Two trailers hit today for highly anticipated new films by hip auteurs. The first, for the Coen Bros.’ A Serious Man, is one of the most successful spots I’ve seen in a long time. Here’s a movie that has none of the Coens’ usual players and yet it’s unmistakably theirs (and not just because it looks like a repeat of another of theirs). Then there’s the trailer for Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, a stop-motion animated kids’ movie based on a Roald Dahl book, which features a few of the director’s usual actors and some of his signature camera style, but which, to me at least, bears little resemblance to his previous work (and not just because it’s an animation). Honestly, this may be the first of his films I don’t have interest in seeing.

I’m going to focus on the latter trailer primarily because it’s dividing bloggers, whereas everyone pretty much agrees that the Coens’ latest looks awesome. I’ve never been a big fan of stop-motion (though I do enjoy Nick Park’s films, go figure), because it usually creeps me out. Also, I’m typically against huge stars being employed for voice work in animated films, and I honestly can’t get past picturing George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Willem Dafoe and Jason Schwartzman while hearing their voices, and so I had trouble paying attention to the animals onscreen that are supposed to be the ones speaking.

I’m not alone in having no interest in this thing after seeing the trailer, but it seems some are still excited. Check out the rest of the film blogoshere’s reactions after the jump:

• S.T. VanAirsdale at Movieline tries to figure out why he’s now “running away from” this movie:
  

  Maybe it’s because I feel like I’m in on Anderson’s enduringly ironic tone yet I’m being narrated to like a child. (“This fall! Forget super! Ignore incredible! It’s all about fantastic!!”) Maybe it’s the canned, mismatched musical accompaniment, from the first half’s generic indie jangle to the R&B soundtrack clashing with the intimate dialogue toward the end. Maybe it’s the disconnection of most of the images — some of which do look inarguably great — from any narrative context. (To wit, what’s with all the dancing? And why is there a lab?) Maybe it’s the radical shifts from cute to sexy to heavy to light to funny to “look how postmodern we are” winkiness. Or it’s just feels like the same old bundle of Andersonesque twee that the culture has been lugging around for the last decade.

• Dustin Rowles at Pajiba agrees that it’s hard to separate Clooney’s voice from his face:
  

  It’s actually kind of jarring — as though I were watching a series of stop-motion animals performing Anderson’s Bottle Rocket script. It doesn’t help, either, that the voice cast is distracting — it’s hard — at least in this trailer — to get into the Mr. Fox character because he’s so obviously George Clooney. I just picture a guy in a sound booth with a martini and two women in short dresses draped around his arms. I don’t think that’s what Anderson was going for.

• Mickey Pagels at The Playlist also complains about some of the voices:
  

  We’re not exactly sure what to make of it. It looks cute and offers a few light chuckles, but we’re not sure if this trailer was made for the Wes Anderson fans or for the people that plan on seeing “Aliens in the Attic” this Friday. George Clooney’s ‘Fox’ voice sounds more smooth Danny Ocean and less like that of a father/husband. In fact, many of the voices sound relatively phoned in. Bill Murray sounds bored as does Owen Wilson, whose cameo was advertised in the trailer.

• Katey Rich at Cinema Blend also negatively comments on the voices:
  

  First of all, brace yourself for an onslaught of celebrity voices– Anderson regulars like Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray and Owen Wilson, plus George Clooney and Meryl Streep as the leads– that don’t particularly match the animal characters they’re voicing.

• Lane Brown at Vulture continues the voice work slamming:
  

  what’s up with the voice acting? George Clooney and Jason Schwartzman’s parts were apparently recorded at history’s least enthusiastic table reading, and Bill Murray sounds like he had a plane to catch. Still, it looks cute, we guess.

• Alex Billington at First Showing isn’t entirely sold yet:
  

  I really want to like this, just because I love well-made stop-motion animation, but I can’t get entirely into it yet. It looks very quirky and very fun, literally like a Wes Anderson movie that was made live-action that someone decided to make a stop-motion version of separately.

• Neil Miller at Film School Rejects defends the choppiness:
  

  The trailer gives the inclination that the movie could be a bit of fun, in the way that I find all of Wes Anderson’s films to be fun. The stop-motion animation has moments of cool and moments of choppiness, but who’s to say that isn’t intentional. Overall, I’m still jazzed for this flick — I always give Wes Anderson a chance.

• Paul Tassi at JoBlo.com notes a division of interest among his coworkers:
  

  It’s already eliciting mixed reactions from the JoBlo staff, but I have to say I land on the side of “quirky and charming” rather than “weird and creepy.”

• Kurt Halfyard at Twitch does see Anderson in this trailer, but not so much Dahl:
  

  Despite the stop-motion animation and talking animals, it is not very hard to identify all of the Wes Anderson trademarks (not to mention nearly every voice actor here as worked with him in the past) on display…but I do not see much of the sly-dark-humour that is the usual part-and-parcel with Dahl’s work.

• Noel Murray at A.V. Club also sees Anderson and goes against the “grumbling” detractors:
  

  …from first glance it looks like Anderson’s ported his sensibility over fully into the animated realm. Whether that’s a good thing is an open question…To me though, this trailer looks charming and funny. Bring on the deadpan whimsy!

• Sean at Film Junk continues the recognition of Anderson’s style:
  

  It certainly looks like his obsessive attention to detail and quirky sense of humour is a strong part of the mix, and with a voice cast that includes many of his usual collaborators, he’s not branching out quite as far as some might have previously thought. I suppose this could be good or bad depending on your point of view, but personally I can’t wait to see the final product.

• William Goss at Cinematical adds some other comparisons:
  

  This tale of a sly fox (voiced by George Clooney, natch) taking on some grumpy farmers reminded me a great deal of Chicken Run, if it were inspired less by The Great Escape and more by Ocean’s Eleven, and while it does look perfectly family-friendly, it really does seem to be a Wes Anderson film through and through

• Natasha VC at Defamer hopes this will make her love Anderson again, maybe even enough to write his films’ titles correctly:
  

  With Aquatic Life and Darjeeling Anderson’s once precious characters became irritating because they lost their spontaneity — whimsy is not a substitute for insight, you guys. But maybe Fantastic Mr. Fox will force Anderson away from the smug hipster trope and we’ll be able to fall in love with him again. Unless of course, there is a romantic subplot involving a pan-ethnic possum who shows Mr. Fox the true beauty in an mundane life. Booo!

And now, the trailer: