Fantastic Mr Fox Movie

It seemed the year's animated films couldn't get smarter or more visually intriguing when the very sly "Fantastic Mr. Fox" showed up to steal the chicken and the stage. A stop-motion miracle adapted from the Roald Dahl children's book, there is much to captivate: its painterly look -- you can count the foxes' whiskers should you be so inclined; its clever way with foibles, human and otherwise. It doesn't hurt that director Wes Anderson got George Clooney, already the sliest fox in Hollywood, and Meryl Streep, who rules the acting hen house, as the leads.

It seemed the year's animated films couldn't get smarter or more visually intriguing when the very sly "Fantastic Mr. Fox" showed up to steal the chicken and the stage. A stop-motion miracle adapted from the Roald Dahl children's book, there is much to captivate: its painterly look -- you can count the foxes' whiskers should you be so inclined; its clever way with foibles, human and otherwise. It doesn't hurt that director Wes Anderson got George Clooney, already the sliest fox in Hollywood, and Meryl Streep, who rules the acting hen house, as the leads.

A self-described "total novice" in stop-motion animation, Wes Anderson severely tested the patience of his crew of stop-motion top guns by forgoing many of the most modern animation methods and new innovations in the genre to give his family thriller "Fantastic Mr. Fox" what he calls a more "rudimentary" feel. But even while exasperating his underlings -- "He has made our lives miserable," director of animation Mark Gustafson said on the movie's London set last spring -- Anderson's aesthetic mandate had an unexpected upshot.

A self-described "total novice" in stop-motion animation, Wes Anderson severely tested the patience of his crew of stop-motion top guns by forgoing many of the most modern animation methods and new innovations in the genre to give his family thriller "Fantastic Mr. Fox" what he calls a more "rudimentary" feel. But even while exasperating his underlings -- "He has made our lives miserable," director of animation Mark Gustafson said on the movie's London set last spring -- Anderson's aesthetic mandate had an unexpected upshot.