Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson, 2009)

Wes Anderson converts Roald Dahl's children's novel into a different kind of beast where Dahl's dark undertones are replaced with a breezier, if still sardonic, air that the director just can't help injecting into all of his cabinet of curios. George Clooney is a great choice to voice the titular anthropomorphic fox, his deadpan delivery adding a layer to the stop-motion character as he comes up with scheme after scheme to fight the evil human farmers who seek to wipe his family out and the rest of the voice cast, from the regular Anderson cadre to the likes of Michael Gambon and Meryl Streep, help flesh out the host of animals too. It's a tad too whimsical to really engage the emotions - a charge often levelled against Anderson - but the wit and invention are impeccable and the puppet-driven animation is the real star, utterly eclipsing any of its digitally-generated competitors with its craft and texture.

7/10