Episode 15 – Fantastic Mr. Fox

Jessica and Charlie welcome our guest Arnoldo Lopez for our FIRST animated feature review, Wes Anderson’s delightfully quirky Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009). Does this really fit in to Anderson’s catalog, or is it a digression? And what’s the deal with the big black wolf? And the most important question: Does this movie ruin Adam’s childhood??

Clarifications:

In addition to this SNL video where Ryan Gosling slightly redeems himself, there’s also another where they poke fun at Avatar! Now I KNOW they’re listening to us!

Adam actually had a pretty decent joke that I did not use: “If you wanted to recommend a cartoon from 2009, why not just pick Avatar?” Next time, buddy! Also, Adam doesn’t hate Wes Anderson per se (he likes The Royal Tenenbaums for instance). But he does think the director is overrated, hence the “clarification”.

Even if you aren’t familiar with Roald Dahl’s books, you are probably at least familiar with the movies based on them, such as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach and The BFG. We somehow didn’t touch on that much in the show. Also, that Fantastic Mr. Fox is a movie by an American director, based on a book by a Welsh man, and somehow the heroes have American accents and the villains have English accents…? C’mon Wes, that’s a lazy trope!

Hey, speaking of Kris Kristofferson, our sister podcast The Gobeski/Wallace Report will be reviewing the 1998 movie Blade soon! I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for either show to review Convoy though…

I cut a short segment in the episode where we talk about musical sequences in Wes Anderson movies, and Arnoldo talks a bit about Seu Jorge’s contribution to The Life Aquatic soundtrack. Seriously, check it out. Good stuff, and free streaming if you have Amazon Prime.

Movies We Reference:

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

Matilda (1996)

No Country for Old Men (2007)

Love and Mercy (2014)

The Great Escape (1963)