Fans of Roald Dahl may not know what has hit them when Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr Fox screens at Moonlight Cinemas across the country tomorrow night. As adaptations go, this is a particularly loose one, with Anderson using Dahl as a springboard for his own preoccupations. Indeed, all his usual tropes are there: the obsessive attention to detail; the marriage of whimsy, nostalgia and melancholy; the killer soundtrack (which includes the Rolling Stones, Jarvis Cocker and Mozart); and the fraught relationship between a self-centred father and his son. The film features brilliant voice performances from George Clooney and Meryl Streep as Mr and Mrs Fox, Bill Murray as Badger and Michael Gambon as Bean. The result is not only the best animated film of the year—the stop-motion work is charming and impeccably executed—but one of the best films, period.

The Australian, 18 December 2009