A review of Fantastic Mr. Fox on DVD and Blu-Ray, you say? But, they came out over a month ago!

Well played, reader. But, we need to do a review. We promised.

We, of course, love the film. Owning it, being able to watch it over and over offers obvious benefits. The careful details of a Wes Anderson film, of the world inspired by Roald Dahl’s fantasy universe and his real world in Great Missenden in the UK, can be observed, noted, taken in… and the colors are utterly mesmorizing…

Some thoughts:

1) Buy the Blu-ray. It comes with the high-definition and regular ol’ DVD versions, so you can watch even if you don’t have a fancy Blu-ray player and keep the other disc for later. We don’t have the Blu-ray version (d’oh!), but it also features a digital copy and special features, which brings us to point deux…

2) The regular DVD version is comparatively bare-bones. It includes “From Script to Screen,” “Still Life (Puppet Animation),” and “A Beginner’s Guide to Whack-Bat.” The Blu-Ray set also includes “Making Mr. Fox Fantastic,”  “The Look of Fantastic Mr Fox,” “The Cast,” “Bill and His Badger,” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox: The World of Roald Dahl.” These bonus features are similar to, but more extensive than (please share your thoughts), the well-done online documentaries. But, they are absolutely worth having, and it is too bad that the regular DVD disc only includes a few of them.

3) The transfer is absolutely stunning.

4) Minor complaints: the menus are a bore; the layer change comes at an awkward point; and, the “Guide to Whack-bat” is rather useless.

Once we have The Darjeeling Limited Criterion-ized, we will start our Fantastic Mr. Fox campaign.

Perhaps stranger is the German making of, wherein the German actor who dubs Ash introduces himself as Jason Schwartzman in his voice over.

Portrait of the artist: Wes Anderson, film director
Interview by Laura Barnett

What got you started?

Filming thrillers and jungle chases on Super 8 when I was about 10. I was trying to imitate Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars and, above all, Hitchcock. Watching The Man Who Knew Too Much made me realise that there was such a thing as a director.

What was your big breakthrough?

Making my first proper short, Bottle Rocket, with Owen Wilson on 16mm film when I was 23. Nobody was interested in it except [director and producer] James L Brooks, who picked it up and let us turn it into a full-length movie.

What have you sacrificed for your art?

Well, I’m 40 and I don’t have children yet. I do want to have them: perhaps I already would, if I wasn’t so involved with these movies.

What one song would work as the soundtrack to your life?

If it was really going to be the soundtrack to my life, playing on endless loop, I’d need a classical piece – it would be hard for me to work with a great song playing. So maybe a Chopin nocturne.

Is there an art form you don’t relate to?

I can’t say I deeply appreciate tapestry.

Is it hard to be original in Hollywood?

It can be difficult to get people to take a chance on something unfamiliar – and it can take time to get an audience interested in it, even when the movie is made. There are some original movies I’ve seen that didn’t work for me the first time round: the first Buñuel film I saw, I didn’t understand his sense of humour. But I’ve never had trouble with a studio telling me they thought my films should be a certain way.

What work of art would you most like to own?

It’s a shame to pillage museums and take art back into private hands. But I have always loved Bronzino’s painting of Lodovico Capponi, in New York’s Frick collection.

Which films do you wish you had made?

Coming Home, Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown. There’s no aspect to all three that isn’t great: the scripts, the casts, the filming, the music.

Which artist working today do you most admire?

Richard Rogers, for his body of work and his approach to it.

What’s the worst thing anyone ever said about you?

There was a mean thing in the Guardian once: the interviewer described me as having “my feet on the table and my nose in the air”. But much worse was a review in the San Francisco Chronicle that described my first film as a “mind-numbing black hole with no right to exist”. I saved that one.

In short

Born: Texas, 1969.

Career: Films include Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and Fantastic Mr Fox, out now on DVD.

Low point: “Realising that my film The Life Aquatic had been seen by half as many people as my previous movie.”

Lodovico Capponi by Bronzino

A little story at The Hollywood Reporter about the contenders for Best Animated Feature at this year’s Academy Awards.

Vote for Fantastic Mr. Fox in Moviefone’s Oscar poll!

From Fox Searchlight:

FANTASTIC MR. FOX director/co-writer/producer Wes Anderson sat down with Fox Searchlight’s own lovely Stephanie Allen, the basis of a video series in which Wes discusses various aspects of how FANTASTIC MR. FOX came to fruition. And the film’s now been nominated for two Academy Awards! Watch all eight videos here.

Wes On Author Roald Dahld (1/8)

More after the break…
Wes on the Characters and Actors (2/8)

Wes on What Makes Mr. Fox Fantastic (3/8)

Wes on the Film’s Art Direction (4/8)

Wes on the Music of Mr. Fox (5/8)

Wes on the Special Effects (6/8)

Wes on Directing Animation (7/8)

Wes on His Style and Artistic Vision (8/8)

(the Wes parody is third)

(not-so) Bonus: a harsh take on Salinger — and Wes

Our favorite Wes parody is still the McCain ad.

via /Film, Yankee Racer Magnus Rushlee