Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

The Wes Anderson Athon. My name is Patrick. My name is Taylor. And I have a question for you, Taylor. Please. We are in a different recording location this time with our fantastic. Why have we changed of recording locations? What what what does the temperature Uh the temperature has everything to do with it, Patrick. It is eighty six degrees. that hot actually It's been in the nineties almost every day for the past So we are in the room with one of our

So you're gonna hear a little hum in the background, you'll get over it, you'll be fine. We didn't want to drop dead while we were recording.

This is our fantastic mister Fox episode for the West Anderson Athon, the show where we're going through every single Talking about the movies that inspired him, the movies that he Uh lots of fun stuff going on on this show. We are with our Mr. Fox. Would you like to explain? Yeah, so we have a sweet little puppy dog. And he is in his jail right now looking at us a lot. But he is red just like a little fox. It's just like very fox.

Fluffy foxtail and just like fox size, he's like thirty five pounds. And he especially because I feel like the um animals in this movie are so lanky, like especially the wolf has like really, really long skinny legs. That's what he looks like. So he's our fantastic So with all the disclaimers out of the way, let's jump right into it. Uh Fantastic Mr. Fox from 2009. Letterbox says the fantastic Mr. Fox, bored with his current life, plans a height.

Th the three local farmers. The farmers, tired of sharing their chickens with the sly fox, seek revenge against him and his family. This is Wes's first And I I'm just gonna go right out and say it. Like I think this is I don't wanna say Wes is best. Here's the thing. People will say what's your favorite I would say that's a good thing. I think fantastic. I think it is literally perfect. And but because it is so specific and because it is so like

different than than all of his other projects other than Isle of Dogs. I just feel like it's weird to pit fantastic Mr. So do I I think this is a perfect film. I don't know if it's my favorite Wes Anderson film, um but it is like my favorite in a different It does make sense. I feel like uh you know we we've talked about how we are kind of at this What we believe to be the peak. of uh what many people believe to be kind of a bell curve.

I do believe the peak was episode two with Rushmore. sort of general consensus peak, um, is like this and like Grand Budapest is where he like really masters We've got Moonrise Kingdom in the middle and I'm gonna talk about that later, but I'm a little Moonrise Kingdom right now feels a little homework y to me. It's never been my favorite. I We've gone life aquatic, darjeeling this I feel like we're going to be able to do that.

Up and get myself excited for that one. But yeah, Mr. Fox, it's a great movie. It really is a great movie. One thing you mentioned in the last episode that I want It's a shame that we have to do the show in chronological order because it is the perfect autumnal movie. We watch it every sort of November. We make some soup or some chili or something of that nature. Really no, it's not ever soup and it's not ever chili. It is a it is a Sunday morning.

Yes, you could if it's an evening thing. But for us it's always a Saturday or Sunday morning and it is always specifically pumpkin center. coffee and um yeah it's it's perfect. I even said to Patrick I I turned to him while we were watching this and I said can we still do our November tradition? I don't want to say like oh we've seen that recently like it's just so good you can watch it over and always find something new. I found so many new things on

So we do a lot of on this show like defending Yeah. the imaginary sort of consensus, right? And uh I'd like to do that again here because as much as people love this movie, there is a little bit of an eye roll. He needs puppets. Right. I'm gonna pull out later. But there's this kind of idea that, like, his movies are so specific and so exact that it could only be done truly in his mind.

With something like puppets that can be exactly the way you want something to be and you don't have to worry about real materials, real I think that that's a fair like assessment of Wes. I think sure that that can be true. Uh, and I think that's why he dives into it. But if if that If he did not like the kind of randomness that still comes from He wouldn't work with them. He would just commit to stop motion. Um, I think that he is fueled creatively by having Um not just as voices.

make him think a new way during it. Although yeah, I'm sure he does I mean clearly he thrives in an environment where it's he has total control as well because again This is a quote uh from Owen Gleberman at the time of Entertainment Weekly that kind of goes along those lines. Who'd have guessed it? Wes Anderson, creator of the rascally stop motion fable fantastic. Turns out to be born to make anything.

I say that with a bit of mischief because I'm not a big fan of Anderson's work. What I now understand though is that in essence He just confused the issue by putting real live actors in them. Before he twisted reality into a permanent ironic pose. Now the infectiously primitive talking animal world of fantastic mysteries. You know, I think that that's a I think that that is a fair assessment. You know, I feel like he loves his little doll.

and he likes making them exactly how he wants. But is that a crime? I don't know. I I just feel like um people villainize him for You could argue should be objectively celebrated. Oh, he's so good at what he does that he sucks. Like yeah, like I don't know, just not not a very pal. Well there is a definite uh I think with this film it gets perfected. And I don't think he ever lets it Darjeeling um is Very real and we've got to be able to do

Life Aquatico, I think, was kind of the closest to this point. You know, it was kind of a build. Kind of took a step back. But you also have to think that the way that stop motion works, right? The way that animation works is it takes forever. Forever. is like getting this Right. Um I tried to kind of look for an answer of like, was he trying to do two different things creatively? Was he trying to go more Cassavetis in one direction and more dollhouse?

I couldn't really uh find an answer to that question.

Um his commentary on the Criterion Disc just worthless. Absolutely completely worthless. They get more worthless as you move forward. I don't know if like Criterium like just started badgering him, no pun intended, about like to do all God, I'm sick of this, but he just run it's like a printer that ran out of ink. Like he just stopped having shit to say. I I've made a lot of jokes before about Yeah. The house of a thousand corpses.

Where in this commentary he just goes like a little bit of a little bit of a little bit We filmed this really well. Like he just does that for ninety minutes. And although it's like very it's it's very Rob Zombie like attitude. Filmmaker kind of thing. At least it's like fun little tidbits like, oh, that was his buddy's truck. Wes does so much stuff, and he does his commentary. He does so much work he sets up a thought and then just like totally abandons it.

Yeah, a perfect example. Um we we mentioned that he's he's got starting with life aquatic and then continuing through Darjeeling. loves to just like pose questions to the audience that any basic filmmaker should know and then doesn't answer them. A perfect example in this commentary is that's my brother. Suppose is named after Chris Cruise. Yeah, I guess that would be right. 'Cause like I don't really know why.

Yeah, and it's just like why don't you know you do know why? Like why don't you I just don't like why set up thoughts if you just remark Like it really drives me insane. It makes research very difficult. Because he does the same thing in interviews too. He's just very elusive. The the one for me was I was thinking about this the other day. We had just re-watched the film and I was thinking Okay, so the humans know the animals exist, they interact with the animals.

So it's that kind of story, right? It's a chicken run, animal farm, Madagascar kind of story. But I think that they talk to the animals, right? I have no clue. Okay, I know for a fact, chicken run animal farm. We'll go with that. Like they talk to the animals, they interact, it's like they know. Right, and then there are things that have like kind of the Toy Story effect where we have no idea that they have their own world going on. I'm thinking like Great Mount.

Uh they have their own little world where they wear clothes and they go off and do they do their own thing but we In this, the animals interact with But they also like have their own world and wear clothes and have jobs and so I was wondering like how much of that are the humans aware of? Because when the humans see them, they're wearing clothes. like their clothes come off when they see the humans and and that would kind of explain how it would take place on this earth, right?

They just don't really explain it, and I was hoping. And in the in the commentary he goes like it's kind of interesting, the humans see them wearing the clothes. Huh. Oh yeah. Yeah. Les Anderson hostage for answers. Yeah, and and like, you know, there are police surrounding a home. It's probably in Baltimore and it's probably my apartment because I just wanna like like force him into telling me like what is the leopard shark mean? Why Chris Christopherson?

Yeah. It just you know, so I don't know, I just feel like you know I I I can't let it bother me too much because it's just what he does. Um but I think that I think it happens a lot

Because he's pulling it from Roll Doll, he's pulling it very clearly from this world. Um and so there are there are much there are m much fewer questions left. Yes. If you know Fantastic Mr. Fox, you know that that story doesn't start in the movie until basically And so there's this whole intro. Mr. Fox. Uh all that stuff, I mean not not all the character intentions, but like all the opening scenes. Him and Noah Bombach who they Yeah. Uh they've kind of crafted this setup.

to then jump into the doll. And then once you get into the doll it's more or less his his story and a lot of their design elements, a lot of their character choices, a lot of motivations are either the original text or Dahl himself. Fox's hole looks like the dollhouse. A lot of his intentions as a person are So, um there are a lot of ans there are more answers this time because there's a foundation.

But there is a lot of Wes in there. Sure. He he's a perfectionist, like he will admit that that's not like an astute object. of the word, but I just feel like for example, with Fantastic Mr. Fox. You watch the on camera with real people to then use as reference. And to that I say, why would he do that if he needed to be an if he needed it to be perfect? Because if he needed it to be truly perfect, it would be in an exclusively in a controlled environment.

Him and like there are moments where it's like this is a clip of Wes referencing how exactly he wants the rat to stand, and Wes is doing it. That's clearly because Wes had a specific But I just don't feel like if he was this true perfectionist like people claim that he is, that he would allow actors in an animated film of all things, or not you know stop motion, but I mean like not live action, uh film of all things to to play.

I mean there are there are shots where he goes like try something like this He he says to Cluny, he goes, try that line with a fake echo and then they all just giggle and go like that wasn't it you know and so I just feel like If this really was his opportunity to be the perfectionist then the circumstances would have I will push back a little. I I agree with most of what you said. I will push back a little and say you have to be

That is a big kind of director no no for a lot of actors. A lot of actors, uh oh, you want me to say it exactly like that? Well then you And you might think from their movie star status. Or be bothered by that. But I think you just kind of have to know that that's how it is. There is a certain amount of less is going to get

And then they do it and they move on. There is one moment where Bill Murray uh in in the You can tell he's getting a little frustrated'cause he makes him do it like a couple times in a row and he's kind of barely tweaking little things about it and builds a little Okay, West. Okay. I yeah, I and I and I wanna say like I I'm glad that you brought up Bill Murray because I feel like I don't feel like I get the sense that Wes was giving Bill Murray line

I don't give this get the sense that Bill or that Wes was giving Bill line reads in Life Aquatic. I just don't. But obviously now that you have these people catching. and they're not on camera and it's just their voice and their voice matters so much more because it's not supported by their own special physicality. And it has to match up with exactly what Wes wants. But you know, I I agree, I think that that's something that these actors just kind of come to expect with someone like West.

He's an O'Tour for a reason. You know, he is he is crafting this world more diligently. typical t typical filmmaker and that's you know I just feel like he gets too much slack Yeah.

I think that um you know there's there's also the opposite end. There's there's the the Clint Eastwood is notorious for only doing one take. System. however you did it the first time was your Your honest reaction. That's what we want. Cut moving on. Um I can't remember his name off the top of my head. In fact I'm gonna see if I can I can check it really quickly. Uh the guy who played Frankie Valley in the Jersey Boys movie. John Lloyd Young said that that happened to him on day one.

A New Jersey Boys first scene. Moving on. And he went to him and he was like, Whoa, I uh I'd like to do it again, or what we know, whatever it is that he said. And Clint said, You've played this part a thousand times. You've done it on Broadway. Why do I That's very Clintyswood. You can go way far in the other direction do Stanley Kubrick. There he makes them do um

Exactly the way that he wants. David Vincher is up there, right? Wes is definitely there's this free flowing element, but the free flowing needs to kind of at a certain point, I think, get narrow. Yeah, and I would agree with that. Given the fact that West is so particular in what he wants. I feel like it with Wes being the the person in the room, like let's say let's say this room Yeah. he should be the one to say

do the slide and reading differently because I can see that it's going to look differently. George doesn't know that, you know, to to our know to our to our understanding. He does not know So I just feel like a it doesn't bother me. It wouldn't bother me either. It it would bother a lot of actors. Yes, yes. And I and I and I do get that, but I feel like for a project like Stopmotion.

All right, let's zoom out. Let's think of it as a Wes Anderson movie, uh how where it lands in the filmography. I want to read this quote from Dave Calhoun of Time Out. He writes, take a few seconds to think back over Wesley. And imagine how a stop motion animated version of Roll Doll's Fantastic Mr. Fox might look If directed by this Euro leaning Texan character. Would it, like the Life Aquatic and Rushmore, offer a hyper realistic uniform of sets and copies?

Would it like the Darjeeling Limited and the Royal Tenen Bombs explore an eccentric family with a father figure looming large and relatives at loggerheads? Would the soundtrack include the rolling streams? Would there be a role for Bill Murray? Owen Wilson? Would it be hip? Would the comedy have a gentleman? Thank you.

even be willfully exclusive? Would it trade in emotions but feel distancing at times? Of course. As anyone familiar with Anderson's films will know, the answer to all these questions So it turns out this is an animation, but it's also a website. The difference is that it's light on its feet compared to the heavy machinery of the Life Aquatic or the ponderous comedy of the Darjeeling Limited. It's also a kids' film, which allows Anderson and his gang, is there another director so collegiate?

And it is fun. I think it is a very fun movie. I do think like one of the criticisms of Wes is like Humor is not for everyone. I've mentioned before, I am always going to come to these conversations with the bias that his humor. It just does. I get it. I'm clocked in. It didn't take me any learning curve to understand how Wes's brain functions.

terms of comedy. And so that's just something that I I bring to these conversations. And I feel like as someone who does not need any explanation or what have you of his films. This film still makes the comedy extreme I don't feel it doesn't feel atypical. It doesn't feel out of his element. It doesn't feel pandering to children. It still feels very him, but it brings it down to where it needs to be to not just fly over every child. There's got to be a lot. I mean it's it's a very adult movie.

Yes, but not to the point of not understanding. the same way that every child children's movie has things that are for the adults. This has that. But I don't feel like if a child watched this they'd be like, What's going on and why do I care?

I um I agree with you totally, but like the very first song. Sure, I meant more just like the specific like the No, that's that's absolutely true. And there's a lot of it that's just like To your point of being fun, just like I don't know, it feels Like kids understand. Like the thing about the coach and what what's uh what's the name of the baseball type game? Like it's like whack a ball or like it's not wiffle ball. It's whackabat. Something like that. That's it, right? I'm double checking.

The baseball type game. Whackbat. Whackbat. Okay. I was adding an extra Like that's a fun little thing, right? The thing uh about uh uh Schwartzmann's character having an attitude every time Christopher That's something that kids understand. Yeah, and like being jealous of someone who um is, you know, older than you and and what have you. And uh doesn't feel like he's done enough with his life that kids can understand as a plot device, but that's you won't talk about going over your head. Sure.

Uh the great Roger Ebert writes, Like the hero of Willy Wonka in the Chocolate Factory, also based on one of his books, the creatures of Doll's valley seem to know more than they're letting on, perhaps even secrets we don't much want to know. Children, especially, will find out. A good story for children should suggest a hidden dimension, and that dimension, of course, is the lifetime still ahead of them. Six is a little early for a movie to suggest to kids that.

Oh, what if the kids start crying about words they don't know? Mommy, mommy, what's creme brulee? Show them for goodness sake. They'll thank you for it. Take my word on this. Love it. I was a kindergarten teacher and you would be shocked at or they don't know how and like that's not a knocket Children are so And yes, you could say like, oh, my child is so smart, what have you, but like let's go farther than my child is so smart. Children are so smart, they are so capable, they are so ungodly.

If you think that you can get something over on a child. I had a kindergartner come up to me my first and um they were all trying to guess my age and I wasn't entertaining it, partially because they were saying I was somewhere between And so I I was just kind of laughing everyone off. No, no, I'm not six, no, I'm not sixty-eight, no, I'm not whatever. And then one of my students.

was one of my smartest of the bunch and just so sh just sharp as a nail was just like you're twenty four and I was like what and he was like you're twenty four and I said why do you think that and he said well I know my like you're right and like that's crazy. If you're having a bad day. face a kid will see right through that. Like kids are so intelligent and um they deserve like media, film, TV, etc. that is

challenging them. And you know, I think that Fantastic Mr. Fox is a perfect example of something that just like excels at meeting children at various stages. Egers is or you know, he's right. Like he there's always something more to learn. You're right. You should never max out. You should always be like, I want to go back to that. I wonder how much I missed. as a child or as a teenager or as whatever. You know, I'm still learning things about this movie all the time that that went over my head.

So I think that um this movie really excels at that and that's a very, very perfect way to summarize like what um is being I I just also like the fact that Ebert really goes hard in on like creme brulee specifically. Yeah, I mean why not? They have'em at Costco. You just like put the sugar on there and then throw'em in the oven and they're good to go.

Um okay let's go through I wanna come back to this conversation. So let's go through and talk about some of the things. George Clooney as Mr. Fox. Um So good. So good. Here's what I'm gonna say about the cast. So we've again point because you know Patrick showed me my first West twenty twenty What have you, but in during the pandemic, so twenty And yeah, I know who Bill Murray is, I know who George Clooney is, I know who Meryl.

I know who these people are, not to say that to this point they are occur you know, reoccurring. Um you know, did I know who Jason Schwartzman was? could pick them out, you know, of a lineup necessarily or or or could pick their voice out against other people. I've never been good at like hearing voices is I'm always like, who is that? Who is that?

And so every time that we watched this film until this time, because I was not like literally training my brain to watch every Wes Anderson film, we were just kind of watching ones here and there, I was familiar with the rep cast, but I wasn't an And this was the first time where like to be a little bit of a little bit of a

Mr. Fox was George Clooney. Like I was picturing George Clooney. I was picturing Meryl Streep. I was picturing Jason Schwartz Schwartzman because these people are now so in my head. Um and they have not been to that level before. And so I think it was a very different thing. Um really seeing them rather than Mr. Fox with a voice that There's obviously just a a Danny Ocean thing going on as well. about a career criminal and I there's definitely an Oceans Eleven reference here.

Cooney's just just a cool dude that And I think that Mr. Five Clooney also um is very And I don't even necessarily attempted comedy have really worked out that well for him. I think the Cohen's understood his type of of him doing this. Definitely kind of feels like he was in a mood at the time. And he's got this like he can convince you to Yes, absolutely. be loose and be and try things and and you know take take Wess's

So brilliant in this role. I agree. He's so much funnier than people get it give him credit for. We say this this about Brad Pitt all And uh It's like, you know, born to be a comic actor, but like or what is it like It's stuck in a leaning man's body syndrome. Like, okay, I know that we're kind of Aaron Bulletin. I love Bullet Train. Uh Aaron Taylor Johnson is so funny, but he's gonna be the next but he's gonna be the next boss.

I just saw a tweet today that had the poster bullet train, and somebody said, I don't think I was hard enough on this movie. What? I don't think I think people were too hard on it. is so good. Um, you know, like Aaron Taylor Johnson is gonna be Bond and he's not gonna be a funny Bond, okay? He's gonna get, you know, the Bond humor and like that's not fair. funny Nicholas Hole is so funny and he does a little bit of that but like I just feel like there are so many like

Who should get to be funny because what is hotter than a hot man? A funny hot man. That's just my opinion. All right.

I really do. Van and I know that I am a maybe a bit more partial to her than the average person because I grew up watching the five. The Devil Wars product. Um I think For this role. Because misses Fox you know, Merrill Streep is not known for being warm. She's just kind of a cold person. And I think that that is a perfect Um because she is going through her life, Mrs. Fox. Going through her life with her guard up because her husband is mischievous.

And that frustrates her. And I think that the juxtaposition warm, you know, captivating, um, you know, like popular guy voice. um in in influential voice like Clooney, uh betw juxtaposed to her like Calm, chilly at times, collected voices.

Uh the best performance in the movie Jason. Um, I don't remember if I said this in our last episode. I don't remember how much he is in this movie. I really I never remember. I always think he's barely in it, and then I'm surprised. He's so good. He is so so so so so Ash reminds me. He uh is in his late twenties and he sounds exactly like a Yeah. You know I would have to imagine

I'm just gonna be honest, right? Like you grew up a coppola who instead of wanting to be an actor, you wanted Like that is an angst. Pissy. That is an angst that you're that you're that's not bread, it's born. Okay. Like he is an angsty guy and he it is on full full show here. This is max So it is a grand opus, I think, for What is the line that's like I just realized we didn't like reviews.

Bye. We could've done that during the pause and you could have not told everyone listening because I don't edit this. I'm sorry, I just remembered. You'll n you won't know by the time we get to the reviews. Uh you've got um some of the rep troop here, some bigger parts, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, some smaller parts, Roman Coppola. Yeah, Lesson, the commentary goes like I wish I would have...

Yeah. What it's your movie Yeah, it's your movie. Like why do you think that people wouldn't want more Adrian Brody? He's got more lines than Adrian Brody. Wes, yes, he does. His family runs deep in this movie because of course we should talk about his brother who plays Christopherson, uh Eric Um his letter. Um I think he's excellent. He has the West voice without It's not a voice for film, I don't think. It's not a voice for movie stars. You have to kind of be a nerd.

You know? And that's not every movie star out there. He's perfect for this. I I couldn't believe how much. Um and normally I'm like boo nepotism but sometimes sometimes you should just be a nepoty. There's definitely um you know, he's an artist, he does a lot of things. A lot of his art appears in the movies.

Like talks to George Clooney and Meryl Streep. But I think that that just really works. He's playing a b a little boy and it just kind of fits. You know, Wes's character is like And they could never do these They do them here. Uh Eric, I'm surprised, uh, does not come back to do Isle of Dawn. pretty big I mean his fifth build had a pretty big part in this movie.

Yeah, a very big part. This is another perfect example to me of this, you know, this critique that we of a perfectionist and here especially because why would he cast his brother who has no Because he wanted to because he felt like it fit the character. He could have gotten live He is putting his brother up willingly against George. But he is bottom of the food chain. And um he didn't he could have gotten Michael Sarah and he would have given a similar performance.

Felt like his brother worked and it does work terrifically. Um and I just feel like So hell bent. it would have been a movie star.

Brian Cox. Uh Owen did his performance over Skype? Is that what Wes was saying in the comment? Um I don't remember if it was on Skype but it was while they were doing they were already recording for the dark It was bottle bottle rocket. Bottle rocket. He said Darjeeling in the commentary, but we deduced. So um you know because we're well point. Um but yeah I think so they're doing the bottle rocket commentary They were in two different places though, yeah.

that they were in two different places, yes. And they just uh were already rolling and Wes was like, Hey, now that we've wrapped, can I send you something and you just read it? And then they just did it and he took that file and clipped it off, sent the sent the rushmore to or the bottle rocket to Criterion and and sent the uh uh Owen to the film editor. Uh I would love for you to say whack back I can't. I'm not a good Owen Wilson impressionist. Whack back.

I don't know. I don't know. I'm not. I can't do all of it. Oh, speaking of the uh the Wilson brothers, I feel like we just have to say Luke Wilson popping up in in Horizon. His in an American saga chapter one. Give your quick Luke Wilson and Horizon talk since we we will never talk about Luke Wilson again on this pod if he's not Uh you know, we we can get a little we did this on the Vince Vonathon where we were like

And then when you watch True Detective and you watch some of the S. Craig Zar stuff and you go like, no, no, no, we were right, we were right. He is a good actor. He is a good actor. He's just in a bunch of shitty movies. Same thing with Luke. We watched Luke in some of this stuff and it was particularly tenant bombs. that uh we were like Good. What is the deal with him just like being in nothing but crap? And he is in a lot of crap. Uh you know, all these blades of glory.

And uh an Arizona and uh uh Meeting Evil, whatever that is, and the best man with Dolph Lundgren. Like why is he in all this crap? And uh he's now in Horizon and American Saga, the new Kevin Costner four part western, and he's the best actor in the movie. I was right and I beat you all to it. Yeah, it's like I will always call it like the Simon Rex uh the Simon Rex thing is like, you know, we have our own actors that we want to be Simon Rex. Like let me let me throw them in.

Um and yeah, he's so good. I d I I wanna let the record state did not go see Horizon. I was given the option, I said absolutely not. I don't think I even gave you the option. like this. No, I think you were just like, you have no and I was like, yeah, no. No, I no I don't. Um I don't like Westerns. If I had known Luke Wilson was in it, I still wouldn't have gone. But um I appreciate you reporting to me number one Luke Wilson fan um on all things social and um you know telling Love him.

Okay, we're gonna talk a little bit more about Roll Doll later. Sure. sugar collection. We're going to talk about those later, but I want to read a quote. But then I'm gonna give you a gift. Oh, okay, a gift? James Parker of Slave. I could feel him smiling, said Felicity Dahl, widow of the Great World, of her experience of viewing Wes Anderson's fantastic Mr. Fox. I was thinking he'd love.

Well, she would know, I suppose, but what am I to do then when my conviction that her late husband would have loathed her? That Wes Anderson, with his Glockenspiels and drawleries and minutely faceted interiors, has travested the rackus spirit of the And that the ideal fantastic Mr Fox movie would have been a work of slapdash animation, soundtracked by Motorhead, directed by Bobcat Goldthwaite. I'll just have to sit on it. Life had few missed opportunities to poor.

Uh life had a few miss one more time, we got it. Life had missed few opportunities to pulverize Rold Dahl. In nineteen sixty one, his four month-old son Theo Olivia, Dahl's first daughter, caught the measles in nineteen sixty two, slipped into a container. Ninete five. Pregnant suffered a massive Much of Dol's energy went to her subsequent years long rehabilitation.

Fantastic Mr Fox, coming in at the end of this decade of punishment, was understandably not the tightest or most elaborate of his works for children, but then that's the fine. The book gets by on a sort of Fox is simply struggling to protect his brood and sustaining a fearful fearful wound, a castration. There will be kids, no doubt, who writhe with glee at West Anderson's Fox and more power to them. Abrupt and rough humoured is missing. Something warty. That's sad.

West harps on the idealist It's what he does best. He's he's always idyllic even if But to that I say You know I think James Parker argues that Dahl's story is filled with pesticides. Anderson's move. And uh that's just kind of who the two artists were though, I think. I mean, Willie Wonka, uh his most famous Is um If there's one thing you can give the Tim Burton.

You can listen to our episode on on Why Two Kids, um, is that it is scary. And they kind of understood that kind of dull I don't know though if if um that's always the right thing to do for children in kind of the Roger Ebert way of like, let's make some of these things exciting. Like yeah, Mr. Fox is like, he he has that line Do we need to harp on that for children or can we go I also think while one person could argue that uh West strips this of its um Real life. Uh kinda counter.

Another could argue that Roll never would have chosen that life for himself. He never would have gone through that tragedy. Choice and is this fantastic Mr. Fox one where things go well for him and he's not uh a tragedy stricken. I think that that's maybe that's the optimism, you know, swoosh of the paintbrush that I'm putting over it just as people feel less did. But I I don't think it's. Oh he was too optimistic when um you have an opportunity.

kind of remember someone in a way that maybe they they wish they they c could have been remembered. There's also um we'll talk about the shorts in a minute. Uh but then like Henry Sugar is about a does great things in the world. You know, so there's kind of he he was he was uh um Yeah, Dahl was a complicated man. I mean you go to the World Dahl website and Yeah. There's definitely a racist element to the umpa lumpas in um

Uh Willy Wonka, right? Uh he was a a complicated man and did a lot of wrongs. But one of the things that they say on the website is we hope that his word Good or bad, positive or bad. And I think you can take the same thing for like themes, his themes. Yeah, there's a lot of themes of like feeling like you're alone in how did you get to this point in your life? And there's a lot of weird things in the rat catcher.

How can we look at that from the other perspective which is very much the same thing? Um yeah. Uh I feel like I'm always teasing some little bit and piece about my work uh and uh my Um legacy is a word that I Times a day. I have a job that is focused on exploring a major and And how do you do that? How how do you do that in a way that appeases people, that forces pe that forces people to re examine things that they may not want to? How do you do that in a way that's honest to the person and the

Like uh immediate legacy thereafter. It's a difficult thing. Um, and anybody can have any issue with the idea of legacies and how one And it's just never gonna be black and white. There's n there's no rule book for how you interpret someone's life.

Alright, you ready for your gift? Yeah. Despite the fact that it says across the front, do not bend. But I've tried my best to unbend it. This is so cute. Wait, who is this? Okay, I thought it was Kyle McConnell. She's doing a little bonus Kyle McLaughlin. Brianna Ashby, she's kind of film Twitter's resident artist. Uh if you've ever been on the website Brightwall Dark Room, you know her work. Uh she was doing like an everything must go sale of a couple prints.

And this was one of them. It's called Fantastic Foxes. You can find it on her website, even though it's sold out, and it accompanies the Fantastic Mr. Fox piece on Brightwall Dark Room of Mr. Fox and Mr. And uh And I think it's so cute because uh not only does it have the chicken, the cider and um Some other bits and bobs there and the apples of course uh that we see in the film. But it also has them carrying groceries, which I think one of my favorite parts of the

store. I love the trope of like again animals having their own lives. It's just something that really tickles me. It it it's never gets old. I just like love the idea of like there are little thoughts stores and that foxes talk to each other and just have lives just like ours. I just I love it. And so groceries here. This is so cute. Thank you so

You're welcome. When she posted that the you know, things were going out of print, I just opened it up because, you know, if if you've seen her artwork, uh, you like it. And I opened it up and I saw that that was this was a couple of months ago we were doing the show I gotta get this. It came a couple of days later. calendar that said do not forget to give to the gift on the episode. Do you wanna uh quickly name the Kyle McLaughlin?

It should do a little like kinda postcard thing in here and it's Oh I can look it up. Uh yeah, it's um it's the Twin Peaks one. Uh I've Well this is great. I we love collecting our little pieces of art. We're actually Passion of the coop. Um we're actually sitting in front of our little gallery. As you can see it did get a little bent despite her best efforts, but what are you supposed to do with uh Postal service, yeah. What are you gonna do?

They they work very hard and their jobs are very hard. Yeah, it's very thin. Like it's literally a painting. So, you know, there's a print. Yeah, uh a print, sorry. Um it's literally But at the end of the day a piece of paper and so it's a little hard to keep

Um all right. Uh you wanna talk about the movies that inspired Fantastic Mr. Fox? Yes, lots to talk about. Alright, as always, we want to talk about two movies that inspired in some way this movie. One is a very obvious stylistic connection, and the other is I feel a little more thematic. Uh we're gonna start with a movie called The Tale of the Fox from nineteen thirty seven. Uh letterboxed writes in the kingdom of animals, master five.

trick and fool everyone. So the King, the Lion, receives more and more complaints about him. He orders that Master Fox is arrested and brought to This is a a 1937 uh French film, which was Started in nineteen thirty, finished in nineteen thirty-seven, and it is just like very clear that Wes said, I want the characters in this movie to look like the tale of the world. When you watch the Tale of the Fox after seeing fantastic

It's it's kind of hard to wrap your brain around because you go like, well of course that's what they look like. They that's what foxes look like. these animals look like. But you also have to remind yourself that like they can look different. The Mr. Fox looks uh his his snout's a little smaller. Otherwise Mr. Fox looks exactly Yeah, I'm pulling up more photos right now and yeah, it is it is almost identical. Uh maybe a a twinge grittier, uh and a little more uh scary look.

Because of what was available at that. So nineteen thirties stop motion animation um and it looks It looks really amazing. For it being stop motion you don't go like, Oh, I'm watching a clip. And this isn't like I mean like a I'm not seeing the cuts, you know, it's it's not like that uh for for most of the film. I mean it's really Partially uh funded by the Nazis.

Um yes, so this is uh uh film critic Oswald Eaton writes, unlike Jeffrey Katzenberg, for example, Wes Anderson does not believe in drowning his films in pop culture references of the day. If you look for them, you can find a lot of references. But you never have to recognize them to enjoy a scene, and at least, that's what I think, all of them have stood the test of the

I experienced them rather as an extra layer of meaning beneath the surface. When asked about inspiration for his stop-motion feature Fantastic Mr. Fox, West Anderson frequently cites uh the film uh uh the 1930 feature of the French version of the story, the tale of the first. With a length of sixty five minutes, it is one of the few pre snow white animated features. However, it hadn't found its way into cinemas until the Nazis showed a German language version in nineteen ninety nine.

It only hit French screens during the war and But it's totally worth the watch. I feel like if you are at all in him then um and you love Fantastic Mr Fox or you're interested in learning more, it's it's It was on YouTube. It's pretty bad quality. I I don't know if there's like a Blu ray or more restorative out there. This looked pretty terrible. Um you know how much can you complain? It's almost a hundred But it was um it was tough at some point.

Yeah. And I would say like uh for the people who are skeptical about Wes's approach to Fox and I wanna le uh I wanna read, excuse me, another quote. This is from Julie McCown, uh a professor at the time at UT Arlington, who writes about the connection Um she writes while the puppets in the tail of the fox aren't real dead foxes. The puppets were made of deer skin on the case. They were created with an extraordinary level of detail.

In the tale of the fox, they have painstakingly recreated animal bodies with astonishing detail. The animal puppets are capable of intricate and widely varied facial. All poses unnervingly Uh she goes on to say about uh Fantastic Mr. Fox. After viewing uh this film, Anderson's film and its animal puppet. Similar look with the tail of the fox. Seem more cartoonish. The animals have fantastic Mr. Fox. The standard flashing of their skeletons occurs. They become like light boxes.

The animals can be electrocuted, but are apparently unharmed. When animals do die in the film, their eyes are replaced with X's, which mark the only trace of death. The dead chickens just look like they're sleeping. The next time we see them, they have assumed the familiar form of a plucked ready to cook chicken anybody could pick up. So that is kind of the difference, right? Is Tale of the Fox is kind of gritty and scary. It's it very it's very brothers grim.

Very kind of original Text Brothers Grimm. And and and uh what she's getting at here is Wes said, Let's do that. Uh which makes sense for Roll Dahl. Yes, Roll Dahl was um you know, had his darknesses came through through his text. However, when you think of something like visually as roll doll, it is It's also like the f the fur looks real, but he looks cuddly. And he looks like our little puppy.

Um I feel like y the one thing that I kept looking at this this go around was Fox, not nearly as nice as the rest of the about them looks just kind of out of place.

So the other movie I want to talk about, uh we wanted to talk about was uh The Friends of Eddie Coyle. This is directed by Peter Yates Robert. And Letterboxd writes An aging hood is about to go back to prison. Hoping to escape his fate, he supplies information on stolen guns to the feds while simultaneously supplying arms to his bank robbing. So the reason why we chose this film is we've gone through a Uh we did this uh almost a year ago at this point.

Where did West say What movies are what movies is? A lot of things we've gone through and cannot pinpoint directly. You cannot say, Oh, he likes this movie and I can see how that's that's come back up. There are times when we have done that. There are times where it's more difficult. There are times when we're stretching it a little bit. We might be stretching it a little bit. So um Criterion, the Criterion Collection asked West to put together his top ten

Uh excuse me. He writes, I thought my take on a top ten list might be to supply I thought my take on Quote myself from the brief fan letters I periodically write to the criteria. So in the same way that he's very brief on these commentaries, he's very brief and it seems like his emails as well. Some of these descriptions are like, I really like this. Wow, you guys did such a great job with the restoration. All that he writes about the Friends of Eddie Coyle is it's not up to him.

So typical West. Um while we may take some liberties in exactly what is Something that we do not take any liberty in saying is that West loves Simahy. Because um as we did with Bottle Rocket or as he made Bottle Rocket as well as um like us talking about the hot rock which In um uh

accountant or whatever it is. Um he loves a heist, he loves a crime movie. And I think that, you know Fantastic Mr Fox is the first time that he has in executing a really um on film because he does not do that well in life aquatic on purpose. But the rocket, they're idiots. Yeah, in Bottle Rocket not only are they idiots but Wes a little in the commentary, he looks back and goes like God I had no clue how to direct or write a high

kind of a mess. And so I think that this is this movie I would imagine scratched a really big like

Um Oh I do love Argo. He read the book The Town and thought, What if I turned this into the There are exact scenes that are ripped off there exactly. It is It's not just the Boston Crime movie connection, it is two AT uh in in the same way that Friends of Eddie Coyle finishes at at a Bruins game. L legitimate pull full on

I mean it's very clear. It's very clear. I uh you know, one may argue they would prefer the town. Who is that person and are they sitting here today? I don't know. Um but listen. I love I love Jeremy Renner. I no, I I do love his app, however. Yeah. Is anybody on the Jeremy Renner app know just me? Yeah. I I love Robert Mitchell, but I I think the friends of Eddie Coil gets I want to read uh this

This quote from Austin Trunick uh writing for Under the Radar. He's the the fellow who wrote the Canon Film Guy. He writes, nineteen seventy three's The Friends of Eddie Coyle was based on George V. Higgins' best-selling debut novel. Prior to becoming a novelist, Higgins had worked as an assistant U.S. attorney, a journalist and newspaper. feel for local realism. The Friends of Eddie Coyle was notable at its time for its unromanticized portrayal

Which stood in stark contrast to the majority of American gangster films. In Coil, the heist don't go according to plan. The gun dealers are teenagers or junkies, and mob hits are This take on the genre may not seem all that unconventional nowadays, but was far less commonplace. That goes to Wes's. in that you watch a lot of these movies and you go like crime is cool. You watch the first two hours Wes's film is just in the in the in the kids I don't want to say. Crime is cool.

These guys are cool. Oh, totally. And you got George Clooney, yeah, crime is frickin' cool. In the same way that that like iconic um oh my god, what is what is the the Oceans Eleven um or not the Oceans the Oceans movie I should say that has um Oh my god. Sandra Bulla goes and picks out all the makeup products she wants from a from a from somewhere, says, Can I please return these? They say, Do you have the receipt? And she goes, Oh God, I no, I don't whatever, I'm not dealing

she gets away. Like you go like, Can I do that? Can I do that? Can I do that? Blown away that you remember that. Well it pops up for me like all the time. Only thing I I I couldn't tell you a damn thing about that. No, that opening scene is very iconic, I feel like, uh in like the girl world. Like it is very, very iconic. I see it on TikTok.

Um because it's just like a little bit of a free shopping spree if you can pull it off with some And I feel like um I think that this it's not to say that it's promoting crime for children which was anyway, but there's definitely a like I want to hang out with And I want to fight. You know, like that's that seems awesome. That seems like fun. Um Friends of Eddie Coyle, very real, very honest. I one thing you notice about this film is all the all the robbery.

No music. No. Real time. It feels very like that's what it would be like. At this time. Total opposite end. So is it kind of a stretch to say, like, yeah, he's very clearly inspired by the friends of Eddie Coyle, because you can see it. No, in fact a lot of what we're saying is you can see the opposite. We know West likes this movie, we know he likes the criterion. He likes these kinds of heist crimes. And I also just kinda want an excuse to um rewatch it and tell people to watch it.

And show me it. Did you not like it that much? I you know, it just I don't know, this this kind of like this kind of Like I'm not really into like the seventies crime movies. comedy or Same director as the Hot Rock by Year before Hot Rock, seventy two hot rock, seventy three Eddie Coyle. This is a hell of a double feature.

Absolutely, but I feel like that's that's the perfect that is the perfect pairing for me to go like what I like and what I don't like. The hot rock is really funny, it has a lot of like really captivating like Easygoing, kind of like hot, no pun intended. Not and I don't even mean physically, just like just kinda like cool, like people and I that's not really what like the the Friends of Eddie Coil is much more um like noir I guess. Sad Robert Mitchum being a little bit.

side. Yeah, side of Robert Mitchell, man. Boil. Like I know that this is going to be like so people are gonna go like boo and turn off the podcast, please don't Um I don't like like noir films. And so this is kind of like a seventies noir ish film. That's your thing. I'm not going to disappoint you. Um I like when they're funny. I like uh I love the hot rock. I can't recommend the hot rock enough, but Friends of Eddie Coil just.

There's no way you wouldn't like double indemnity. Okay. Anyway um yeah, I think the Hot Rock is like one of my If we hadn't done it already, we probably could have done it here. I think probably a little more stylistic. But definitely uh uh uh uh Peter Yates West is finding some Peter Yates. When we say we want to see what came before him and what came after him, Peter Yates obviously. An ongoing inspiration that we've used a couple of times.

Alright, so we talk about the films inspired by the fantastic Mr Fox? On our last episode. the Dirje Ling Limited. Uh the two movies we did we talked about that inspired his the river and husbands, it was like very obvious. It was like if you take the river and you take the husbands, if you take husbands, Uh you get energy. This is uh obvious.

in the like of course everyone would in this way what was inspired by the fantastic Mr. Fox, you were going to say And you're going to say Wes is So we're not doing anything groundbreaking. And uh it also just gave us an excuse to rewatch Paddington. Yeah, I feel like I don't know What can you say is definitely? And so I feel like I feel like part of is because the le West loves movies. And you might say like duh but like no not duh. There are some filmmakers who never talk about um

things. But Wes is a nerd. Wes is a film nerd. He watches everything in every language from every decade. And that's something that I really love about him. And so I I just love thinking about what he's watching. And when you say like And Paddington Bear, you're just talking about iconic British literature, right? But there is, I there's definitely definitely a Uh All the way. I want to read this quote from Jacob Rich of Michigan Daily, who writes When I walked out of the Grand Budapest Hotel.

I felt several conflicting emotions. Exuberant having just experienced such a beautiful and absorbing absorbing film, but also somewhat sad as I realized that I would have to wait another two years.

Thanks to Paddington, I really only had to wait ten months. No, Anderson didn't actually have anything to do with this film, but Paddington imitates the beautiful creative Complete with his quirky rule of thirds breaking uh cinematography style, while simultaneously and expertly emulating the innocent, non-cynical, and nostalgic emotional. But it's not just a week. Paddington carves out its own identity as a unique tale about The hardships immigrants face.

Yeah, I think um you know obviously there there in the in the way that like That so many of Wes's films and characters have. But I would not, yes, I think nostalgia is a great word to put on both. Uh both Fantastic Mr. Fox and Paddington. It feels warm and like you've been feels. Familiar. Even when they're brand the brand new films they feel installed.

Yes, they just have a very nostalgic feel. And and I don't mean in the sense of like I played with Paddington Bear as a kid, therefore it feels nostalgic. I mean the way that things go about it just feels nostalgic. And it it it feels n I don't know, it just feels very nostalgic. Um and I think that that's really remarkable. Um but they're totally right because um

Paddington is Paddington. Paddington is not a West ripoff. We've watched some films that are West ripoffs, and this is its own really tremendous. It definitely takes. take some ideas uh from Wes. Uh I realize we did we didn't read the synopsis, just in case you don't know, Paddington 2014, directed by Paul King. A young Peruvian bear travels to London in search of a new home. Kindly. Uh um Ben Wishaw Very exciting.

Uh Paul King also goes on to make the new Wonka film, which we talked about a few months ago on Why Two Kids on that. um going to the world of Dahl, right? So there's definitely some kind of uh back and forth. Uh it's all cyclical, everything's inspired. I know we just got Wonka. And I think for all intents and purposes purposes, Wonka was fine. Uh I would kill.

I really would. Like I feel like I was reading um ciz uh at the time people were asking him, okay, you've done Dahl and now this is your first uh based on What else would you like to do that's based on But all of Dickens is Then who cares? But he explicitly said that. he wish he wish he could have had some more space there. And he would never do this in a million. But if I could just like make my own perfect movie I think it would be Christmas Carol. I'm such a Christmas Carol nerd.

I don't care how he wants to do it, he wants to do a live action. I have I every Christmas Carol I ever see I've got a nitpick. They're never as good as the text ever. They're never as good as the version I have in my mind. I feel like Wes could maybe be the

Yeah, and I feel like a Christmas Carol is one of those things uh where yes, has it been done a zillion times? Sure. But it's gonna be done a zillion more, so you might as well try your hand at your own. People are gonna watch it. It's not it will never be too over People will go, Oh, there's a newer Christmas carol, I'll watch it. So what are your uh Paddington thoughts? love Paddington. I think it's so cute. I think um like the opening sequence of it where Uh grandma and grandpa?

It is not. It's his aunt Lucy. Oh you're right. It's on uncle. It's on uncle. I'm sorry, it's his aunt and uncle. I'm not British. When he's with his aunt uncle and they like um and he just like bustles through like a little tornado and just goes like it's it's you know the oranges are ripe, the oranges are ripe and they make their marmalade, like it's so beautiful, it immediately sets.

For this rambunctious little guy who means well and in the world And um I think that it's so rich and successful thematically and really um tells the story of or not the A story of immigration that is um six uh that not as oh my gosh, I can't speak. I'm gonna try this again. It really tells a story of immigration that is extremely accessible to children in ways that they can all

And I just think that Paddington is so cute. I think that the graphics have really held up. Um and I just feel like it's it's really, really good. I think Nicole Kidman is really funny in it. Um, do I think it's perfect? maybe a little has a little too much going on at times, but I We've never seen Paddington two. And if we're gonna be honest, uh we weren't gonna do padding.

But we had to do some of our our research, if you will, away from home and Paddington too is not streaming anywhere. We had to go with what So we rewatched the original Paddington, but there's also Paddington in Peru coming out later this year, the third film. So I'm sure that we will watch. Um also wanted to mention that um at one point the brown house is like literally a doll.

So when we say Wes loves his little dollhouses, there's a scene where like the camera goes through it does it does the same thing that they do in life in life aquatic that goes through room by room. Um Um and Patrick was nodding off and I shook him and I was like, This is so wes, wake up. Um we're gonna I know, I know. I've seen the movie. We're gonna wanna reference this on the show. So yeah, no the dollhouse vibes are are very real.

same kind of um they you see the same thing happen in Fantastic Mr Mr. Fox when um I believe it's Mr Fox walking through all of the like rooms and stuff with Badger but Uh and then of course um we didn't want to do this one chronologically because we didn't feel like it made We felt like the best time to talk about the wonderful story of Henry Sugar and three more uh Wes's uh collection of doll uh shorts, four short

made most sense when we were having the uh World Doll fantastic Mr. Fox conversation. So here we are. This was a first time watch for We decided to save it. Um a lot of what we're doing here is re-watches, rewatches, rewatches. solely for the homework of it all, solely for the research of it all. Let's have this little thing halfway through the project that we get to just kind of hold on to. for us, but just a nice little reward for us. Getting to the the the midway point.

West that we'd never seen. Yeah, um and I have to say I was particularly excited about this project because I Benedict Cumberbatch. I love deaf. Love De Patel. I have been watching him since skin. Teeny Boper. Um I loved Monkey Man so much uh from early. Yeah. films of this year so far, if not my favorite. Um and I've just always followed his career and when he started popping up in West Projects um I was always excited more and that this is his more to this point. Um and so I was very

Um the wonderful story of Henry Sugar and three more are based on four different roll dollars Henry Sugar, I want to get the year right. Henry Sugar is from nineteen seventy-seven. The Swan also from seventy-seven The Rat Catcher from 53 and Poise. Um we're not going to go through in in g uh all of these individually. Uh I would um Do that. Shorts, like on Netflix, they're available separately.

Um but essentially just to go just the the real quick one sentence, Henry Sugar, it's about a man But he realizes he doesn't need it. satisfies that urge by becoming like a mind reader He learns how to uh see with his eyes closed. Uh uh The rat catcher is Ray Fines playing a rat catcher, and he's just a weirdo. Uh, and then poison is Benedict Cumberbatch once.

It's really five people in this movie. And although that there are other people, it's really five people. It's really Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, Richard Ayowati. Uh Richard Ayarwati who we were introduced to and learned how to pronounce his last During the Vince Monotop. For the watch of all things. Yes. Ray Fines, who we uh we are big fans of, plays doll, explicitly plays role doll, in in a room that explicitly looks like his role.

Uh is one thing that we only really touched on that Wes and Noah Bombach when they wrote a lot of the script they wrote it uh at Dahl's house. took pictures of everything and used a lot of those things, recreated Uh just little Easter eggs throughout the film. This is like that's what his chair looked like. The real life recreation versus the the fog That's what his writing desk looked like. That's the slippers he would wore. He would wear, excuse me. Ray finds his doll.

sort of narrating over these four stories, but they're all narrated. They are all as if the characters are reading the text. Like from the book. uh they are yeah, they are telling you the story as an outside person. He said, come get it. The character doesn't say come get it. No, they do. The the narrator says he said Yeah, so it would be like for example dev c Dev Patel would be come get it he said. Like it would you know, he they do both.

Um and it is very theatrical. We're gonna come back to this in Asteroid City where we talk about how how West is getting very much into theater and stage crap. Dangerously close to me once again holding him hostage and forcing him to direct. Um this is a quote from Alonzo Duraldi of Film Verdict. He writes If Asteroid City was writer-director Wes Anderson's Love Letter to the Stage, his new Netflix short pays homage to stage craft with flats, backdrops, profits.

This is specifically about Henry Sugar. An adaptation of the doll story, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, is as much about the director's love of arch humor, fourth wall shattering, and aggressive art direction as it is a redemption saga about a rich man who finds purpose. As such, it's another entry in Anderson's philography, which will delight his admirers while alienating his detractors, a commitment to a personal aesthetic that's all too rare.

And of course, again not diving too deep into asteroid city, but y we are making the choice not to do this chronologically, like Patrick said. We have to but we I think zooming out of that for There are literal stages. There are people on Letterbox credited credited as stage hands who are dressed in blacks like a stage manager or or backstage person would be, handing handing actors things, taking a treat. So it's really the the theater it could not be more

The the one name that I missed is Rupert Friend, excuse me. He's also he's in two of them. And it's very much like it's like this is a reference. They play multiple parts throughout each one. Ex exactly. They play multiple parts. They will play multiple parts within one story. Um It's very fourth wall breaking, it's very theatrical. There are uh as as Alonzo Doraldi writes, there are sets that like back drops fly. Flats flight.

So it's all very um I don't know, like he could have just done this on the Yeah, absolutely he could have and I would have flown Anywhere. Um, to go through them briefly, I I liked Henry Sugar. Henry Sugar clocks in at like thirty-eight minutes or something, and it's a little long for a short. I think it feels I think it feels long because it's essentially too short. Because they have roll doll they have roll doll set up um Henry Sugar and they take a long break.

and say, Henry Sugar read a book about this guy and then they jump into this story where Deb Patel plays a doctor, where a man comes and says, Hi, you know, I I am uh Uh uh M dot con um MDOD says like um you know I I can see without my eyes. Can you I'm doing a performance tonight at X, Y, and Z Theater. Can you please bandage up my eyelids as much as you possibly can so I can effectively show that And uh Dev becomes a little bit more than a little bit.

So there's this long kind of backstory about dev becoming obsessive about this guy and then eventually that guy passing away and then we finally get back to Henry Sugar who When I say like this m playing multiple parts in one, Ray Finds in this particular one plays Roll Doll and Policemen. You know, it's like they all have like their main part and the other side parts that they play.

Uh if there's someone there's a lot it's a lot of words. It's a lot of narration. like some of them kind of handle it better than others. If there's somebody who couldn't who can handle big, dense text, it's very fine. Shakespeare and Benedict Cumberbatch likes to think that he can, but really he's just the president of the Goober Society. He busts out the tech the Texas app.

Yeah, you know, neither of us are the biggest Benedict fans. Um He's got this Texas accent that he Done it in like five movies. He thinks it's good. That he loves doing. I'm sure it does sound like a Texan to a British person, but not to a Texan. God, the movie, the more... Uh and then uh there's the swan, which the swan is this really dark story about this boy who gets bullied, and how a swan is used as a metaphor for.

growth and growing up and it kind of leaves you on a cliffhanger at the end and the way that I looked it up the original story. The original story does not leave you on the cliffhanger the same way that Wes does. Um and it's it's it's really just Heartbreaking. Heartbreaking, jarring. Uh has a dare I say breakout performance from uh Asa Jennings, who is the son of Garth Jennings, the director, of course, of

Sing two, in which Asa Sarzen. Um and so, yeah, no, he's a really he plays Peter Watson um young Peter Watson, um again. Older Peter Watson. Like he like he will narrate things as the boy does it right next to him. And um Like And so um he's really great. He's really great. Him and Rupert are like a great Uh then it's the rat catcher. The rat catcher is just Ray Fines playing um uh what what did our uh uh uh via Marsh who writes on our website futurepresentationvita.com from time to.

She wrote a letterbox review that says, Who amongst us hasn't been demoted from Voldemort to Peter Pettigrew? That's what he's doing. He's doing is he looks like him, he's dressed like him, he's doing very Peter Pettigrew, and he just loves catching rats, and he loves talking about catching rats. And doing it with his hands and doing it with his teeth and he's just kind of a weird dude. Yeah, someone someone at some point goes like um Yeah, sure, rats are real smart and you go

No, but they are really smart. And that's just kind of like what he does is he just talks about how smart rats are as and then it they'll be like his ears wiggled, his teeth wiggled, his nose wiggled, and and it just like and then he like Pizza rat, which is really crazy and so it's it's pretty wild. Uh and then poison is is the poisonous snake one. Lots of cumberbatch doing lots of acting, Depot. Uh you'll never guess how it ends.

Um I liked this. I liked this collection of stories. It's a great like breath of fresh air. Um not to say that like Fantastic Mr. Fox was homework. It was and we love this movie. I just mean like it's so refreshing watching something new. It's so refreshing watching something new that is really good. I feel like I had very mixed feelings about Asteroid City. I feel like I I'm hoping that I discover something new about it that changes my opinion on a rewatch and especially after going

Um, but I I really enjoyed this. I feel like it was fun. And I something that I admire about Wes, and we've talked about this before. Wes understands how long things He does not bloat things for the sake of bloating them. He's really good at keeping things sharp and I appreciated that he went these don't need their own movie. But I want to do them so I'm This is along those lines this is Cal Buchanan of the New York Times and includes some some West quotes in there in here.

He says fifteen years ago while the director was adapting Roll Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox into a stop motion animated film, the author's widow, Felicity, asked whether he saw cinematic potential in any of Dahl's other films. One came immediately to Anderson's chair.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, a short published in nineteen seventy seven, about a wealthy gambler who learns a secret meditation technique that allows him to see through playing cards. Many filmmakers had inquired about adopting Henry Sugar over the years, but Dolas Stanley was happy to set it aside. It was just one problem. I never knew how to do it.

fifty four year old filmmaker typically works at a at a slow pace, putting out distinctive comedies like the recent Asteroid City and the French Dispatch every two or three years, but he has spent nearly half his career trying to craft

The breakthrough finally came when Anderson decided to use more than Dahl's dialogue and plotting, he would also lift the author's descriptive prose and put it in the mouths of the characters, allowing them to narrate their own actions into the I just didn't see a way for me to do it that isn't The way he tells the story is a part of what I like. The result is a collection of shorts that employ the same actors and meta conceit of using doll's prose in dialogue.

That prose has been under a microscope of late because of a plan by Dahl's publisher to edit out language that was deemed offensive, some of which reflected the author's racist views. I don't even want the artist to modify their work. Anderson said, I understand the motivation for it, but I'm sort of in the school that where I'm sort of in the school where when the piece of work is done and the audience participants. No one besides the author should be modifying the work.

Hot take. Hot take from Anderson and I I think I get what is is arguing that um things are of their own And he said and he believed a certain thing that was you know much more reflective of this time than it is reflective. Of our Especially and you can't say you can always say, Oh uh uh it's more relevant than ever, but it's the things that he had to say about Jewish people. Absolutely. And um yeah, I think um it's a it's a tough Call. a difficult uh conversation on how do we preserve historian.

How do we preserve art in a way that m updates things for the modern era while also It's a it's a back and forth. It's gonna continue to happen. I think if you also think it is is less political and more just like a fact of filmmaking is a lot of filmmakers do not get to make the movie that they want.

It's why they go back years later and make director's cuts or put out uh their own version of the movie because they it got taken away from them or they didn't get to do it the way that they wanted to do it. Gets to do it the way that he wants to do it. It's just a fact. His movies come out. Maybe they have to make this concession here and this concession there, but.

He gets to make the movie that he wants to make. He's never gonna have to worry about going out and making a director's cut. His movies are the directors. So just in a very simple film filmmaking way, it's kind of easy for you to say that when you've never feel the need to go back to your work. Um, then there's also the political Apologize, they they've made their own concessions and and yes, they they wanted to change some words in the text in some of his books last year. They pulled back on.

Uh maybe some conversations there. Yeah, you can see that he thinks that because he doesn't even change the words when he makes the movie. Yeah, he does in Fox and he makes his own little preamble in Fox. But in in Henry Sugar and three more, it's the doll lifted into people's mouths.

Alright, you want to do our soundtrack picks? Yes! Very excited. Yeah I'm always excited about the music. Alright, let's not waste any time. It's your favorite segment. As you said, let's jump right into it.

So I want to preface this as I usually With every time we do our soundtrack picks, I go like, oh, I love so many different songs in this But something that I forget with song or with movies that I haven't seen a ton, like Rushmore, I could literally tell you what song is used at what point because I that movie I could play.

over and I do. Um but for s the the movies that I haven't seen as much I always go like where did that you know where did that play again? And so I went for Fantastic Mr. Fox, I'm gonna watch And if I hear a song that I think is gonna be my song for the movie, then I'm going to write down what happened.

And I only wrote down one song, and that's because it got to Heroes and Villains very early on in the movie. Heroes and Villains obviously by the Beach Boys, lots of Beach Boys on the soundtrack, uh on top of first kind of like heist right before Mrs. Fox tells him that she's pregnant for the first time and um they are trying to uh get a chicken and I went, that's the song Mine is right before that.

And it is a total cheat because we really should be picking needle drops, not the little ditties as Uh but I'm picking two. I'm going with the ballad of Davy Crockett by the Mellow Man right mister Fox. in the fields, that's the ding dling dling. I have to say, you know, I love the Wes Anderson soundtrack on Spotify. I think it's that one. It could be like a a different one that's fan-made, but there is one that includes all of the Diddy's as well as the song.

And generally I I you know, listen, I'm not listening to these uh to these ditties all the time. The two exceptions are Margaret Yang. from Rushmore and Mr. Fox in the Field. I will never skip them. I I will listen to the soundtrack with the Diddy's in them just because those will come through and I'll skip the rest.

Oh my god, it's so good. So so great to just turn your It goes like well like soundtrack specifically'cause it goes in and out of songs, two ditties, uh to score, like it's It's a great movie. From David Crockett into that tune might be the best like thirty seconds. And it's like, you know, one of the first batches of thirty seconds.

Yeah, and then it's right into Heroes and Villains. So uh we peak pretty early with the music. Lots of Beach Boys here and I love some Beach Boys, but Heroes and Villains is probably one of the things. There is a lot of Beach Boys. There's also of course some Rolling Stones, as we mentioned earlier. And the Bobby Fuller four doing letters.

Which is so good. And I just feel like um uh you know, I don't think that this movie is nearly as known for its needle drops as some of other uh some of Wes's other films, but I still think that they're really great here because they're always

All right, let's wrap this up with our favorite letterboxed reviews of Fantastic Mr. Fox. Alright, before we read these reviews, actually I just realized we left out a crucial thing, which is we didn't talk about the fact that Wes won his first. For the wonderful story of Henry Sugar this past uh Oscar season, which I feel like we should talk about. This was, of course, the best live action.

film Oscar. Um there's also a little thing on the criterion for Mr. That's the little thing that they made if they won the best animated film Oscar, but it was like an insanely tight category. Corey then. Like what do you mean it didn't win an Oscar? Like what was it up against? And then he went off to go name up Coraline, uh, one thing we had truly never heard of and was never gonna be any of those, and then what was the other one?

It's up one Corline, the secret of Kells and the Yeah, like whoa, of all the years to put out your animated amazing feature, that's a tough year. Is there not 2011s, Rango, A Cat in Paris, Chico in Rita, Kung Fu Panda 2, and Pussy? No it is not. Um and so I think him getting an Oscar is is long overdue. Uh

Let's recognize some letterbox triviews. You want to go first? Sure. I just realized that all of my reviews are five star hard So just setting the tone here. Mine are actually a lowest four and a half star and they're all repeated. Okay, so Hoover gave it a five star heart and a rewatch, uh said, I can't believe Logan Roy ran the news. Which is pretty funny. Um J, Letterboxd user J uh gives it four stars, a heart, and a rewatch. Finally, the answer to what does the fox?

One. Um lots of George Clooney jokes. Okay, but this was my personal favorite. Uh Sierra or Chiara That incorrectly. Again, five stars hearts rewatch. Uh what's your favorite heist movie starring George? Uh Letterbox user Kayla gives it five stars and a rewatch and says, I don't think I'll ever get over how insane stuff.

Every time we do a stop motion thing on White Two Kids, we like we watch all the behind the scenes. We did it for this as well. And I just go like I still don't get it. I still don't get it. The patience. The the just like you just have to have the right attitude. There's one of a guy doing one shot. What do you call that? I don't know what you're trying to say.

Time lapse thank you. I all I could think was stop motion. The time lapse of him doing And it's just like him walking up to it, fixing a little thing, walking out, walking up to it, fixing a little thing, and doing that for four weeks. Yeah, yeah. Um, all right. Is it you or me? It's you. My last one. Um my last one is from Karst, aka Karsten Runquist.

YouTube uh and other socials. Again, five stars heart and a rewatch, just double checking. And I love that because I feel the same way. I go like, I've given this movie a five star every time before, but is it gonna still hold up? Letterboxd user Will gives it four and a half stars and a heart on a rewatch and says I cussing love this.

my first review of this film or that I did on Letterboxd I think I saw it before um I was on Letterbox as well um was Now you're on Letterboxd, it was your first watch. November twelve.

Alright, so it is there you go. Um next month, I've hinted at it, Moonrise Kingdom. It feels a little homeworky to me. I'm sure it'll be great. I'm sure I'm gonna love it. But I don't know. Moonrise Kingdom is a Yeah. And like I don't n I don't normally fe I don't normally like what I'm saying. I either f feel very disappointed in them or I love them. And so to feel kind of middling about it is is a a

experience and Moonrise has always felt that way for me. I'm I'm curious though since we've only seen it one time and we saw it a while ago. Well you've seen it sure, but me, I like will it It's the most anxious I've been since Royal Tenant Bob. really did not like before we started this project. It grew on me as we do this show. Perhaps Moonrise Kingdom will grow on me as well, because then it's Grand Budapest, which I believe

And we'll see you then or no, we'll not see you. Uh you check out everything that we do, every podcast, this show, why two kids, our flagship podcast, every review that we write, we got stuff going on five days a week over there and current currently Mondays. I'm going through the summer of nineteen Dollars a month. If you don't want to do that, you can't do that. That's fine. We got free stuff the rest of the week. Go on over there. Just put your email under symbol.

You can find me on Letterboxd at Taylor More. We will see you next month, which might just be later this month, on the Wes Anderson a thon for Moonrise Kingdom.