By Taylor Adams, News Staff

Put simply, Wes Anderson’s distinctly Wes Anderson-like new film ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ is, by most accounts, pretty fantastic.

For better or worse, the practice of adapting kids’ books for the adults that grew up reading them, and not for their children, is becoming a trend. So far, it has been for the better. Spike Jonze’s ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ proved it could be done artfully. But navigating the whimsical idiom and subtext of Roald Dahl’s work would be no easy task. Thankfully, Anderson doesn’t disappoint.

The celebrated director of ‘The Royal Tenenbaums,’ ‘The Darjeeling Limited’ and ‘Rushmore’ has, at this point, refined his style almost into the realm of auteur-hood, taking such care with each element of his filmmaking that the result is a distinctly ‘Anderson’ product. But ‘Fox,’ in many ways, represents a shift of gears for the very consistent director.

For one, it’s animated. Second, it draws from a popular children’s book by a revered writer so Anderson couldn’t have free reign with the script, as he is wont to do.

The plot remains, in some ways, like what Dahl wrote: Fox steals birds, farmers get angry. Cue digging, bulldozers, and clever animals beating out an oligarchical trio of selfish farmers to much fanfare.

But into this classic tale, Anderson injected his trademarks:’ plenty of familial strife and the subsequent bonding and lessons that arise from it, a whole script of understated sarcasm, Willem Dafoe as the voice of a creepy, switchblade-wielding rat ‘- the works, basically.

George Clooney voices the Fox-hero, while Meryl Streep speaks for his foxy wife. In Anderson’s version of the tale, Clooney’s fox is a newspaper columnist who steals chickens, and then other things, simply for the thrill.

Though one knows, logically, that these puppet-like characters are ostensibly lifeless and merely voiced in post-production, the casting is so spot-on, the dialogue so quirky, and the direction so intuitive that suspension of disbelief comes thoroughly into play.

Clooney’s cavalier attitude and generally debonair manner translate perfectly. It’s ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ with animals (It’s probably an improvement, actually). Streep brings a wealth of emotion and life to her role. Other Anderson regulars do their thing: Jason Schwartzman is perfectly whiney as Fox’s son, who is jealous of the general exploits of Kristofferson (Anderson’s brother, Eric), Fox’s serene young nephew who is inexplicably versed in yoga and martial arts. Wally Wolodarsky is a befuddled opossum and Bill Murray excellently voices Fox’s badger attorney, with whom he has many ‘cuss’ fights. Owen Wilson even makes an appearance as the kids’ athletic coach (I wish ‘Fox’s’ ‘whackbat’ were a real sport). The whole crew is here, and they all do a great job. It’s easy to feel the performances as if they were live action and not channeled through puppets.

Indeed, the animated nature of the film is an almost transcendent breakthrough for Anderson. Long known for his distinct visual style, he here has an opportunity to control everything, down to the last frame (it was painstakingly shot in stop motion, with still single-lens relfex cameras, no computer-generated imagery here). This film is a real pleasure to look at, and conjures the eclectic imagery found in illustrated children’s books of the best kind.
Instead of the jerkiness often associated with stop-motion, the effect here is one of dynamic and surreal fluidity. ‘Fox,’ as a work of animation, approaches brilliance boldly and often. It has the potential to become a work of much influence, as have the films of Pixar and the Disney classics that came before.

As Anderson’s quirky tale bounces in and out of the lanes Dahl provided, there are plenty of laughs, a few life lessons, some coming-of-age fare and a couple of satisfying moments of epiphany. It’s not really profound, but themes such as these have rarely, in recent memory, seemed less contrived. The film is refreshing and good for the soul.

What’s best about all this is, though it’s not a shallow film by any means, ‘Fox’ is put together with a humor and sensibility that makes it pretty to look at and fun to experience. And there’s something pretty fantastic about that, isn’t there?