What The (curse) !

Rating: 9/10 (3 January 2010)

When I found out that Wes Anderson had a new film in the can ready for release some months back,I was jumping for joy (I've been a fan of Anderson's work for some years now,which includes 'Rushmore','The Royal Tennenbaums,and 'The Darjeeling Limited',and others). When I found out further that it was to be an animated adaptation of Roald Dahl's book,'The Fantastic Mr.Fox',I was doing cerebral back flips. Wes Anderson directs a screen play written by Anderson & Noah Baumbach (The Squid & The Whale),based on the book by Roald Dahl (Charlie & The Chocolate Factory,James & The Giant Peach,etc.). The story concerns the afore mentioned Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney),who finds out from his life partner ,Mrs.Fox (Meryl Streep,last seen in 'Julie & Julia',and currently in 'It's Complicated') that she's expecting a fox pup,in a farmer's steel trap & promises if they get out,he would renounce his evil ways & make a nice life for both of them. Problem is,some years later,he gets the old itch to go out & kill chickens & steal food. In the tradition of the 'Oceans' series,he schemes one more heist from the local farmers. Problem is,one heist turns into another & another,until things get out of control. Besides George Clooney & Meryl Streep,the likes of Anderson regular,Jason Schwartzman,Bill Murray,Owen Wilson,as well as the likes of Michael Gambon,Willem Dafoe, & even Wes Anderson,himself, lend their voices to this fun little film that despite the wave of 3D-CGI animation,instead settles for old school stop motion animation (the same kind of animation used for Gumby,Wallace & Gromit,and others),which,although not the best stop motion animation I've seen,is still worth seeking out. Rated PG by the MPAA,this film serves up some occasionally harrowing action scenes,some suggested rude talk (the characters substitute the word "curse" for the real thing),and a bit of smoking & drinking by the humans in the story.