For this week, I
watched three of Wes Anderson's films, including The Grand Budapest
Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, and Fantastic Mr. Fox. I had
recently watched The Grand Budapest Hotel and Moonrise
Kingdom before, however, I decided to re-watch them to get a better grasp to
compare them.
The three films
share many similarities including themes, styles and motifs. They all share an
adventurous theme. All the protagonists initially had honorable reasons to embark on
the adventure, but later their actions either backfire or cause more problems than
they had originally for not thinking through it thoroughly.
Wes Anderson has his
own unique style to express humor in the three films. For example, when a
character is explaining something, they tend to comment with many witty
remarks, quotes, references, and side notes. These are shown in M. Gustave and
Mr. Fox’s explanations or speeches. In addition, there is an excessive use of
body language and gestures depicted in the actors and characters when
interacting with others. For example M. Gustave is an overly welcoming hotel
manager in The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Mr. Fox's frequently uses a whistle snap as his signature
move for attention in Fantastic Mr. Fox. Furthermore, all three films
uses a convenient solution to resolve difficult and dangerous situations. For example it is
humorous how M. Gustave managed to acquaint his cellmates, asking them to help
him escape. Similarly, when Mr. Fox starts explaining a plan for their barrier,
only for his Opossum partner to quickly find an easier route. Lastly, I noticed
that there is a similarity in the way Wes Anderson ended his films. He used a
technique where the scene slowly zooms out to give an indication of how things
were resolved in the plot.
All films share a
common motif of acceptance into the society. When watching the movies I found
that the three main protagonists and some of their closed ones from all three movies tended to be depicted
differently from the rest of the characters in society. Even though they were
portrayed differently, everyone else eventually accepted them. The second common
motif was the paternal bond formed between characters, for example, Zero with
Gustave, Sam with the Police Captain Sharp, and Ash with his father Mr. Fox. Another
common motif I noticed was the use of thunderstorms and its significance in two
of Wes Anderson’s films, Moonrise Kingdom and Fantastic Mr.
Fox. In the film Moonrise
Kingdom, there was a weather forecast of a storm heading towards the
island, that later became a great obstacle for the plot. For Fantastic
Mr. Fox, Mr. Fox's wife had a habit of including thunderstorms in all of
her landscape paintings foreshadowing the truth at the ending.
