[9.25/10] Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

"Fantastic Mr. Fox", Anderson's stop-motion adaptation of Dahl's beloved book of the same name seems from its opening frames to be an absolute classic! It's one of the best films of the year and more fun by miles than anything I've seen in the past years. In the stop-motion animated world of Mr. Fox Anderson's stylistic quirks lose their distancing surreality and become instead marvels, utter naturalistic joys. It's a sublime pairing, and it highlights what has always been Anderson's true strength: his writing. It's funny, scary and moving, and like Dahl's work it retains its feel of coming intact from kid-land with all of the loopiness and anarchic joie-de-vivre that entails. The animation, is simply wonderful. Gorgeously designed backgrounds and scenery full of simply incredible attention to detail, the film is full of such loving care and attention. Each character feels full of personality and it's refreshing to see something other than a glossy 3D rendered animation film for a change most certainly. Alexandre Desplat's fantastic score is the juicy cherry at the top of this delicious cake. Lovely, funny and tender. The voice acting is excellently done, Anderson took the cast outside, underground and indoors for the varying parts of the film to give it a real feel of authenticity which pays off. George Clooney and Meryl are just perfect, and Jason Schwartzman and Eric Anderson are funny and subtle as two young foxes. "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is extremely funny and with as much depth as any grown-up film made this year, it's not just entertaining and fun to watch, it's a spectacularly well-made film!

• My Rating: 9.25/10
• Rotten Tomatoes: 93% (7.8/10)
• IMDb: 8.2/10