FANTASTIC MR. FOX — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

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Although he might argue against it Wes Anderson, famous for his quirky sense of absurdist humor, seems to have found his forte in animation vis a vis Roald Dahl's 1970 children's book.

With a script co-written by Anderson and Noah Baumbach,  Anderson creates a magical stop-animation world inhabited by a fox family, various other woodland creatures, and a group of nasty human farmers who don't take kindly to having their livestock and cider stolen.

George Clooney applies his signature leathery voice to Mr. Fox, a snappily-dressed family guy whose animal nature sits at direct odds to his family's safety in their peaceful foxhole.

Meryl Streep voices Mr. Fox's even-keeled wife, and Jason Schwartzman speaks for the couple's bratty son Ash, who tries to compete with his athletically-prone cousin Kristofferson (Eric Anderson) who has come to stay with them.

The nearby industrial farms of Boggis, Bunch, and Bean prove too much of a temptation for Mr. Fox whose burglary plan brings down more human wrath than he is prepared to handle.

There are significant coincidences between Spike Jonze's "Where the Wild Things Are" and Anderson's "Fantastic Mr. Fox" in that both stories feature themes of an untamed animal nature in all of us. To that narrative end Anderson's film better satisfies, perhaps because Dahl's book presented a more developed source material than Maurice Sendak's book.

Anderson's lavish attention to visual detail supports the dry wit on display in a highly original animated film geared to appeal equally to adults and children.    

Rated PG. 88 mins.