An animation style all it's own, and to back it up, great characters.

Rating: 8/10 (11 December 2009)

Wes Anderson has been criticized for his works being too slow, and not funny enough, and for a variety of things. Like all of his other films, this is unmistakably a Wes Anderson film through and through, with offbeat characters, and quietly funny scenes, and subtle character development. This movie is quite subtle in the jokes and in a lot of lines, so children may or may not understand different parts of the film to be funny, but even if they don't they'll be dazzled by the odd, but amazing looking animation.
Mr. Fox (George Clooney) has to give up his life as a chicken thief once he finds out Mrs. Felicity Fox (Meryl Streep) is pregnant. Two human years later he's working as a newspaper columnist to feed his wife and his not so athletic son, Ash (Jason Schwartzman). Mr. Fox, being the wild animal that he is, grows tired of his mundane life and along with his buddy Kylie (Wallace Wolodarsky), he begins robbing farms again, which angers three farmers who are dead set on killing Mr. Fox. Meanwhile, Fox's athletic nephew Kristofferson (Eric Chase Anderson) moves in and makes Ash jealous. Chaos ensues throughout.
This movie's animation style is a style of it's own. It's stop motion animated, and has that extra dimension because of this, but instead of making all kinds of wide sets to put the characters on, everything is flat. This movie at times resembles a traditionally drawn cartoon, because of it's flat animation. That sounds like a bad thing, but it is actually very unique and great to look at. The sets and the characters and everything just look amazing.
Character development is subtle...especially to kids. It will definitely either be very subtle or fly over kids' heads altogether. One scene Ash in mean to Kristofferson because he's jealous, and they bond silently over the running of a toy train. It's a sweet scene, but again development is quiet and implied. Another scene (not giving away any spoilers here), where the simple response of a creature after a long speech is to raise it's arm in an agreeing manner, is also quiet but meaningful.
Problems with this movie range from some bouts of "humorous" dialogue that aren't overly hilarious, to strange character quirks that have you puzzled until the end, but it's still a well done, original and entertaining family film. Director/writer Wes Anderson did a good job writing like himself but keeping the Roald Dahl touch in there.
My rating: *** out of ****. 90 mins. PG for fake cussing, drinking and smoking (Yeah, that's right, movies are rated up for smoking now!)