Fantastic Mr. Fox

Aroview: Wes Anderson’s quirky, buttoned-up sensibility is a fantastic match for Roald Dahl’s classic tale about a sly, debonair fox (George Clooney, appropriately) whose penchant for poaching sees his woodland community bear the brunt of the local farmers’ retaliation.

In a perfect marriage of dir. Anderson’s own formal preciousness and the rigors of stop-motion, this wondrous adaptation is a lively, fizzy-headed concoction that miraculously loses none of Dahl’s darkness, and yet remains one of the sweetest portrayals of fatherhood and family spirit ever made for children. A tailor-made project for the maker of such modern-day fables as THE LIFE AQUATIC and THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, the film is further enlivened by canny voice casting and some stunning, pint-sized art direction which, when combined with the exquisite animation of Mr. Fox and friends, is a real treat for young and old.