During the Academy Awards this year, I took notice of the nomination of an animated film called “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.” I had briefly heard of it, but could not even remember it hitting theaters. I wondered what was so special about it that it would be nominated alongside movies like “Up.” It wasn’t until a few days ago that I had the chance to watch it, and NOW I understand the nomination. It is a brilliantly written comedy from the combined minds of director Wes Anderson and author Roald Dahl. I was a little hesitant to watch “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” with my 6 year old because I had no idea what Anderson would bring to the table in terms of direction. I was partially right to be hesitant. My daughter enjoyed the delightfully stop-motion animated antics of Mr. Fox and his family, but a lot of the humor was a bit over her head. I laughed my darn fool head off and had to stop to explain several times why I was laughing.

Being that the story was originally written by Roald Dahl, you have to understand that there is a lot of high-brow cerebral humor involved. It absolutely appealed to my sense of humor.

The storyline follows the adventures of Mr. Fox (George Clooney) who, being a fox, enjoys breaking into chicken coops and stealing chickens with his wife, Felicity (Meryl Streep). But upon the announcement that they are going to have a little fox, they decide it is time to settle down. Mr. Fox gets a job writing newspaper articles and very quickly begins to miss the life of adventure. Things only worsen as his now grown up son, Ash (Jason Schwartzmen), is a manic depressive, angst ridden boy who still likes to wear capes. When cousin Kristofferson (Eric Chase Anderson) comes to stay with them, it only worsens as he is perfect at everything.

The family soon decides that living in the ground is no longer the perfect life, so they move to a tree with a nice yard and a view. The view unfortunately happens to be of three very successful farms. The temptation is too great, and Fox decides to secretly raid each one of them as one last ‘fling.’ From this point of the movie, it become all out war between the animals and the humans that escalates to hysterical proportions. I swear I laughed pretty much non-stop throughout as the humor changed from droll to outlandish and back.

“The Fantastic Mr. Fox” is a brilliantly conceived animated film, but as it is based on the work of Dahl and conceptualized by Anderson, you have to pay attention to every little details and line of dialogue. Some of the humor is very slight and hard to catch if you are not paying attention. The vocal delivery by every member of the cast is spot on perfect and captures the spirit of the characters and the story surrounding them. I can’t imagine a better casting choice for any role.

The Bluray release by 20th Century Fox offers a DVD copy as well as a Digital Download (which is already on my iPhone and I have watched 3 times). The Bluray itself looks and sounds terrific, as it was shot in a very high resolution making every little detail pop out of the screen. It was interesting to see such a high resolution mixed with stop-motion animation as you could truly appreciate the art form. The sound was also exceptional, with every line of dialogue being clear as a bell. The music in this film is also very important to the tone and it was mixed just right as to not overpower.

There are several extra features, most dealing with the making of the film. All are well worth watching, but my favorite was ‘The Cast’ as I always enjoy seeing the faces behind the voices in any animated film. Those dealing with the actual stop-motion animation were also interesting considering what a tedious process it can be. Two addition features focus on the game of Whack-Bat (which you have to see to not understand) and the original book by Dahl.

Not knowing what to expect from “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”, I certainly got more than I bargained for. I don’t really recommend it for very young children, as it gets a little violent at times, but it offers a highly entertaining time for smart audiences.

Directed by: Wes Anderson
Starring (the voices of): George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson
Extras: DVD Copy of the film; A Digital Copy of the film; From Script to Screen feature; A Still Life (Puppet Animation) feature;A Beginner’s Guide to Whack-Bat; A 6-part Making Mr. Fox Fantastic documentary – “The Look Of Fantastic Mr. Fox”, ”From Script To Screen”, ”The Puppet Makers”, “Still Life (Puppet Animation)”, “The Cast”, “Bill And His Badger”)
Specification: Widescreen 1080p High Definition (2.40:1); 5.1 DTS-HD MA
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: 3/23/2010
MPAA Rating: PG-13

We'll give The Fantastic Mr. Fox (Bluray) an A.