You haven't watched Fantastic Mr. Fox yet. Maybe you were turned off by the jerky stop-motion animation. Maybe you thought it was a kids' movie. Maybe it just flew under your radar.
I watched the film last night. Kari was sitting next to me, playing Picross 3D or checking Facebook or something, but by halfway through the movie she had abandoned whatever she was doing to watch.
The one-sentence description of why you should watch this movie and love it is that the writing is excellent, the dialogue is fast-paced and witty, and the delivery is completely straight-faced. If you hate deadpan humor, then forget this recommendation. If, however, you want to listen to George Clooney the fox explain to the opossum why, in all seriousness, beagles love blueberries, then this is the movie for you. Kids might not enjoy this movie: it's not cartoony and there aren't really many overt jokes for them to get.
Based off Roald Dahl's book of the same name, the movie follows Mr. Fox, whose wife has forced him to give up farm robbery for a less dangerous occupation and a family. Mr. Fox is a wild animal at heart, though, and like Mr. Incredible, he can't help but go back to what he does best. This attracts the unwanted attention from the legendarily mean farmers, who vow to destroy the Fox family. The movie expands on the book in both directions, both giving Mr. Fox a little more context and continuing the story a little further than the book. The departures from the source add greatly to the movie: Kristofferson, Mrs. Fox's nephew, is introduced in the movie, and his interaction and one-sided rivalry with the Foxes' son Ash makes the latter my favorite character in the movie.
The stop-motion animation is well done and imbues a charm in the movie that's absent in CG. The action is largely portrayed by surprisingly expressive puppets. Of special note is the aforementioned opossum, whose trademark vacant stare is great every time he pops it out.
In short, this was the best thing to come out of our Netflix trial.
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