Film Petit: Fantastic Mr. Fox

"If what I think is happening here is happening... it better not be." -Mrs. Fox

It's Film Petit day!!! Yes, we came back to another Wes Anderson film. We just couldn't stay away that long. But Fantastic Mr. Fox is the only animated film Wes has done and the only one that even Hendrix is a huge fan of. He was very excited about this month's look.

The movie is stop motion animated. That combined with Wes' attention to detail really makes it visually stunning. I love watching the DVD extras about the animation process and just how much he was involved in every single little decision. He even acted out each character's parts himself on video just for the animators to learn how each character moved and acted.

My look is a little less literal this time, but I associate it loosely with the character Ash. Ash is Mr. Fox's son. He's grumpy, he spits, he wakes up on the wrong side of the bed. He never seems to be able to get his father's attention in the ways he wants to. He is probably summed up best in a conversation with his mother in which she says he is just 'different,' as they all are in the Fox family. He responds with, "I don't want to be different. I want to be an athlete."

There are so many themes and lines and quirky Wes-isms that I love about this movie. The way the characters eat like wild animals even though they live and act like people, the way they say "cuss" in place of every actual cuss word, and all the capers stealing from the most hilarious trio of antagonists.

But my favorite scene is definitely the ending. SUCH a great ending. After being under siege by the three farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean, Mr. Fox finds a sewer entry into a great big supermarket after closing, filled with everything they could ever need. So of course, Mr. Fox makes a toast, and then they just dance. They dance to Let Her Dance by Bobby Fuller, which is just perfect. Every time we watch it at home, Hendrix immediately gets up at the end and shakes it all over the place. You can see he had no problem doing that in our actual supermarket. 

I guess I should tell you a little about the clothes. The pants are Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop's new skinny jeans pattern, the very same I made for Elsie a couple weeks ago. I definitely love a good unisex pattern, and this one will get lots of use this fall. The fits is great and the pattern spares no detail, which really makes them look pro. But my favorite thing about these is the bright electric orange hue. It's fine wale corduroy from Sewn, and Hendrix pulls it off like a pro. I couldn't love these crazy pants any more. 

The shirt is the raglan pattern from the book Sewing For Boys, made with a couple up cycled tees. (And I put the seams on the inside.) I hand stitched the entire diagram from the movie that explains the rules of Whack Bat. It's a game that Wes made up just for the movie, kind of a baseball/cricket hybrid where the players hit a flaming pinecone. I realize that it's the kind of thing that no one will recognize, not even most people who have seen the movie. But you know that I like my kid wearing weird references no one gets... that's definitely the fun of Film Petit sewing.

Whack Bat Rules

"Basically, there's three grabbers, three taggers, five twig runners, and a player at Whackbat. Center tagger lights a pine cone and chucks it over the basket and the whack-batter tries to hit the cedar stick off the cross rock. Then the twig runners dash back and forth until the pine cone burns out and the umpire calls hotbox. Finally, you count up however many score-downs it adds up to and divide that by nine." 

"There's a lot of attitudes going on around here... don't let me get one." -Ash

Now you absolutely HAVE TO go see Kristin's amazing Mr. and Mrs. Fox outfits. She seriously kills me. Dead.

And we had so much fun planning and previewing all month with the super-talented Cherie. Her little foxy look is just stunningly creative and beautiful, it cannot be missed. Thanks so much for sewing with us Cherie!