Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic, indeed.

'Fantastic Mr. Fox' is a terrific stop motion animated film, which is unmistakably a piece of Wes Anderson's work. I enjoyed the whole film undoubtedly, though the first half is much stronger than the second. The opening piece of stop motion didn't actually fill me with confidence, but thankfully that immediately disappeared as the whole thing looks truly excellent.

George Clooney is great in this, definitely the most I've liked a performance (from what I've currently seen, of course) of his away from the 'Ocean's flicks. Every member of the cast is top notch to be fair, from Bill Murray to Michael Gambon to Eric Anderson. Willem Dafoe is fun too.

The eponymous character lives with his wife and son in their foxhole under a great big tree. He's still got a traditional mischief gene, though, and is determined to use it one last time to rob the three, ruthless, farmers who live nearby. What he doesn't think through is that these farmers are not dimwits. They know exactly who is pilfering from them and so determine to avenge themselves on him and his family by digging them out of their home and, well a siege and a trip to the sewers now ensue for the all of the subterranean families. George Clooney and Meryl Streep lead the vocal cast - and they are great - but for me, the star of the whole thing is Sir Michael Gambon's wonderful contribution as their principal, wonderfully odious, antagonist "Bean". The animation is simple and effective to watch and the writing is frequently pithy offering plenty for the older audience to take from this entertaining critique on responsibility, greed, revenge, loyalty - you name it, it's probably here somewhere. Roald Dahl had an amazing imagination and by imbuing the foxes with human traits (and the humans with some animal ones) here, he makes an whole load of attributes accessible to the audience in a more enjoyably tangential manner - traits that are not always honourable ones, neither. These role reversals work well and make you wonder if humanity is really just in the purview of people! Great fun.