Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wes Anderson’s 2009 film sends Mr Fox back to stealing poultry and into a siege by three farmers. Its texture is a deliberate step backwards: it was shot mostly on twos, twelve frames a second rather than twenty four. Anderson has said the stop motion he loved was always primitive, King Kong and the Brothers Quay, where you stay aware it is handmade. Fingerprints in the fur count as bad form among animators; by his account the crew made peace with them. Mackinnon & Saunders, who built the puppets, say covering the cast in fur meant rediscovering King Kong era techniques. Anderson was not on the floor: thirty crews shot at 3 Mills in London while he directed from Paris, animators emailing files twice a day and a live feed from every set. The voices were taped not in a booth but in a forest, an attic, a stable and underground. Roald Dahl’s novel amounts to the second act alone; the opening and ending are Anderson’s own. At the 2010 ceremony it was nominated for Animated Feature Film and Music (Original Score), losing both to Up. A good fit if you read the judder of twelve frames a second, and the fur shifting between them, as signature not defect. Not for you if you want Dahl set down straight.