The Wes Anderson Happy Meal.

Published Tue, Nov 3 2009 9:05 AM
It's expected that a blockbuster like "Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen" get nonsensical tie-ins like Strawberry-Peanut Butter M&Ms -- junk movies spawn junk food. And we don't squawk in protest at "Twilight: New Moon" band-aids, if only because it takes a certain amount of wit (or, uh, greed) to propose using a vampire's face to stop bleeding. But then there are our auteurs, our artists, whose work is challenging, unusual, not just empty entertainment. Clearly, they, of all people...do not deserve marketing and merchandising? McDonald's has a "Fantastic Mr. Fox" Happy Meal, which brought out the fiend in the Guardian's Ryan Gilbey, who fumed that this wouldn't "be noteworthy in the slightest if the film in question were some DreamWorks piece of junk, or a knock-off directed by a hack," but that Anderson "should not be getting into bed with McDonald's, and using his work to lure young children into...

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