Opening Night Gala
The Fantastic Mr Fox

Wednesday 14th October Odeon Leicester Square and Empire Cinema
Thursday 15th October Vue Cinema Screen 5 and 7
Saturday 17th October Vue 7

Nationwide UK release: 23rd October*
Limited US release: 13th November*
Nationwide US release: 25th November*

When it comes to children’s cinema there are two traditional directions: 2D cartoons or computer-generated animations, and with very few children’s films successfully translating outside these mediums – the obvious exceptions being the hugely popular Wallace and Gromit films and the Tim Burton gothic stop-motion animations (The Nightmare before Christmas) – can Wes Anderson’s first flurry into (stop-motion) animation, with his re-imagining of the much-loved Ronald Dahl classic, Fantastic Mr Fox, buck the current trend?

Anderson’s re-imagining doesn’t strictly stick to Dahl’s original, but the premise is largely unchanged. After 12 years – fox years that is – and a monotonous job as a newspaper columnist, Mr Fox (George Clooney) yearns for his carefree, reckless animalistic youth as chicken thief. In his final ‘big plan’ to get in touch with his wild side, along with his new possum-in-crime Kylie (Wallace Wolodarsky), he soon slips back into his old sly ways, but his nocturnal flights-of-fancy soon riles the wrath of evil farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean, who declare war on not just Mr Fox, but the entire animal community. Forced from their natural habitat and trapped underground, the little woodland community must revive their animal instincts to beat the humans, and survive.

As an unpatriotic British, even I found the over-Americanisation of this quintessential British classic ever so slightly overbearing. I can overlook the small things such as Mr and Mrs Fox being voiced by George Clooney and Meryl Streep respectfully, or that their teenage son Ash and perfect cousin Kristofferson are too voiced by one of many Anderson regulars Jason Schwartzman and Wes’s own brother, Eric Anderson. This particularly casting is quite apt, Clooney’s innate suaveness gives Mr Fox – in his double-breasted, mustard-hued corduroy suit with two wheat stalks peering out the breast pocket – a stylish cool equal to Danny Ocean in Ocean’s Eleven. Schwartzman’s Ash, suffering from a combination of Napoleon and inferiority complex, is touching in his rivalry with yoga-mediating, kung-fu arse-kicking cousin Kristofferson; while Streep’s Mrs Fox hasn’t much dimension other to exist as the pragmatic matriarch is effective in her purpose. However, one couldn’t help but notice that all the poor innocent creatures fighting for their survival are also American, and the fox-hating-cider swilling-trigger-happy, probably anti-PETA motley crue of Mr Boggis (Brian Cox), Mr Bean (Michael Gambon) and Mr Bunce (Hugo Guinness) just all happen to be British.

It isn’t surprising why Dahl’s classic lend itself to Wes Anderson and his co-writer Noah Baumbach: the absurd dysfunctional family unit, damaged characters viewed compassionately, suffering but firm matriarchs and eccentric paterfamilias are typical character trademarks in an Anderson film. With Fantastic Mr Fox, Anderson just re-imagines the Foxes in the same affably dysfunctional mould as he does the Royal Tenenbaums or the Zissous. Despite this being an animation venture for Anderson, there is wearisome familiarity because like all his other films, Anderson never compromises his distinctive style, and in this case he doesn’t adapt to Dahl but rather Dahl adapts to him. Egoistic indulgence or an explain of Anderson zany witticism? The jury is still out where this is concerned.

Fantastic Mr. Fox, with its distinctively Anderson-esque attention to the colour palette and almost crude bristles on the characters’ faces and movements, results in a retro animation that revives a certain nostalgia that means the film will almost exclusively appeal to an older generation than a generation of younger audiences brought up on the seamless wonder of Disney and Pixar-esque perfection. Crammed with other star vocal talent including Bill Murray (Mr Badger), Willem Defoe (the deliciously malevolent Rat) and Owen Wilson (Coach Skip), Fantastic Mr. Fox is brisk and doesn’t demand much from the audience, which for some maybe unworthy of a Dahl classic but there have been worse adaptations. Overflowing with memorable moments that will leave you smiling, Anderson’s re-imagining is credible, eccentric, nostalgic and something fantastic.

*Subject to change.