Mr. Fox is, indeed, fantastic

In theaters Friday: Invictus , The Lovely Bones , The Princess and the Frog

New on DVD/Blu-ray: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince , Julia & Julia , Public Enemies , The World’s Greatest Dad

Well, auteur Wes Anderson has made his most consistent and delightful film since 2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums, and all it took was three years, hundreds of technicians and artists and dozens of miniature models of little furry woodland creatures. Considered a minor work by famed author Roald Dahl, Fantastic Mr. Fox is oft-forgotten in favor of his better-known stories like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and until Anderson bought the rights to the book, at least, it was thought far too British and agrarian a tale to appeal to wider audiences. But Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach (see his Anderson-produced The Squid and the Whale and avoid everything else) manage to harness the middle section of Dahl’s book, shift focus from the farmers to the fox family and create a half-dozen lovingly-rendered characters for this bittersweet, but often riotously funny coming-of-age comedy.

George Clooney stars as Mr. Fox, a middle-aged newspaper columnist who can’t resist his animal urge for “one more raid” of a nearby farmer’s chicken coop to taste the thrill of his younger, single days as a devil-may-care rascal. So he moves his family, including Meryl Streep’s Mrs. Fox, and their moody teenage son Ash, above ground and into a tree near the valley’s three most ruthless agribusiness owners: Boggis, Bunce and Bean. By day Fox plays it cool, but by night he sneaks out of he house with dim-witted opossum pal, Kylie, to lift from their stock. Clooney is in his comfort zone with this unrepentantly likable yet flawed character, and as Mrs. Fox, Meryl Streep’s incremental measurements of sass and levelheaded, maternal composure are perfect matches for Anderson’s storytelling. “If what I think is happening, is happening, it better not be,” she says like a schoolteacher pushed to her limits. Is there anything Streep can’t do? After Fox’s raids draw ire, and a counterattack from the three farmers puts his family in danger, Streep forgives him, then, in one of the film’s several adult turns, says without a trace of irony, “But I shouldn’t have married you.”

As Ash, Jason Schwartzman channels his first, most celebrated role of Max Fischer from Anderson’s classic sophomore effort Rushmore. Nothing is funnier than dose after dose of Schwartzman’s teen angst from a harmless runt who seems to possess none of the athleticism, ingenuity or charisma so amply overflowing from his father’s genetic tool kit. Making matters worse for Ash is the arrival of his overachieving cousin, Kristofferson, who not only wins the admiration of Ash’s father, but the affections of the foxiest spotted fox in the school, the same girl Ash has harbored a hopeless crush on for years.

As the invasion of Boggis, Bunce and Bean drives Mr. Fox’s family and a host of their animal neighbors underground and into the sewer system, Mr. Fox must face his fears and his mistakes to devise a plan and rally his friends to strike back at these sinister farmers, while Ash struggles to come to terms with his emotionally cold father, his rivalry with his cousin, and his own place in adulthood. These are the film’s clear themes, making it a movie more for young adults and their parents, than one for small children who may find this decidedly un-CG look a shock to the Shrek-fed system.

Parents will certainly appreciate the eclectic soundtrack, which includes a few Beach Boys chestnuts, Burl Ives and forgotten ’60s gem “Let Her Dance,” by the Texas rock-n-rollers The Bobby Fuller Four, on top of perfectly cast cameos from Anderson regulars Bill Murray, as a law-practicing Badger, and Owen Wilson, as Ash’s whackbat coach, Skip.

While Mark Gustafson’s old school stop motion animation is charmingly choppy and untouched by modern computer generated imagery, it is also gloriously bespoke in detail, displaying all of the overly rich and quirky traditions Anderson has trademarked now for more than a decade. The warm thatches of animal fur are textured and detailed because they are made of real hair. Smoke rolls and billows from chimneys and pipes like tender pulls of cotton because they are, and an underground waterfall glistens with a flowing, plastic sheen because its dizzying effect is handcrafted from moving strips of Saran wrap. By using traditional methods in an untraditional way, Anderson and Gustafson show us things we’ve never seen before: a shimmering mineral deposit backdrop glows like Christmas during a poignant conversation, and The Rolling Stones’ “Street Fighting Man” thunders as Boggis, Bunce and Bean advance on Fox’s tree with their roaring demolition crews in a scene that rivals any use Martin Scorsese could dream up for his favorite band.

There is something faintly magical about seeing through a film like this and catching a glimpse of the technique used to create the effects and move the characters, like spotting the blur of the puppet master’s hand, or smiling wide at the exuberant amateurishness of a children’s school play. Anderson harnesses this magic for the first time since The Royal Tenenbaums, and even though these are models moved ever-so-slightly by invisible hands, Anderson’s inventive fingerprints are all over them. From the fresh, snappy dialogue you’ll be quoting for weeks, to the Peanuts-esque feel Anderson can conjure on a whim, Fantastic Mr. Fox is a jewel.