Fantastic Mr. Fox

Roald Dahl.  The fact that one of the strangest genius children's authors in history wrote the book this movie is adapted from was enough to get me excited about this one.  A unique film style further whet my appetite and a fantastic cast featuring George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, Jarvis Cocker, Owen Wilson, Willem Dafoe and Helen McCrory under the quirky direction of Wes Anderson sealed the deal on this film as a must-see.

The film opens with Mr. Fox (Clooney) and his wife Felicity (Streep) raiding a chicken house when Fox's over abundance of confidence gets them trapped in a cage.  It's that moment that Felicity reveals that she is with cub and makes him promise that if they get out of this situation that he would leave this crazy profession for something safer.  Fast forward two years and Fox is a writer, living a safe but boring life with Felicity and his *makes odd hand motion* different son Ash (Schwartzman) in a hole.  Fox is antzy, however, and moves his family to a much more auspicious tree surrounded by three of the most dangerous farms around.  The temptation of the challenge proves to much, however, and Fox is back at his old profession, soon bringing the wrath of farmers Boggis (Robin Hurlstone), Bunce (Hugo Guinness), and Bean (Gambon) down on the Fox family and the rest of the animals.

The story telling style is a bit odd, jumping forward abruptly as it skips from chapter to chapter, complete with titles, kind of like the way those awesome mice introduced each section of Babe, but even more so.  The animation is also not traditional as it is some incredible stop motion work that calls to mind Gumby, but so much more complex and intriguing.  It really is a work of genius.  The story certainly show's it's British roots as the humour is just a little different in the way that you know I'm talking about.  It may be a children's story, but it is just as much for adults as it is for children with some subtleties and situations that are more mature.  And the characters certainly "cuss" a lot.

It might not be for everyone, with it's less than straight narrative and plenty of odd moments that the film stops on momentarily just to hurry past again, but I loved it.  It was fresh, different, and intelligent.  Amazingly, the characters were not overpowered by highly recognizable voices of the various stars as often seems to be the case with some animated films, like Monsters Vs. Aliens.  All in all, this was a good solid movie suitable and enjoyable by all ages.

***** (5/5 stars)