The animation is beautiful, the attention to detail is a thing of wonder... but the story is a mess, the script is banal and, as visually stunning as it all is, it just doesn't seem to have any kind of soul.

| Aug 30, 2018

'Fantastic Mr. Fox' may be the purest distillation of Anderson's specific, inimitable style.

| Jun 18, 2016

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.

Full Review | Mar 11, 2014

If Fantastic Mr Fox feels like Anderson's freshest film since Rushmore, that can only be due to the animation. Beneath those tactile textures, there's nothing you could strictly call fantastic.

Full Review | Mar 11, 2014

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.

| Original Score: B+ | Mar 11, 2014

With its lush autumnal palette and hijinks worthy of Max Fisher or Dignan, the result is a film that only Wes Anderson could have made.

| Original Score: 8.3/10 | Mar 11, 2014

That melancholy tug of Anderson's work is still present here, but Fantastic Mr. Fox may be his most purely pleasurable film to date, evoking the Dahl books and Rankin-Bass productions that so transported him as a kid.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Feb 20, 2014

The overall sensation is of an artist repeating himself, scaling down his obsessions to empty-vessel miniature.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 17, 2011

A boisterous and magnificent treat.

| Original Score: A | May 6, 2011

With one creative genius adapting the work of another, the result is a mesmeric, visual feast, a host of adorable eccentric characters and a truly wonderful, kid friendly, caper.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 11, 2010

Wes Anderson's typically quirky approach to a slim Roald Dahl story is a genuine charmer even if it's slightly over-extended.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 17, 2009

In hindsight, it seems obvious now that Wes Anderson should make a stop-motion animated film -- the medium highlights all his strengths while nullifying his limitations.

| Dec 4, 2009

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.

| Nov 26, 2009

Anderson's liveliest and most appealing movie...every shot filled with precise and intricate detail. This is movie-making as Cornell Box.

| Original Score: B+ | Nov 25, 2009

Adds yet another wry, carefully composed bibelot to the cabinet of curios that defines the Anderson oeuvre.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 25, 2009

Of course, an interesting and clever children's film with a cast and team this talented is still worth a look, but this match made in hipster movie heaven could have been more magical.

| Nov 25, 2009

The result is not only marvellous whimsy, but also something that advances the burgeoning retro-tech movement.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 25, 2009

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.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 25, 2009

Wes Anderson's utterly charming Fantastic Mr. Fox is that rarity: a children's movie for all.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Nov 25, 2009

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.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 25, 2009