Fantastic Mr. Fox

It wasn't too long ago that I had written off Wes Anderson as a filmmaker whose best days were behind him. He was stuck in a redundant rut and his quirky sensibilities seemed to be overriding the heartfelt soul of his work. But just as I am settling into the notion that Anderson can no longer surprise me, he delivers the wonderfully intimate, warmly embracing comedy Fantastic Mr. Fox. You'll have to forgive me for being so obvious, but Anderson's latest movie really is fantastic.

Choosing to adapt previously published material for the first time, while maintaining his trademark style, Anderson brings Roald Dahl's 1970 children's book to cinematic life using the mostly abandoned process of stop-motion animation. This means that every single thing seen on screen, from the various characters (animal and human) to the lushly conceived environments, is a physical object that was actually manipulated by hands-on animators in between every frame of footage.

The handcrafted beauty of the imagery is evident right from the beginning, as the titular hero Mr. Fox (comfortably voiced by George Clooney) leans against a tree atop a small hill, listening to a song about Davy Crockett on his walkman. The vibrant colours suggest a soothing Autumn morning, while Mr. Fox's stance and choice of music tell us so much about this cool, confident fox before he even utters a word.

Mr. Fox is a husband and a soon-to-be father, but his family man instincts are constantly upstaged by his desire to raid the farms of the story's villainous trio known as Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. His wife (wonderfully voiced by a stern, yet loving Meryl Streep) wishes that Mr. Fox would settle down and turn his back on his thieving ways, but he finds that he cannot resist the desire to pull on his bandit hat and steal some poultry.

At first, Mr. Fox manages to conceal his evening activities from his sceptical wife, but when Boggis, Bunce, and Bean (one fat, one short, one lean, as the whimsical song says) decide to fight back and exact revenge upon Mr. Fox and his entire family, the secret is out. Suddenly, everyone in the woodland creature community finds themselves in danger and struggling to survive.

Under Anderson's assured direction, Fantastic Mr. Fox never loses its sense of joyful adventure and the nuanced character work adds considerable depth to the emotional identity of the movie. The voice work (from a cast that also includes Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, and Michael Gambon) is absolutely superb and each recognizable voice feels perfectly suited to breathe life into a fox or a badger or an angry farmer.

The story hops along at an energetic pace and the movie's quirky sense of humour is always present, no matter how dire the situation becomes for our heroes. Anderson co-wrote the script with Noah Baumbach (Margot at the Wedding), another filmmaker with a strangely comedic way of looking at life who previously collaborated with Anderson on the script for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and the pair produce an infectious little gem bursting with hilarity.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is the rare movie that can inspire hysterical laughter with a simple sight gag. The extreme eccentricities of the characters are always endearing and never alienating, which makes so many scenes both very funny and sweetly touching. One of the movie's strongest subplots is a rivalry between Mr. Fox's son Ash and Ash's cousin Kristofferson, who is staying with the Fox family while his father recovers from double pneumonia.

Ash feels constantly underappreciated by his own father and yet Mr. Fox has nothing but love and praise for his nephew Kristofferson. Mr. Fox refuses to allow Ash to join him on his evening farm raids, but he happily invites Kristofferson along and even provides him with his very own bandit hat. Later on in the movie, Ash gets to go on a mission after all, but since he doesn't have a personal bandit hat, he modifies a tube sock.

Even the bandit hats themselves are rather silly, because they barely conceal the faces of the creatures wearing them. Mr. Fox's main ally, an opossum named Kylie, has a gigantic snout that occupies most of his face and entirely protrudes through a hole in his bandit hat. Such is the world of Anderson, Baumbach, and that Fantastic Mr. Fox. Everything is so light and goofy that it should fail to make much of an impression, but the movie ends up becoming one of the funniest and sweetest cinematic adventures of the year.

Due to this lovely, loving ode to stop-motion animation and wonderfully wild animals, I will not make the mistake of writing off Wes Anderson as a storyteller who has exhausted his abilities ever again. Through his vivid imagination and finely tuned sense of humour, Anderson has transformed Dahl's book into a technical marvel and one of his best movies to date. Fantastic Mr. Fox is a feast for the eyes and a ridiculously funny addition to Anderson's oeuvre. In an astounding year for animated cinema, this movie sits atop the heap in all its uniquely heartfelt glory.