"Fantastic Mr. Fox"

I love the films of Wes Anderson. Is it really that much of a surprise? Alas, my guess is that I totally fit the demographic for his quirky, mannered, deadpan, detail-obsessed films. (And I mean only good things when I say "quirky." The Q word has been used to describe my work a number of times and I do not have a problem with it.)

Anyway, this is an amazing addition to his already impressive body of work. I'm not going to write a review because I'm not going to do that on this blog, but if you want to read one (or twelve) reviews, just go to Rotten Tomatoes.

A few random details in bullet point form that I loved about the film:

• The crazy, stop-action animation, especially the way that the individual hairs on the characters' faces change and move at all times, as if they were all constantly caught in the slightest of breezes.

• Ash, the grumpy, non-athletic, misfit Fox son who wears a dorky superhero cape for most of the film.

• The fact that the animal characters hunt, kill, steal, fear for their lives and even die in the film. (You can tell they're dead by the way the "X"s appear in their eyes.)

• The animals curse in the film, but all real curse words are substituted with the word "cuss." (E.g., "What the cuss it that?" "For cuss' sake!")

Go see "Fantastic Mr. Fox." I don't know how much longer it will be out. I was the only person in the theatre. Which was nice, but it doesn't exactly make for a communal, global village kind of cultural experience.

Anyway, thank you, Wes Anderson for another one of your wonderful films. They always make me happy.