Fantastic Mr Fox

Remember when you used to take a video (a video) home from Blockbuster, watch it that night, and watch it again the next day before you took it back, maybe even more than once? There wasn't a commentary, or deleted scenes, you just enjoyed the film so much you wanted to watch it one more time while you had the chance.

I don't remember the last time I did that, until today although obviously I wasn't watching anything so primitive as a video tape (it's vidayo Maigrit). I was looking forward to seeing Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox' but was also a bit apprehensive (nervous and excited at the same time, you might say) given that it is one of my all-time favourite books. Within moments of the start I was giggling, not just at the funny lines, but also in sheer delight at just how cool it is. It quickly becomes obvious that there is no one better than Anderson to adapt a Roald Dahl tale. The author's very British eccentricity combines perfectly with Anderson's very American quirkiness. All his films depict characters who are just on the edge of reality, while the dialogue is at once beautifully naturalistic and full of the kind of confident witticisms that you wish you could come up with. In the world of Anderson Mr Fox's family makes perfect sense.

Added to that is the glorious deadpanning of Bill Murray, George Clooney and Michael Gambon, beautiful lo-fi animation and a really fun soundtrack including The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones and Jarvis Cocker in a cameo role singing a song that is "just lazy songwriting", making a film that bears many many viewings; definitely one of my top five children's films. Cuss yeah!