Fantastic Mr. Fox 2009

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: If only Mr. Fox were a more interesting character! Then, I think, the story's resolution would be more than merely quaint. Read more

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: Cool, clever, crafty and delirious amounts of fun, "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is full of brilliant visual invention and silly slapstick while also having hip humor and sly smarts -- it's pure movie-going joy and a rare kind of pleasure. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Fantastic Mr. Fox, which Mr. Anderson wrote with Noah Baumbach, and which he has been hoping to make for many years, is in some ways his most fully realized and satisfying film. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The additions are okay; but it's the look that keeps you buoyed up, your eyes roaming the frames, laughing in surprise at the visual jokes and flourishes and textures. It's a dandy's movie, but that adds to the fun. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Life is full of surprises. The best one I've had in a good while is Fantastic Mr. Fox. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Wes Anderson's utterly charming Fantastic Mr. Fox is that rarity: a children's movie for all. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: This is no more a kids' movie for kids than Where the Wild Things Are; it's a film strictly for Wes Anderson fans of all ages. By now, they should know who they are. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Fantastic Mr. Fox may be the perfect kids movie for grown-ups. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Other filmmakers turn to children's stories when they have kids of their own. Anderson seems to have made this one for his inner child. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Like the rest of his movies, this one is essentially infantile -- but when you're telling the story of a ne'er-do-well fox conspiring against a trio of nasty farmers, who cares? Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Anderson injects such charm and wit, such personality and nostalgia -- evident in the old-school animation, storybook settings and pitch-perfect use of Burl Ives -- that it's easy to forgive his self-conscious touches. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Sometimes too clever by half, the film, replete with in-jokes, may in some ways work better for adults. Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, and Jason Schwarztman also provide adept voice work. Read more

Nancy Churnin, Dallas Morning News: The most fantastic thing about Mr. Fox is the way he shows that while our flaws can bring us down, sometimes, too, we triumph in spite of them and because of them. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: The filmmakers hew to Dahl's intent and add fine turns of their own. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The result is a quirky film that should work for all ages, with just a hint of dark humor. In this age of high-tech animation, Wes Anderson has found himself in a low-tech wonderland. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: To Wes Anderson: More, please! Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: A boisterous and magnificent treat. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: Anderson is so afraid of mussing a hair, he keeps his stories simple and hermetically sealed off from the sloppy business of emotions. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: It may not merit the adjective in its title, yet the animated yarn Fantastic Mr. Fox offers some of the most goofy fun you'll have at a theater this season. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: It provides a pleasantly cerebral experience, exhilarating and fizzy, that goes to your head like too much Champagne. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The film's premise may be child-like, but its themes -- family, self-identity and existential angst -- are all engagingly adult. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: With its clever visual jokes and sassy dialogue, Anderson's first foray into animation doesn't seem to be made entirely with children in mind. Maybe that's why it seems so perfect for them. Read more

Ramin Setoodeh, Newsweek: Mr. Fox doesn't just rescue Dahl's legacy on film. In a year stuffed with kid-lit movie adaptations, it's the only one to successfully reach out to children and adults. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: Visually, the movie is a wonder, with its profusion of detail and exquisitely focussed "performances" by the figurines, whom Anderson frames in images as precisely composed as those in his live-action work. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Dahl's adult approach to children merges beautifully with the filmmaker's child's-eye view of adults. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: A visual treasure that successfully blends deadpan quirkiness with a wry realism rarely seen in any film, let alone one for children. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Fantastic Mr. Fox is a retro marvel that should delight today's audience. Read more

Sara Vilkomerson, New York Observer: Visually, its a true marvel. Perhaps best of all, it feels like something entirely new. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Witty and wonderful, Fantastic Mr. Fox is the perfect Thanksgiving entertainment... Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: While it might be a stretch to claim that Fantastic Mr. Fox is "fantastic," it's easily among the year's best animated features. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Children, especially, will find things they don't understand, and things that scare them. Excellent. A good story for children should suggest a hidden dimension, and that dimension of course is the lifetime still ahead of them. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: An adventure in pure imagination that plays to the smart kid in all of us. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Fantastic Mr. Fox is possibly the finest picture about family, community and poultry thievery ever made. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: You don't want to watch this movie, you want to climb inside it and play. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The film earns its title's superlative and a hundred more. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: It's a magical feat, one that turns puppets into personalities and an English meadow into Anderson's world. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The tale may be Dahl's, but there's a whole new wag to it -- this is decidedly, weirdly and, at best, wonderfully a Wes Anderson movie. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The result is not only marvellous whimsy, but also something that advances the burgeoning retro-tech movement. Read more

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: Anderson's stop-motion Fantastic Mr. Fox is both a delightful amusement and a distillation of the filmmaker's essential playfulness. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: The push and pull between the tame life and the wild one is the unifying theme. It's all very transatlantic - the setting and baddies are English; the animals are hip Americans. This is one crafty fox - in every sense. Read more

Christopher Orr, The New Republic: The same eye for immaculate compositions that had seemed increasingly to hem in his human actors here serves as the basis for some of the most inventive animated set pieces this side of Nick Park. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: These weirdly effective shifts in tempo, combined with an attention to detail and distinctive dialogue, make for the best moments in this offbeat adventure. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: The film achieves a feel that is at once coarse-grained and elegant, antiquated and the height of fashion. Read more

Scott Foundas, Village Voice: For the reportedly painstaking labor it took to create, the film is a marvel to behold. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Adds yet another wry, carefully composed bibelot to the cabinet of curios that defines the Anderson oeuvre. Read more