The first word that comes to mind when I try to describe this film is "joyous". Fantastic Mr. Fox is just a lot of fun to watch, from its charmingly low tech stop motion animation, to its sharp and dry sense of humor. The tone and wit of the film is very much in the style of Aardman Animation (Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run), but it has a unique style that allows this movie to join the ranks of Up, Coraline, and Ponyo as one of the best animated films of the year. This is the perfect remedy for anyone who had to sit through Planet 51 last weekend.

The director and co-writer is Wes Anderson (The Darjeeling Limited), a mostly indie filmmaker best known for his offbeat comedies. Walking in, I couldn't picture his style of humor working in a family film, but now I see how natural it is. Fans of his films will easily recognize his dry, deadpan dialogue. The characters certainly talk like they're in a Wes Anderson movie, they're just furrier than normal. Some of his "regular" actors like Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, and Bill Murray even provide voices. What grabs your attention before the dialogue, though, is the look of the film. The style is intentionally low key stop motion, with somewhat jerky movements, and fur that bristles on the characters from the animators moving the figures one frame at a time. It has a certain nostalgic quality to it, like the stop motion animated TV specials one would watch on TV. The style of the animation fits the fable-like story, which is based on the classic childrens book by Roald Dahl. Anderson and fellow screenwriter, Noah Baumbach, went to great extremes to get the look and feel right, even going so far as to write the screenplay in Dahl's former home for inspiration.

All the effort to get closer to the source material has paid off with an adaptation that is faithful, yet fleshed out enough to fit the feature length without feeling padded. When we first meet the wily Mr. Fox (voice by George Clooney), his passion is stealing chickens from the local farm with the help of his caring wife, Felicity (Meryl Streep). When Felicity became pregnant with their first cub, Ash (Jason Schwartzman), Fox had to leave the fast-paced life behind, settle down, and become a columnist for a local woodland creature newspaper. The Fox clan is a fairly happy family unit, though young Ash is feeling jealous when cousin Kristopherson (Eric Anderson) moves in, and starts stealing all the attention away from him at home and at school. Fox, though, is showing signs of a mid-life crisis. He's tired of living in a hole in the ground, and wants to move into a larger home in a tree that overlooks three local farms that are run by the meanest farmers in the valley - Boggis (Robin Hurlstone), Bunce (Hugo Guinness), and Bean (Michael Gambon). The allure of the farms, and dreams of his past days of chicken-snatching glory, become too strong for Fox to resist. He begins a secret double life, one which is quickly discovered by the local farmers. When they go to great lengths to capture whoever is stealing their prized chickens, they end up threatening all the local animals.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is a very subtle film, both in its humor and storytelling. The jokes and one liners sometimes fly so fast in a deadpan sort of way, you might miss more than a few. All the more reason to watch it more than once, I suppose. This is also a charming and heartfelt film, with more emotion than I expected. The relationship that Mr. Fox has with his wife is one that carries the heart of the movie. She understands her husband is frustrated with his settled down life, and maybe has a hunch that he might be secretly doing something behind her back, but she trusts him. When she learns the truth, and how his actions may have hurt not just their family, but all the other animals around them, she does not know how to respond, and even strikes out in physical anger by slashing his cheek with her claws. I've read some reviews complaining how the matter is not resolved. They do talk things out, but there's a sense at the end that things are still a little tense between them, although Felicity does clearly still love her husband, and helps out in his plan to get back at the farmers. I feel this is intentional, and makes the characters all the more human, or at least as human as stop motion foxes can be, anyway. Clooney and Streep bring genuine warmth and depth to their characters, and how they interact with each other, making Mr. and Mrs. Fox more interesting than most live action couples we see in movies.

Another aspect of the story I liked concerns their son, Ash. He's always felt like he's been in the shadow of his father, and wants to live up to the expectations everyone seems to have of him. When his cousin comes to live with them, these feelings grow stronger, as cousin Kristopherson excels at everything he does not - Swimming, karate, yoga, science, talking to the girl he likes at school...When his dad chooses Kristopherson, and not him, to go with him on his secret late night chicken raids, it deeply hurts Ash. The Foxes are obviously a loving, but very dysfunctional family. This has always been somewhat of a trademark of Anderson's films, and it's used to some of its best and most emotional effect here. Stepping into animation for the first time seems to have opened a lot of doors for him. He can hold onto his style of dialogue and humor, while at the same time it forces him to create more human characters than in some of his past films, since he has to try harder with emotion to make these stop motion figures seem alive. He also makes excellent use out of his talented voice cast. None of the celebrity voices distract, not even Clooney, who seems to be playing Mr. Fox the same way he played Danny Ocean in Ocean's Eleven and its sequels. At least it fits the character.
The only thing I can't say about Fantastic Mr. Fox is how kids will respond to it, as I was the only person at my screening. I can imagine older kids getting a kick out of it, but younger ones might squirm in their seats, as the humor is almost entirely dialogue-based and very dry. I think this is a movie that will develop a cult following over time. It's very smart, completely charming, and makes me want to see Anderson tackle animation again. I think he's found a niche.

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