My take: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

HD Goofnut

Title: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
BD-50 Dual-Layer Disc/Two Disc Set
Video: 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC
Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Subtitles: Several Languages
Run time: 87 minutes
Studio: Fox Home Entertainment
Rating: PG
Region Coding: Region A Only
Equipment used for review: Sharp LC-46SB57UN 46" 120Hz 1080p LCD (24fps), Onkyo TX-SR606 7.1 Receiver, Onkyo SKS-HT540 7.1, & LG BH200 Super Blu

Cast/Crew Info:
George Clooney as the voice of Mr. Fox
Meryl Streep as the voice of Mrs. Fox
Jason Schwartzman as the voice of Ash
Bill Murray as the voice of Badger
Wallace Wolodarsky as the voice of Kylie
Eric Chase Anderson as the voice of Kristofferson Silverfox
Michael Gambon as the voice of Franklin Bean
Willem Dafoe as the voice of Rat
Owen Wilson as the voice of Coach Skip
Directed by Wes Anderson

My take: (the breakdown)

Stop-motion animated films are certainly a dying breed, but they are still alive and kicking. Fantastic Mr. Fox centers on a fox and his family, which consists of his wife and 12 year old son. Mr. Fox's natural trade of course is stealing animals and other goods from farmers and so forth. When Mrs. Fox forces him to give this up for a different line of work he decides to become a newspaper columnist. After doing this for a few years he becomes tired of the job and tired of living in a hole. He then decides to move into a much more expensive tree despite several warning from his lawyer, who is named Badger. When Fox decides to raid three of the most prominent farms in the area he will surely cause much more chaos on his family and community than he originally thought. Will Fox have the chance to save the day? This is decent film for most people except for children under about age 10 or so.

Everything about this transfer just says that it's great from start to finish. Colors are well saturated and are never muted or waver in the slightest. There is a red-brown mix to most of the film, but it never becomes a distraction. Grain is barely even noticeable so that also helped with this one. The strongest attribute is that of fine detail by far. It's amazing just how clear eye color, hairs, whiskers, and clothing textures actually are. There are however a few instances of soft shots, but thankfully they are rather brief in duration.

Dialogue and music seem to be the primary attributes to this 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track and they do sound great. Dialogue is always clear, well prioritized and easy to comprehend. The musical score fills all of the channels nicely and easily and is never overbearing. I did find that the the mix was extremely front heavy for most effects though. Discrete effects rarely make it to the surrounds and that was rather discouraging. The sub has a chances to make itself known and it certainly does well considering how brief the LFE is used. It's not as good as the video presentation, but it's still well done in its own right.

The main component to this supplemental package is a 45 minute making of feature that covers just about everything concerning production. There's also two smaller features totaling about 5 minutes as well as the film's theatrical trailer. All of the above features are presented in 1080. Also included is the DVD of the film on a second disc along with a digital copy.

Movie: 7.5/10
VQ: 9/10
AQ: 8/10
Supplements: 5/10
Final word: A Purchase For Fans

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Displays: BenQ MP512ST, Sharp LC-46SB57UN 46" 120 Hz, Sanyo DP46848 46" 60Hz, HP 21.5" 60Hz Monitor
Receiver: Onkyo TX-NR709 7.1
Speaker System: Onkyo SKS-HT540
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