Perhaps only a director like Wes Anderson could have brought Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox to life on the big screen - few directors possess the same idiosyncratic attention to detail in the production design department and love of dry, pithy humour. Fantastic Mr. Fox uses stop motion to tell Dahl's story, with George Clooney. Meryl Streep and Bill Murray among the all-star voice cast, bringing Mr. Fox and his family to life as they try to outwit the farmers who are desperate to rid them from their land. Intricately staged set pieces are impressive and we get to see Anderson's trademark bisected sets to great effect again, and while it might be lacking in Dahl's darker sensibilities it manages to be heartwarming without being sickly. Along with Nicolas Roeg's adaptation of The Witches, The Fantastic Mr. Fox is a high point for Roald Dahl's work in cinema - we'll have to wait until this July to see if Steven Spielberg can achieve the same success with his version of The BFG.
