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.
No matter how thin the narrative clay gets in this stop-motion animated piece, there's more than enough faux fur to make you purr from plush-toy flashbacks.
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.
Though Anderson's trademark deadpan banter and clever silliness are in full force, the script is no less sophisticated than anything out of the filmmaker's catalogue.
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.
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.
