recalled in 2009
“I always loved Fantastic Mr. Fox,” Wes Anderson recalled in 2009 about the Roald Dahl novel that inspired his greatest film. “It was the first book I actually owned with my name written in the title page on a little sticker.” That kind of loving, handmade detail is all over the filmmaker’s adaptation, a gloriously tactile rendering of the Fox family and its hopelessly restless patriarch, whose fear of mortality drives him to return to his old criminal lifestyle. All Anderson films are tributes to their own meticulous design and dry wit, but Fox‘s stop-motion style adds a graceful fragility to the director’s ethos, and his voice cast (including George Clooney and Meryl Streep) gives decidedly grown-up, anti-cute performances. It’s a beloved cult item, as well as a holiday staple for discriminating families — ones who will no doubt see part of themselves reflected back in the movie’s very “different” menagerie of critters. TG