http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0432283/

There are some films that make you ponder things. Intellectual things like life, death, and toast. Then there are the other films that warm your heart. Not in a sappy love story way, but in that special way that can keep you smiling throughout. This is one of those films. I have always liked Wes Anderson, the only film of his I didn't like as much was The Life Aquatic due to it's forced quirkyness. He finds a place for his humor here. I remember reading the old fantastic Mr. Fox book when I was a kid. Heck I pretty much grew up on Roald Dahl's stories. This may not be the most faithful adaptation, but in this case I really don't care. George Clooney is perfect as Mr. Fox. You know his voice by now, and he makes no effort to hide it. He has a great charm that makes him almost impossible to hate. Well to me at least. The only other actors I can think of who would have done Mr. Fox's voice as well are Timothy Dalton, and Stephen Fry. Actually now that I think about it Stephen Fry's voice could have been awesome. Anyway though, the other voices in this film are all fantastic. My personal favorite was Rat voiced by Wilem Dafoe. I did not recognize his voice in the slightest. I had to double check the voice cast on IMDB to make sure, but damn he is good. The basic plot is Mr. Fox, and his wife voiced by the great Meryl Streep move into a new hole which happens to be near three farmers. Mr. Fox, and his friend Kylie start stealing from the three farmers Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. The farmers of course are not too fond of this idea and go after them. They use everything from Bulldozers, to explosions. Mr. Fox, and his family try to escape by digging as much as they can. Eventually they meet up with Badger voiced by Bill Murray, and many other critters. Many cartoons try and be funny, and sometimes they are. Most of the time though they can't mix humor, heart, and plot.

This film is one of the few I have seen recently that does. Every main character is developed well and I cared about them because of their great interactions and development. Some animations try too hard to be quirky and they end up relying on jokes and flashy visuals. Speaking of visuals, they has one of the most unique and interesting looks I have seen in a while. Some scenes look like side scrolling sets, like the characters are moving on a 2D plain. This may look odd to some, but I loved it. You can really see the effort that went into this film. All the characters look amazing, and their movements are realistic with that strange jerky look that a lot of stop motion seems to have. This has really been a fantastic year for animation. Not only have their been superb films like Mary and Max, and Coraline, but they all seem to have a good chance at winning a best animated feature Oscar. Well except Mary and Max, I doubt that will. Not that I care about the Oscars, but it would be good to see these films get some recognition. This may not be an intellectual film, and it may be very silly at times, but damn is it fun. I haven't smiled this much since I first saw Amelie. Whether it is Mr. Fox's relationship with his wife, or Ash, and Kristofferson's cute fights. I also loved Jarvis Cocker's cameo and Petey. Some people may not find that part funny since he isn't popular in America, but it made me chuckle. This film just oozes charm all over the place. It doesn't have that forced quirk that a lot of dreamworks films have, it actually is quite clever and funny. I can't recommend this film highly enough, though I don't think I can give it a perfect score. That could be that some jokes were not as funny as others, or maybe I don't cussing feel like giving it a perfect score! It may be charming and wonderful and many other adjectives, but it felt like there could have been a bit more to it, and some characters felt like they were thrown in just to get a laugh. I felt it was almost too short, at the end I wanted to see more. Then again that could also speak in favor of the film that I wanted more.

Overall I give it a 9 out of 10.