You’ve gotta love a fox who wears the same striped tie and orange corduroy suit for the entire movie. But that’s writer-director Wes Anderson for you. The red jogging suits in “The Royal Tenenbaums,” Bill Murray’s diving suit in “Life Aquatic – don’t his people ever change their clothes? Adapting the children’s book by Roald Dahl, Anderson (who co-wrote with Noah Baumbach) makes his debut as an animator, using a herky-jerky stop-motion technique in a way that’s surprisingly charming. Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney) is a newspaper columnist by day but a thief by night. Unbeknownst to his disapproving wife (Meryl Streep), he’s stealing squabs and poultry and cider from three local farmers who then become intent on snuffing him out, along with his “Oceans 11”-style crew, including an Opposum (Wally Wolodarsky) and a Badger (Bill Murray). His son (Jason Schwartzman) wants desperately to shine in his father’s eyes, but he can’t seem to live up to his accomplished cousin (Eric Anderson, Wes’s brother) – as always, Anderson’s fascination with bittersweet family dynamics takes center stage. Still, despite the amusingly quaint visuals and the often witty dialogue, this most brilliant of Anderson’s films eventually turns tedious because it’s never emotionally involving. Anderson sets up situations that in another movie could easily absorb and touch us – father-son relationships, husband-wife conflicts, a hero’s self-reckoning – but his tone is so winkingly facetious that the audience is constantly held at arm’s length. And who is that audience in the first place? “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is too sophisticated for small children, who will fidget from the start, and where is the grownup audience for talking-animal animations? Could it be that sly Wes Anderson has outfoxed himself? Three tiaras
