Based on the classic novel by Roald Dahl, who also penned "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "James and the Giant Peach," Fantastic Mr. Fox brings us into the world of the furry critters in the forest. The film opens with Mr. Fox (George Clooney) and his wife Felicity (Meryl Streep) doing what foxes do, going into a local farm to steal a pigeon. As they make their getaway, Mr. Fox makes a pit stop to comment on a trap the farmers have obviously laid for them. In the process of examining it and theorizing about it, the trap closes on them and perhaps seals their faith. At that moment his wife announces they are pregnant and if they survive this predicament, Mr. Fox needs to find a new line of work. Jump two years in the future and Mr. Fox now has a daily news column in the local rag. However family life and his status as a writer can not change who Mr. Fox is inside. Mr. Fox decides he needs to do one more caper to satisfy his restlessness. Will this help to satisfy his urges or will it take him, his family and the rest of the forest down a slippery slope?

Fantastic Mr. Fox is every bit a fantastic looking and equally fantastic story about being true to yourself. Roald Dahl’s story is in wonderfully hands with director Wes Anderson who choose to go old school stop action animation (think Nightmare Before Christmas) to bring this classic story to life. Wes also brought along many of his friends whom he has collaborated in the past. Along for the ride included the voices of Jason Scwartzman as the son Ash Fox, Bill Murray as their lawyer Clive Badger and Owen Wilson as Coach Skip. Owen has actually appeared in every Wes Anderson movie to date and often produces and co-writes the screenplay.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is for everyone who enjoys a quirky little tale that Roald Dahl and Wes Anderson do so well. Pixar’s “Up” might have been the animated darling of last year but that doesn’t mean you should overlook this wonderful and yes equally “fantastic” film.

Extras

As with the previous releases by Wes Anderson, there are a nice collection of extras available. First up we have what has started to become standard with most Blu-ray releases offering up both a standard def disc and a digital copy of the film. As time goes on, I’m not sure I agree with forcing the consumer to have to pay a little more to have the standard def version. Also, although I like having a digital copy, I would think at this day and age it should be a downloadable option since you need a computer to utilize this feature in the first place. Regardless, these are still nice extras to have and may come in handy.

The making of featurettes can be viewed in a Play All option or individually that add up to about forty five minutes. They include the process of the script to the screen, to the puppets themselves and even the voice actors. There is A Beginner’s Guide to Whack-Bat that is a faux featurette, using the same stop action animation, which teaches us the game of Whack-Bat that can be seen briefly in the film. Fantastic Mr. Fox: The World of Roald Dahl is a short featurette on the man who wrote this wonderful story and finally there is the theatrical trailer. All in all the extras are well worth exploring after viewing the film.

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