Anderson is in the hen house

Rating: 7/10 (15 November 2009)

A fox has gotta stay true to being a fox. That's the point of director Wes Anderson's (The Royal Tennenbaums) simplistic, yet entertaining first foray into animation. With "Coraline", "Up", and now "Fantastic Mr. Fox", that "Best animated Feature" Oscar race is heating up. Based on the children's book by Roald Dahl, Fox (voice with sly charm by George Clooney) promises his wife (Meryl Streep) that he'll quit his thieving ways and settle down with a less dangerous job in order to support his fast-growing family. 2 years later (12 in fox years), Fox is a newspaper man living with his wife and young son named Ash (Jason Schwartzman), who is eager to please his father and jealous of his taller and much more talented visiting-cousin Kristofferson (Eric Anderson). Except something just isn't right. Fox needs that thrill of catching chickens and so along with his opossum buddy Kylie (Wally Wolodarsky), he sets out to steal from three of the meanest land-owners in the area, Boggis, Bunce, and the soon to be leader of the three who sets out to kill Fox, Bean (Michael Gambon). Soon Fox realizes that he's not only put the lives of his family at risk, but all the other animals as well. The stop motion animation is amazing; the bright-orangey scenery, fluidly quick character movements, and their outstanding creation are all marvelously done. Anderson has also found a good medium for his quirky sense of humor, especially in a hilarious description of a convoluted baseball/cricket-type game and an on-going gag about Kylie's eyes. George Clooney leads the way in voice casting but the all-star cast does nice work as well, Gambon playing a perfectly gruff antagonist, Schwartzman as the attention-seeking son, and Willem Dafoe very funny as a Louisiana rat. Streep, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Brian Cox also show up but have less to do. "Fox" is a little less than fantastic, but it's a fun way to spend an hour and a half.