You keep waiting for a stroke of brilliance that just never comes.

Rating: 4/10 (24 September 2010)

I have no idea why viewers at IMDb have given this movie an 8 out of 10.
Well, that's not quite true. I do have an idea why. But it's not a good reason.
There's a tendency in our society to rate things really highly that are different. Well, "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is certainly that. Different.
That's about the best I can say for it.
When you combine "different" - which in this case means:
* stop-motion animation
* deliberately dull color schemes
* a mostly-incoherent plot
* and quirky attempts at humor
with many of the major characters speaking in extremely familiar voices (such as those of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray and Willem Dafoe), you have a recipe for a runaway success. By "runaway success," I mean that this movie somehow managed to recoup its $40 million budget.
Yes, the only thing more astonishing than the fact that this plodding, (in my opinion) artless film cost $40 million to make is that it grossed more than it cost.
I normally try not to give away the plot in my reviews, but there's not much worry about that with this movie. It's a looong 87 minutes.
At one point I had to go and retrieve my 7-year-old son (who LOVES movies), because he had wandered away for lack of interest. It looked like something worth watching was actually about to happen. I regret that I did not allow him to go on his own way.
To give them credit, they certainly tried to be "original." Their approach was to go a bit further than most such films in incorporating themes more relevant to adults and older teens, such as marital conflict, teenage identity crisis, flipping real estate, the sexual reputation of Mr. Fox's wife, and so forth. The result is an awkward mix of soap opera and animated action that isn't quite suitable either for children or for adults. (Interestingly, two of the three reviews immediately before mine, both from people who LOVED the film, said almost the same thing!)
The good points of this film include some good voice acting by familiar voices, and some decent music.
My 12-year-old son, by the way, concurs with my assessment of this movie. His review: "The animation is pretty bad, and there wasn't really a plot. All they did was run around in sewer pipes and get shot at all the time. Definitely a one-time-view only."
Both of us (independently) also drew comparisons to the infamous Superbabies 2: Baby Geniuses. In fact, my son stated that he would rather watch the latter, as "it actually has a plot line."
If you appreciate a movie that's different really just for the sake of being different, then you'll probably love this film. Otherwise, I'd give it a miss. Honestly, I was kind of sorry I rented it. I had in mind to rent a good family movie, and since this one was PG-rated, animated, and given a vote of 8.0 out of 10 by IMDb viewers, I thought it would be a good choice. But it really isn't a good family film, for the reasons stated above.
Also, even though the film substitutes "cuss" for all profanity, I must admit squirming a bit when Mr. Fox sighed, "This is gonna be a total clustercuss for everybody." I could just see one of my kids asking me, "Dad, what's a clustercuss?"
In short: This movie was highly-rated for the exact same reason Barack Obama was elected President: It's different from what we're used to. Unfortunately, in both instances, we can see that different doesn't always mean worthwhile.
Oh, and I see the first person to rate my review rated it as "not useful," probably because he or she loves this film (or Barack Obama, or both). The review is what it is: an honest assessment of this movie by someone who has seen hundreds of films (if not thousands) and has reviewed 50 of them (!) here on IMDb. It tells you specifically why neither I nor any of my family liked "Fantastic Mr. Fox."
I recognize that mine is (obviously) a minority opinion, but I don't really see how that makes for an "unhelpful" review. What it should tell you instead (especially when you go through additional reviews and see other 4-and-5 star ones besides mine) is that while lots of people love "Fantastic Mr. Fox," it certainly is NOT for everyone. There are actually a fair number of us who simply don't agree.