Movie review: Warmth and wit just what this sly 'Mr. Fox' needed

"Fantastic" turns out to be a slightly inadequate word to describe "Fantastic Mr. Fox," a delightfully off-the-wall adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's novel and a surprisingly perfect vehicle for the oddball whimsy of director Wes Anderson.

Anderson, who has a knack for eccentric ensembles, finds another charming bunch of misfits in Dahl's story of Mr. Fox and his woodland pals. If not for the fur and teeth on the animals, brought to life through equally quirky stop-motion animation, you would think these characters would fit right in with "The Royal Tenenbaums" or "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zizzou."

Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney) makes a promise to his wife, Mrs. Fox (voiced by Meryl Streep), when they are nearly captured while raiding a nearby chicken farm: No more stealing food from the farmers. After all, Mrs. Fox is pregnant now, and Mr. Fox has to think about his family.

Two years later (which is 12 fox-years, the onscreen title card tells us), Mr. Fox is a newspaper columnist, and he and Mrs. Fox are raising their son, Ash (voiced by Jason Schwartzman). But Mr. Fox is feeling restless -- he is, in spite of his sophistication, a wild animal -- and starts plotting to steal from the region's most prominent farmers: Boggis, Bunce and Bean. Dahl described the farmers with this rhyme: "Boggis, Bunce, and Bean / one fat, one short, one lean. / These horrible crooks, / so different in looks, / were nonetheless equally mean" -- so Mr. Fox's raiding carries with it dangerous consequences.

While Mr. Fox enlists his oppossum handyman Kylie (voiced by Wally Wolodarsky) to plan his raids, another family crisis emerges: Ash is growing resentful of living in his father's shadow -- Dad was a champion whackbat player in the school Ash now attends -- and jealous of his more accomplished cousin Kristofferson (voiced by Eric Anderson, the director's brother), who's currently sharing his room.

Anderson, co-writing with Noah Baumbach ("Margot at the Wedding," "The Squid and the Whale"), captures the wry wit of Dahl's writing while also winking at the audience with satirical edginess -- such as using "cuss" as an all-purpose substitute for swear words (as in "the cuss you are!").

The voice cast is a grand congregation of Anderson's friends and collaborators, including Bill Murray (as Mr. Fox's lawyer, a badger), Michael Gambon (as Farmer Bean), Owen Wilson (as Ash's whackbat coach), Willem Dafoe (as a rat guarding Bunce's cider stock), rocker Jarvis Cocker and even chef Mario Batali (as a rabbit cook).

But the star of "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is the movie's animation director, Mark Gustafson. A veteran of Will Vinton's Claymation films, Gustafson's stop-motion animation achieves a consciously hand-crafted look that stands out in an age of slick computer animation like a Chippendale cabinet in an IKEA store. It also fits into the playful attitude of "Fantastic Mr. Fox" like a fox in his burrow.

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