Hi there, bookworms!
I just realised, there are a few things on my last post I probably need to clarify. Firstly, I should probably let you know that I was practising my 'council of Elrond' tone in the first few sentences, in preperation for my Lord of the Rings review. Then I sort of forgot about that for the rest of the post, hence the change from the 'you are doomed' tone to a more casual voice.
Secondly, I started writing that post last Monday, but didn't finish it. I banned myself from my computer for the next few days because of assessments due for my classes in the following days, hence I didn't get the post up until Thursday. I thought I would say that just to let you all know that I am at least making an effort to post more regularly, even if it appears I am not.
Anyway, to the actual point of this post. A while back, I introduced you all to a friend of mine named Henry (see here). King Henry the Tenth of Destria, to be precise. Of all the characters I have devised in my stories, he is by far my favourite. Watching him learn what it means to be a king, through many tantrums, arguments and discussions, has been the most enjoyable writing experience I have ever been a part of.
I've been thinking a bit, and I've missed Henry a fair bit. I think he needs to play a far greater part in this blog. So... I'm going to be posting a few short stories on here centred around my pal.
Some of them will also involve other main characters from the Kingdom of Destria, such as Sam, Will and Petra (three teenagers who slew the usurper keeping Henry in prison for five years), James (Henry's best friend and only companion during his imprisonment), and Neville (Henry's valet being his formal position, although 'Castle Mum' would perhaps be a more fitting name).
So, without further ado...
'Escape by a Hair'
King Henry the Tenth, ruler of the Kingdom of Destrian, flung open the door and, slamming it behind him, darted into the room beyond.
From where he was sitting at his desk, James looked up.
“Nice of you to knock,” he remarked with a wry smile.
“No time for sarcasm!” Henry snapped exasperatedly. “Just hide me somewhere!”
Truth be told, James almost laughed at his best friend’s ripped clothes, dirty face and wild hair that was sticking up in all directions. He looked more like a highway robber than a king! However, the hunted look in Henry’s normally even, measuring gaze made James uneasy and he found himself escorting the king to a wardrobe in the corner of his room.
Soon, Henry was comfortable (that is to say, as comfortable as one can be when squashed into the bottom of a closet) and James shut the door of the wardrobe.
“So, is there any reason as to why the King of Destrian barged into my room looking like a beggar?” James asked casually. “I mean, you look as if you’ve been in a stampede!”
“I have,” came Henry’s muffled reply.
“Care to explain?”
“No.”
James waited patiently for ten seconds.
“Alright, alright, I’ll tell you. But you mustn’t breathe a word to Neville about this!”
“I won’t,” James promised with a smile. Neville was Henry’s personal valet, a short, blustering man who was constantly mopping his forehead with a handkerchief. He had good intentions, but was rather a worry wart. Whenever Henry was so much as scratched from battle training, the poor man acted as if the world was coming to an end!
“I was attacked,” Henry began.
James’ ears perked up. Attacked! Perhaps the assailant was in the castle that instant, about to burst into the room and demand to know where the king was!
“By whom?” He was unable to hide the curiosity in his voice.
Henry proceeded to tell his friend the whole story from the beginning, and James listened with mixed sympathy and horror. How close it had been! How lucky he had been to escape!
“......and there was not one, but two of them, James! And they were both fighting over me, pulling me this way and that as if I were a rag doll!”
“It sounds horrible!” Disgust was plastered all over James’ face.
At that moment, Neville burst into the room.
“James, you - well - have you seen - is Henry around?” blustered Neville.
James adopted his best puzzled face. “No, haven’t seen him all morning, actually. But he is 21 years old. I expect he can look after himself.
Neville wasted no more time, rushing out of the room.
Cautiously, Henry crept out of the closet. “Thank you so much, James!”
James shrugged. “What are friends for?”
Suddenly, Henry frowned. “Just one question: how will I escape the royal hairdressers tomorrow?”
THE END
So that is Henry early on in my novel, before wars break out and such. :) You can tell me what you think about my story if you like, but I'm not desperate for the feedback. I'm just using this blog as motivation to write a bit more in my spare time.
Anyway, that's all I really have time for, so there you go.
Yours Sincerely,
~SON
P.S. Please comment, even if it's only to say "Hi!"
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Nemesis
Greetings, bookworms of the council of SON.
We have many matters to discuss in the council today (the grand total of two), so I would ask you to bear with me as I outline the subjects of discussion, then you may contribute (in other words, comment).
Firstly, we come to the matter of the Harry Potter review. To begin, I would like to say to Nerd Till the Very End not to worry about causing me trouble in their request, as I it is a topic I can rant on about when before I had nothing to talk about. As I see it, I now have two options:
Now that I've got that off my chest, on to the second topic of our discussion. There is an amazing series of books all bookworms need to know about, and it is called Nemesis. I picked up the first book, Into the Shadows, at random from the local library, and almost didn't read it because the blurb made it sound really dark and morbid. However, as I could find nothing else that looked decent, I borrowed it and began to read.
The first thing I noticed was that I was pleasantly surprised it wasn't nearly as dark as the blurb made it seem. The second thing I noticed was that the book was completely addictive.
The story is told by a boy, who I assume is between the ages of twelve and fifteen (I think it's twelve, but he acts older than that throughout the series) who one morning wakes up in a derelict stairwell with no memory whatsoever, apart from cryptic dreams he can't make head or tail of. He can't even remember his name, but the word 'Ram' comes to mind.
When he finds a dying man in a lift and is seen next to him, Ram is a murder suspect and goes into hiding.
Why can't Ram remember anything? Who is tracking him down? What can the cryptic last words of the dying man in the elevator possibly mean? These are some of the mysteries that keep you on the edge of your seat when reading this fantastic book.
As I am a person who really enjoys the 'character' aspect of books, I really loved this. The characters were so believable, yet so loyal and steadfast, a rare occurrence in teen novels today. Their desire to stick to what they knew was right restored my faith in books for young adults not to shy down from condoning what is right. Ram was a character who especially stood out to me for his high moral standards. There were so many instances throughout every book where it would have been so much easier for Ram to ignore someone in danger, or to let someone chasing him die, yet he would always do whatever he could to help someone in trouble, even if it meant putting himself in an unsafe situation. For some reason that is not apparent until the last (fourth) book, Ram's motto is "No-one's expendable." To this hero, everyone matters.
Going off on a tangent here, I'm a person who can't get into a book if I don't like the characters. At the moment I'm reading 'The Bourne Identity', by Robert Ludlum, and I admit I'm struggling a bit to get into it. Anyone who has seen the movie (which is absolutely edge-of-your-seat awesomeness, I highly recommend it) would know that in the film, Jason Bourne is someone who does not like to cause innocent people harm. Unfortunately, in the book, he is far more self-centred, and will hurt, even kill, innocent people if it means he will survive. From what it's looking like so far, I'd just say watch the movie.
Anyway, that's another comparative analysis review to look forward to in the future.
Back to Nemesis now. As I was saying, Ram is awesome. On top of this, all the mysteries, chases, escapes, fights, friendships and most of all, nail-biting suspense make it a series you'd be crazy not to read. I posted a review of Conspiracy 365 a while ago (see review here). This is ten times better than that (apart from the fact there is only four books - I want more!). Oh, and by the way, you should definitely borrow all the books at once if you get the chance. They are so suspenseful that they put you in agony if you can't get the next one soon enough! It will surprise you how fast you'll get through them- they're about 250-300 pages long (from memory, correct me if I'm wrong), and I finished each one in about two days, even though I had classes.
In conclusion, in case you didn't get the vibe of what I was saying, READ NEMESIS! (By Catherine MacPhail) You won't regret it!
We have many matters to discuss in the council today (the grand total of two), so I would ask you to bear with me as I outline the subjects of discussion, then you may contribute (in other words, comment).
Firstly, we come to the matter of the Harry Potter review. To begin, I would like to say to Nerd Till the Very End not to worry about causing me trouble in their request, as I it is a topic I can rant on about when before I had nothing to talk about. As I see it, I now have two options:
- I can get someone I know to do a Harry Potter review for me
- I can get Nerd Till the Very End to do the review, if they would like to (all in favour of this comment 'I' at the end of the post).
Now that I've got that off my chest, on to the second topic of our discussion. There is an amazing series of books all bookworms need to know about, and it is called Nemesis. I picked up the first book, Into the Shadows, at random from the local library, and almost didn't read it because the blurb made it sound really dark and morbid. However, as I could find nothing else that looked decent, I borrowed it and began to read.
The first thing I noticed was that I was pleasantly surprised it wasn't nearly as dark as the blurb made it seem. The second thing I noticed was that the book was completely addictive.
The story is told by a boy, who I assume is between the ages of twelve and fifteen (I think it's twelve, but he acts older than that throughout the series) who one morning wakes up in a derelict stairwell with no memory whatsoever, apart from cryptic dreams he can't make head or tail of. He can't even remember his name, but the word 'Ram' comes to mind.
When he finds a dying man in a lift and is seen next to him, Ram is a murder suspect and goes into hiding.
Why can't Ram remember anything? Who is tracking him down? What can the cryptic last words of the dying man in the elevator possibly mean? These are some of the mysteries that keep you on the edge of your seat when reading this fantastic book.
As I am a person who really enjoys the 'character' aspect of books, I really loved this. The characters were so believable, yet so loyal and steadfast, a rare occurrence in teen novels today. Their desire to stick to what they knew was right restored my faith in books for young adults not to shy down from condoning what is right. Ram was a character who especially stood out to me for his high moral standards. There were so many instances throughout every book where it would have been so much easier for Ram to ignore someone in danger, or to let someone chasing him die, yet he would always do whatever he could to help someone in trouble, even if it meant putting himself in an unsafe situation. For some reason that is not apparent until the last (fourth) book, Ram's motto is "No-one's expendable." To this hero, everyone matters.
Going off on a tangent here, I'm a person who can't get into a book if I don't like the characters. At the moment I'm reading 'The Bourne Identity', by Robert Ludlum, and I admit I'm struggling a bit to get into it. Anyone who has seen the movie (which is absolutely edge-of-your-seat awesomeness, I highly recommend it) would know that in the film, Jason Bourne is someone who does not like to cause innocent people harm. Unfortunately, in the book, he is far more self-centred, and will hurt, even kill, innocent people if it means he will survive. From what it's looking like so far, I'd just say watch the movie.
Anyway, that's another comparative analysis review to look forward to in the future.
Back to Nemesis now. As I was saying, Ram is awesome. On top of this, all the mysteries, chases, escapes, fights, friendships and most of all, nail-biting suspense make it a series you'd be crazy not to read. I posted a review of Conspiracy 365 a while ago (see review here). This is ten times better than that (apart from the fact there is only four books - I want more!). Oh, and by the way, you should definitely borrow all the books at once if you get the chance. They are so suspenseful that they put you in agony if you can't get the next one soon enough! It will surprise you how fast you'll get through them- they're about 250-300 pages long (from memory, correct me if I'm wrong), and I finished each one in about two days, even though I had classes.
In conclusion, in case you didn't get the vibe of what I was saying, READ NEMESIS! (By Catherine MacPhail) You won't regret it!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Of Hogborts, or something like that...
Hey, bookworms! How's it going?
As you may have guessed, I'm trying to post more regularly, if only to provide excuses for why I am not posting more often. I would LOVE to be able to put out a review every day, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist sometimes, and I want to put in as much research as possible so that you, my wonderful readers, may get the most in-depth analysis you can from me. Besides, I do have a social life, you know, catching up with interstate friends (mainly arguing over who would win if we were to fight a ninja battle), calculating how much energy it would take for teleportation for someone of my mass, that sort of stuff. Okay, so when I said social life, I meant a nerd's social life (which is virtually non-existent), but still...
Now, a very important request has been made by Nerd till the Very End for me to review the Harry Potter movies. One of my good friends, Ashywashy, warned me that this would happen, and I guess that I knew it was inevitable; that one day someone would request it. However, I didn't imagine this day would come so soon! I suppose I should be honest, Nerd till the Very End, and get the truth out now. The fact is that I have never seen or read Harry Potter, and that my life has always been very HP free.
Now, bookworms, you see my dilemma. I would love to fulfill any requests my bookworms make, but in this case I am unable to. The way I see it, I have three options:
Please, tell me what you think!
Yours sincerely,
~SON
(Requests are still always welcome, even if I cannot fulfill them)
As you may have guessed, I'm trying to post more regularly, if only to provide excuses for why I am not posting more often. I would LOVE to be able to put out a review every day, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist sometimes, and I want to put in as much research as possible so that you, my wonderful readers, may get the most in-depth analysis you can from me. Besides, I do have a social life, you know, catching up with interstate friends (mainly arguing over who would win if we were to fight a ninja battle), calculating how much energy it would take for teleportation for someone of my mass, that sort of stuff. Okay, so when I said social life, I meant a nerd's social life (which is virtually non-existent), but still...
Now, a very important request has been made by Nerd till the Very End for me to review the Harry Potter movies. One of my good friends, Ashywashy, warned me that this would happen, and I guess that I knew it was inevitable; that one day someone would request it. However, I didn't imagine this day would come so soon! I suppose I should be honest, Nerd till the Very End, and get the truth out now. The fact is that I have never seen or read Harry Potter, and that my life has always been very HP free.
Now, bookworms, you see my dilemma. I would love to fulfill any requests my bookworms make, but in this case I am unable to. The way I see it, I have three options:
- I can read and watch Harry Potter, and you can expect the review in perhaps 6 months time.
- I can have a guest reviewer who is a HP fan to do the review for me (I would make sure that this fan is an expert on the subject).
- I could ignore Nerd till the Very End's request, and pretend that I just haven't gotten around to doing the review yet (I am not particularly in favour of this option as I have just revealed the treachery of it for everyone to see, meaning I would be busted rather quickly and perhaps lose the only British follower I have).
Please, tell me what you think!
Yours sincerely,
~SON
(Requests are still always welcome, even if I cannot fulfill them)
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Far-fetched Mr Fox
Hello, bookworms! What's this? SON has posted TWICE in less than two weeks??? Again, I would ask you all to refrain from passing out until AFTER you have read and - all importantly - COMMENTED on this post :)
Hey there to my two new followers, by the way! Barbara, Sir Lipine and Ashywashy - be nice to them. ;)
Don't forget about the nagging principle, guys. Remember, nagging + procrastination = motivation + results!
So finally, I have the review for 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', dedicated to my awesome brother Sir Lipine the Awesome. Please forgive me, Sir Lipine, for taking so long! It was the homework's fault!
Getting down to business, when I heard this movie was coming out, I was very excited. 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' happens to be my favourite Roald Dahl book of all time, right from when my mum read it to my siblings and I when we were very young as a bedtime story. The story is a delightful, fun tale full of adventure and mischief. The 'bad guys' (Boggis, Bunce and Bean) are truly awful and hideous in every sense of the word. The book is indeed a great pleasure to read, which I rediscovered when reading it for research.
"But how does the movie compare to the book?" you ask. That is a very good question. Allow me to do my best to answer it:
Overall position of the film:
Look, I'll be frank here straight away. The movie is nothing like the book. At best, you could say it was loosely based on the book. If you're looking for a film that captures the essence of 'Fantastic Mr.Fox', don't watch it. If, however, you want to watch a quirky movie that doesn't really have much of a point, go right ahead and see it. I did sort of like it, despite it being really weird. And Sir Lipine loved it. But I was also quite disappointed because I did not at all see Roald Dahl's story on the screen.
Plot:
Unfortunately, the plot is not really based at all on the book. Rather than following the daring exploits of Fantastic Mr. Fox as he gives those mean farmers what they deserve, the film follows the story of an average fox going through a midlife crisis (now you see why 'far-fetched' was in the title) who thinks he has to go back to the old excitement of stealing poultry from high-security farms to make himself feel complete. Roald Dahl's solution to the problem of the three mean farmers was ignored, and instead the filmmakers try to invent a complicated plot which is, put nicely, hardly genius.
Characters:
Bean- If you have read the book, you will know just how absolutely disgusting Farmer Bean is. If you have not, let me quote a passage to you:
Bunce and Boggis- The film was quite strange in that it quoted the book more than I have ever seen in a film, yet it deviated from the book drastically. When introducing the farmers, Badger (who is a lawyer in the film - go figure) quotes directly from the book what they are like, how Boggis is extremely fat, Bunce is extremely short, and Bean is extremely tall and lean. Again, even though the film introduced them with the same words the book did, their disgusting personalities didn't really shine through and they just seemed like grumpy old men rather than ridiculously mean farmers.
Mr. Fox- I hate to have to say this, but Mr. Fox was hardly as fantastic, dashing, ingenious and heroic as Mr. Fox was in the book. As mentioned in the plot summary above, he's a fox going through a midlife crisis which, put nicely, is stupid, pointless and unrealistic, as he is a FOX. Okay, so maybe it's unrealistic for a fox to be noble and smart, as Dahl wrote Mr. Fox, but hey, it's a kid's book, and you're allowed to do that sort of stuff. This movie, however, wasn't really aimed at kids. I'm not saying that it's an adult movie or anything, but most of the (terrible) humour and (unoriginal) storyline would have gone straight over an eight year-old's head. Back to talking about Mr. Fox, though, the biggest problem I had with him was that I didn't really like him. He's the protagonist, everyone's supposed to love him! Instead, he was an ordinary, selfish fox who risked the lives of his family to have a bit of excitement. The filmmakers failed miserably in bringing Fantastic Mr. Fox to life.
Ash- Now, in the book, Mr. Fox has four adorable little cubs (is that the right word for a baby fox? Correct me if I'm wrong) who are just as thoughtful and smart as their father. Did we get this in the movie? No. Instead, we get Ash, Mr. Fox's only son, who is moody and selfish and just plain WEIRD. I am especially annoyed that they called him Ash, because I personally quite like the name Ash, and this just ruins it. I personally think that far too much glory is given to Ash in the film, because all the characters are telling Mr. Fox to accept his son, even though he is 'different'. Well, Ash isn't so much different as he is RUDE to everyone around him, and instead of just making an excuse that being rude is part of Ash's 'different' personality, I would say that Mr. Fox needs to teach his son some manners and stop being so selfish.
Other Characters- None of the other characters are really worth mentioning, all you need to know is that not one of them is the way they are in the books. Even the Rat has been changed in a pathetic character arc that the filmmakers really shouldn't have bothered with.
Themes:
This really is one of the strangest films I've ever seen when it comes to themes. Every time you think someone is going to make a point, they don't, and what they say end up being just like the movie as a whole: pointless. Overall, there really aren't that many themes to discuss. I suppose you could perhaps squeeze the theme of family in there, in how Mr. Fox comes to appreciate his family a little bit more, but really that is a weak theme that barely shows through the film. When it comes to it, to be honest, the movie actually doesn't have really have anything to say.
Messages:
Ditto the themes- there were none. :'(
Setting:
Nothing particularly special about the scenery, it was really quite average. Not once in the film did I think, "Wow, that place is exactly how I imagined it in the book!", and nothing really stood out.
Animation:
This film was made using stop animation with puppets. Overall, the picture at times wasn't as smooth as, say, a Wallace and Grommit movie, but seeing as at some points in production the animators were shooting 25 scenes at a time, the process was quite genius. The animators came up with a whole new program that enabled them to communicate with the director live, wherever he was, and for this I congratulate them. To see a video of how they did this, click here.
Music:
The music matched the movie, in that it was somewhat quirky but really rather boring. However, there was one theme in the music I really loved, which was children singing:
Things I hated about the film:
The root of all the problems in this film was that the filmmakers completely disregarded the novel and basically marred it until it was almost unrecognisable. If they had any respect for the book, they would have seen it for the pure genius it was and tried to make the film as close to the book as possible. I realise that with any book-to-film adaptation, some changes are going to be made, but this is just pitiful. Fantastic Mr. Fox is such a wonderful novel, and it hurts me to see that so little effort went into preserving the original story. I would advise all bookworms who listen to my opinion (you are few and far between) not to watch this film, and if you are unfortunate enough to see it, watch it as a quirky movie with no point rather than an adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox. I don't like to be this scathing, but if you want good reviews from nerds such as myself, you're going to have to make good adaptations of my favourite books.
Signing off,
~SON
Don't forget to comment!!!
Hey there to my two new followers, by the way! Barbara, Sir Lipine and Ashywashy - be nice to them. ;)
Don't forget about the nagging principle, guys. Remember, nagging + procrastination = motivation + results!
So finally, I have the review for 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', dedicated to my awesome brother Sir Lipine the Awesome. Please forgive me, Sir Lipine, for taking so long! It was the homework's fault!
Getting down to business, when I heard this movie was coming out, I was very excited. 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' happens to be my favourite Roald Dahl book of all time, right from when my mum read it to my siblings and I when we were very young as a bedtime story. The story is a delightful, fun tale full of adventure and mischief. The 'bad guys' (Boggis, Bunce and Bean) are truly awful and hideous in every sense of the word. The book is indeed a great pleasure to read, which I rediscovered when reading it for research.
"But how does the movie compare to the book?" you ask. That is a very good question. Allow me to do my best to answer it:
Overall position of the film:
Look, I'll be frank here straight away. The movie is nothing like the book. At best, you could say it was loosely based on the book. If you're looking for a film that captures the essence of 'Fantastic Mr.Fox', don't watch it. If, however, you want to watch a quirky movie that doesn't really have much of a point, go right ahead and see it. I did sort of like it, despite it being really weird. And Sir Lipine loved it. But I was also quite disappointed because I did not at all see Roald Dahl's story on the screen.
Plot:
Unfortunately, the plot is not really based at all on the book. Rather than following the daring exploits of Fantastic Mr. Fox as he gives those mean farmers what they deserve, the film follows the story of an average fox going through a midlife crisis (now you see why 'far-fetched' was in the title) who thinks he has to go back to the old excitement of stealing poultry from high-security farms to make himself feel complete. Roald Dahl's solution to the problem of the three mean farmers was ignored, and instead the filmmakers try to invent a complicated plot which is, put nicely, hardly genius.
Characters:
Bean- If you have read the book, you will know just how absolutely disgusting Farmer Bean is. If you have not, let me quote a passage to you:
Bean never took a bath. He never even washed. As a result, his earholes were clogged with all kinds of muck and wax and bits of chewing gum and dead flies and stuff like that. This made him deaf. [...] Bean rubbed the back of his neck with a dirty finger. He had a boil coming there and it itched.See what I mean? Absolutely disgusting. Roald Dahl truly has a gift for creating the most loathsome characters in children's literature. In the movie, unfortunately, bean is not nearly as revolting as in the book. He's somewhat mean, and sort of tall, but by no means ridiculous. The beauty of Roald Dahl's bad guys is that they are ridiculous, and hideously so. Farmer Bean in the film was far too ordinary.
Bunce and Boggis- The film was quite strange in that it quoted the book more than I have ever seen in a film, yet it deviated from the book drastically. When introducing the farmers, Badger (who is a lawyer in the film - go figure) quotes directly from the book what they are like, how Boggis is extremely fat, Bunce is extremely short, and Bean is extremely tall and lean. Again, even though the film introduced them with the same words the book did, their disgusting personalities didn't really shine through and they just seemed like grumpy old men rather than ridiculously mean farmers.
Mr. Fox- I hate to have to say this, but Mr. Fox was hardly as fantastic, dashing, ingenious and heroic as Mr. Fox was in the book. As mentioned in the plot summary above, he's a fox going through a midlife crisis which, put nicely, is stupid, pointless and unrealistic, as he is a FOX. Okay, so maybe it's unrealistic for a fox to be noble and smart, as Dahl wrote Mr. Fox, but hey, it's a kid's book, and you're allowed to do that sort of stuff. This movie, however, wasn't really aimed at kids. I'm not saying that it's an adult movie or anything, but most of the (terrible) humour and (unoriginal) storyline would have gone straight over an eight year-old's head. Back to talking about Mr. Fox, though, the biggest problem I had with him was that I didn't really like him. He's the protagonist, everyone's supposed to love him! Instead, he was an ordinary, selfish fox who risked the lives of his family to have a bit of excitement. The filmmakers failed miserably in bringing Fantastic Mr. Fox to life.
Ash- Now, in the book, Mr. Fox has four adorable little cubs (is that the right word for a baby fox? Correct me if I'm wrong) who are just as thoughtful and smart as their father. Did we get this in the movie? No. Instead, we get Ash, Mr. Fox's only son, who is moody and selfish and just plain WEIRD. I am especially annoyed that they called him Ash, because I personally quite like the name Ash, and this just ruins it. I personally think that far too much glory is given to Ash in the film, because all the characters are telling Mr. Fox to accept his son, even though he is 'different'. Well, Ash isn't so much different as he is RUDE to everyone around him, and instead of just making an excuse that being rude is part of Ash's 'different' personality, I would say that Mr. Fox needs to teach his son some manners and stop being so selfish.
Other Characters- None of the other characters are really worth mentioning, all you need to know is that not one of them is the way they are in the books. Even the Rat has been changed in a pathetic character arc that the filmmakers really shouldn't have bothered with.
Themes:
This really is one of the strangest films I've ever seen when it comes to themes. Every time you think someone is going to make a point, they don't, and what they say end up being just like the movie as a whole: pointless. Overall, there really aren't that many themes to discuss. I suppose you could perhaps squeeze the theme of family in there, in how Mr. Fox comes to appreciate his family a little bit more, but really that is a weak theme that barely shows through the film. When it comes to it, to be honest, the movie actually doesn't have really have anything to say.
Messages:
Ditto the themes- there were none. :'(
Setting:
Nothing particularly special about the scenery, it was really quite average. Not once in the film did I think, "Wow, that place is exactly how I imagined it in the book!", and nothing really stood out.
Animation:
This film was made using stop animation with puppets. Overall, the picture at times wasn't as smooth as, say, a Wallace and Grommit movie, but seeing as at some points in production the animators were shooting 25 scenes at a time, the process was quite genius. The animators came up with a whole new program that enabled them to communicate with the director live, wherever he was, and for this I congratulate them. To see a video of how they did this, click here.
Music:
The music matched the movie, in that it was somewhat quirky but really rather boring. However, there was one theme in the music I really loved, which was children singing:
"Boggis, Bunce and Bean,
One fat, one short, one lean.
These horrible crooks, so different in looks,
Are none the less equally mean."which was a rhyme in the novel that the children sang, so I thought that was quite fitting in the soundtrack. Apart from that small song, though, the music was nothing special.
Things I hated about the film:
- The characters (particularly Mr. Fox, Ash, and Farmer Bean
- The plot, which the filmmakers completely destroyed
- The lack of themes to discuss
- The overall pointlessness of the film
- It was BORING
- The animation was okay
- The children's rhyme was cool
- Quoting the book in many places was good (it would have been even better if they
The root of all the problems in this film was that the filmmakers completely disregarded the novel and basically marred it until it was almost unrecognisable. If they had any respect for the book, they would have seen it for the pure genius it was and tried to make the film as close to the book as possible. I realise that with any book-to-film adaptation, some changes are going to be made, but this is just pitiful. Fantastic Mr. Fox is such a wonderful novel, and it hurts me to see that so little effort went into preserving the original story. I would advise all bookworms who listen to my opinion (you are few and far between) not to watch this film, and if you are unfortunate enough to see it, watch it as a quirky movie with no point rather than an adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox. I don't like to be this scathing, but if you want good reviews from nerds such as myself, you're going to have to make good adaptations of my favourite books.
Signing off,
~SON
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