Fantastic Mr. Fox

Look up melancholy in a thesaurus and you might find the title of any of Wes Anderson’s previous films. The pretentious, egocentric and cathartic auteur who brought “Rushmore,” “The Royal Tenenbaums” and “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” to the silver screen is at it again, except this time he’s given us a children’s film. While Anderson’s pompous sense of humor and flamboyant set-designs are far from concealed in his most recent film, the PG rated, stop-motion animated, Roald Dahl originated “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is Anderson’s best film yet. A concept that is hard to envision considering he’s a director whose first five films were rated R. Roald Dahl’s 1970 children’s novel “Fantastic Mr. Fox” tells the story of other fox aptly named Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney), a sly and daring chicken, duck, turkey and cider thief. When Boggis (Robin Hurlstone), Bunce (Hugo Guinness) and Bean (Michael Gambon), the three meanest farmers in the land, realize Mr. Fox has been stealing from their farms, they will stop at nothing to catch the culprit. Dahl’s book is only about 80 pages long, written at a 3rd or 4th grade reading level, suffice to say Anderson had a bit of work to do in order to stretch it into an 87 minute movie. Anderson introduces Mr. and Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep), in the act of raiding a chicken farm. After Mr. Fox accidentally triggers a trap Mrs. Fox alerts him that she is pregnant and pleads with him to find a new, safer job. Two years later, which is twelve fox years, the foxes are living in a hole along with their son Ash (Jason Schwartzman). Mr. Fox, now working as a newspaper columnist decides to move the family into the base of a tree, telling his wife “Honey, I am seven fox years old. My father died at seven and a half. I don't want to live in a hole anymore, and I'm going to do something about it.” The tree is located very close to the facilities of Boggis, Bunce and Bean and the original and basic storyline is set.