child and I was obsessed! I used to get in trouble on the school bus in elementary school for reenacting scenes. It's been a while, but I have been watching the DVDs so much lately that I thought I should post my favorite cartoon moment EVER! I've been doing a ton of research on guys like Alan Watts and some other philosophers, tryin to find deeper meaning, ya know, and its real draining on the brain so after a couple of hours of that I always watch Ren and Stimpy to clear my head. This scene comes from the "Space Madness" episode. I recommend watching the episode(shit quality) in its entirety. Ren absolutely kills me in this scene and the music fits his mood perfectly! Enjoy!

That's a Spicy Meatball

Saw Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs last week, and was blown away! This is a real cartoon, from start to finish. With all due respect to Pixar, Meatballs is THE cartooniest CG feature I've seen. The characters squash and stretch. Most of them have really interesting designs. They have funny walk and run cycles. And in the style of real cartoons, the character's eyes pop out, their mouths curl and gape and fly all over the place. I also dig the comedy and cast of voices: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Bruce Campbell, and James Caan



Another great thing to note is the female lead named Sam, who is the first woman main character in decades worth of animated films to have a personality beyond the typical uptight, cynical, everything-is-in-control female role. Sam has cartoon double takes, freak outs, goof ups, and moves funny just like the rest of the characters around her. This alone is something no other CG film does.

This post isn't much else than a simple beginning entry to share all the cool concept artwork for Cloudy that I've been collecting on the intenet. These pieces are credited to artists Pete Oswald, Armand Serrano, Kris Pearn and David Gibson. If you really like this movie and the art, check out the art-of book!