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December 2, 2009

'Fantastic Mr. Fox' clever, funny, entertaining

By STEVE OUELLETTE, Movie Review

Fantastic is a high bar to reach, but "Fantastic Mr. Fox" nimbly leaps over it and lands on its feet.

It's fast and funny and it's as entertaining for adults as it is for children — probably more so.

Writer-director Wes Anderson's comedies tend to be wry and clever to the point of smugness; they're more absurd than outright funny.

Here, however, he appears to have found his perfect medium — absurd works just great in the world of animation.

George Clooney leads an outstanding voice cast as Mr. Fox himself, a smooth, charismatic operator with a thirst for thievery — not unlike Clooney's own Danny Ocean in "Ocean's Eleven."

Meryl Streep's Mrs. Fox has twisted him to a life of clean-living — for a while. Eventually, however, temptation rears its ugly head and Mr. Fox plans a glorious caper to clean out not one, but three, greedy farmers.

With his trusty possum sidekick alongside, Mr. Fox succeeds at first, but the farmers soon fight back and put the entire forest in peril.

The cast of characters includes Mr. Fox's moping son Ash (Jason Schwartzman); Ash's seemingly perfect cousin, Kristofferson (voiced by Anderson's brother Eric); Bill Murray as a political badger; Willem Dafoe as a dangerous rat; and Michael Gambon (Dumbledore in the "Harry Potter" films) as the chief angry farmer.

In a world of slick computer-generated and 3-D animation, "Fantastic Mr. Fox" has a primitive stop-motion look that is perfectly retro and fits the story's sentiments just right. The style is a bit jarring at first, but Anderson uses it to great effect — comically starred out eyes, bristling fur, flashes of teeth. Soon we can't imagine the story told any other way.

Based on a novel by Roald Dahl, the film features humor that will go over the heads of very small children, but the story is good and the characters are great. It's clearly one of the best animated movies of the year.

Rental Recommendation: Mel Gibson is a flying rooster in the underrated animated film "Chicken Run." Grade: B

E-mail Steve Ouellette at: ouellette1918@gmail.com


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