The Making of Fantastic Mr. Fox

This is book is wickedly joyful to read. But first a caveat:I love the Fantastic Mr. Fox movie and I've seen it probably more than a dozen times. Love blinds, they say. It provides vivid behind-the-scenes look at Wes Anderson's creative process for this movie. And tells the story of how the movie came to be. It goes through everything from what drew Wes to the story to how he came to acquire the rights to the story, the cast of main characters, the never-seen animation hands, a couple of cut scenes, etc. It shows how an already fascinating story can be jazzed up to engage the senses in every way possible. There are details that I missed watching the films several times, that come to life in this book. Like the text of the news paper article, which I imagined was just gibberish, but it turned out it's an engaging newspaper column written with a ton of wit and care for developing a complete character (image attached here). Such is the level of detail that went into making this movie and is beautifully chronicled here. The format is beautiful and works well without beating the reader over the head with tiresome details of the process. It intersperses interviews with spectacular stills and simple line sketches in an easy to follow format. I read this book cover to cover in one sitting. Stop-motion students will smile in awe reading this book. Casual readers who love the movie won't be bogged down with technical details of rigs, sets and character costumes but will find themselves drawn to the artfulness and attention to detail that went into creating this work of art (the film and the book). Like many great works of art, the work screams of deep care and has a hand-made quality to it. The photos in the book are first-class quality and the writing invites the reader into this fantastic world of animated puppets, how they're given life and character and presence. The beautiful semi-glossy dust jacket covers a ravishingly colored hard cover that seems to come from the color of the sky in the opening shot of the film. And like the film itself, little about the design of the book seems merely accidental. I love it.

First off, I love every part of the movie and I really like seeing how it was made. This book has a lot of great behind the scenes pictures and concept drawings. The pictures themselves are of pretty good quality. There are a couple of fuzzy pictures, but the vast majority are great. The drawings and paintings by Turlo are awe-inspiring and are a great addition. The text in the book is mostly comprised of general interviews about the movie and the book. I would have liked some interviews with the animators, modelers or designers showing how they made the puppets, animated them, or the artistic choices that were made. Showing pictures of armatures, but having text discussing why a certain voice was chosen makes the pictures and text seem disjointed. This isn't a major complaint though, as the pictures and interviews are interesting enough. If you are fanatical about this movie like I am, then you should certainly buy this book.

I got this as a gift for a friend, and she loved it! It’s a little smaller than I expecting, but had a lot of fun pictures.

Purchased as a gift for an avid fan. It was a perfect choice. Beautiful book full of info and behind the scenes. Mr Fox fans and fans of stop motion animation would enjoy this book immensely

To go off what another reviewer said, this book may not be for everyone. However, if you: --Like the movie --Like the book --Like Roald Dahl --Like stop-motion film You will enjoy this book. At almost 200 pages, it will take you some time just to look at all the images and read the captions - they have packed a lot into the pages. It is obvious a lot of time and effort went into making this book (more than can be said about similar books which are light on content). There are also a handful of interviews which are interesting as well. Downsides? This is a 'making of' book, and there was almost no content talking about how they made the movie (other than what was mentioned in the interviews). I do wish there was more content describing how the scenery, characters, etc. were made - though these can be found in online videos (and almost certainly will be included with the extras with the movie). Even with this factored in, if you fit the criteria above, you will love this book.

If you're a fan of this legendary story that they made into a movie. This book is a great buy. Pictures are stunning and storyboard is amazing. Brought it for my 12 year old but still a fun read for adults as well.

You should purchase this book if: 1. You enjoyed/liked/loved the film "Fantasic Mr. Fox" 2. You are an animation fan/historian/buff. 2a. Specifically, stop-motion animation 2b. With created puppets. 3. You like reading or collecting "Making Of" books about films. Well, I loved this film, I'm an animation fan, and I qualify for item three. At first I was hesitant to get this book, but it was the option to not have to pay shipping if I bought this book and the soundtrack and had them shipped together which convinced me to get the book as well. The book itself is amazingly detailed. There are interviews with Liccy Cahl (Roald's wife), Eric Anderson (voice of Kristofferson and brother of Wes), Jason Schwartzman (voice of Ash), and even Wes Anderson himself (interviewed by Michael Specter, who also wrote the book's introduction). The book is broken into sections based on "chapters" in the film - not necessarily the chapters as they are divided on the DVD . What I find amazing to look at, though, is the concept art for the film, particularly the characters. The art by Félicie Haymoz, Huy Vu, and Chris Appelhans really stands out too, especially Félicie's. One last interesting tidbit other reviewers may not mention: The font and back endpages contain interesting bonuses that may interest some people: The front endpages have a dope sheet used by animators to mark out the timing of puppet movements, as well as camera and lighting changes, for the "Kylie, is he telling the truth?" scene. The dope sheet details every single frame of that scene, what shape/sound the character's mouths need to be making, the frames in which something moves, and the waveform (sound) of the actor's voices. The rear endpages show us a segment of Alexandre Desplat's orchestral score for the "Whack-Bat Majorette" track in the film. As a piano player, I was intrigued to see the parts for every single instrument a segment in the song as I listened to it. Anyway, to sum up, this book makes an excellent add-on on top of a purchase of the film and/or its soundtrack. It makes a great gift to someone you know who likes the film!

She loved this book!! It had great insight into the behind the scenes of the movie that we had no idea about. Well put together

When I ordered this back in 2017, there had already been many glossy Disney ‘The Art of…’ books, I’m sure you’re all aware of, and I was expecting something similar. However… ‘The Making of Fantastic Mr. Fox’ turned out to be much more intimate, reflecting the handcrafted nature of stop-motion animation. The book is more compact than Disney’s oversized volumes, but the attention to detail is beautiful. It rests nicely between the grandiose of Disney’s offerings and the equally compact ‘The Illustrators Series’. Some photos help highlight the different scales used for the models, while others like the characters' eyes on sticks, and the fabric swatches, helping you appreciate how carefully the film was put together, and how the color palette and textures were crafted. Just like the film, one of my favorite sections is the ‘whack-bat’ scene. The pages devoted to this sequence show how much went into creating the scene for a sport that doesn’t even exist, but you’d think it does, however chaotic the rules! There is an inclusion of email exchanges between the team revealing how ideas evolve, highlighting the close collaboration that shaped the film. The book also features interviews with Liccy Dahl, Roald Dahl’s widow, and Wes Anderson’s brother, Eric, giving insights into both the story and the creative process. Eric’s own web site is worth a graze too. I love to dip into this book every so often, not just to reminisce about the film, but also the process they took, and the overall design of the book, the layout and format makes it one of my favourite books.

El libro es increíble, la calidad de imagen y diseño magnífico

Livre très détaillé, et richement illustré. Bonne qualité du papier. Et pas cher! Infos sur la création du film et aussi sur Roald Dahl. Par contre tout le livre est en anglais, non anglophones s'abstenir... ou s'y mettre!

Wirklich absolut empfehlenswertes Buch. Wer den Film liebt wird auf dieses Buch lieben. Man erfährt sehr sehr viel darüber wie an einer Stopmotion Animation gearbeitet wird. Es sind wirklich sehr viele Bilder, hinter den Kulissen, wie diese gebaut werden, wie die Puppen entstehen, Scripte, Beleuchtung usw. also eigentlich alles was interessant ist für jemanden, der sich für das Making of dieses Filmgenres interessiert. Den preis von 28€ fand ich absolut gerechtfertigt. Mein Buch kam per Express aus Großbritannien und war am nächsten Tag schon bei mir. Eingepackt war es ausreichend normal, wie immer. Ich kann dieses Buch jedem ans Herz legen der mehr über diesen Film oder darüber wie man einen Stop Motion Film dreht erfahren möchte.

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