Anderson makes fantastic adaptation of Dahl novel

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Director Wes Anderson is known for his eccentricity. He parts his long, thin hair to the side and often is seen sporting a beige corduroy suit and a pink scarf, depending on how he’s feeling.

With his newest film and his first attempt at animation, “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” Anderson spills this eclectic style into Roald Dahl’s story about an anthropomorphic adventure-seeking fox, and while his high-brow style historically might feel hollow, “Fox” shows that Anderson is quite the auteur.

Mr. Fox, voiced by George Clooney, is a once-chicken thief who makes a promise to his wife to stop living such a dangerous lifestyle and takes a job as a journalist.

Mrs. Fox is voiced by Meryl Streep, and her character has a surprisingly strong emotionality.

Anderson, who is known for his work on films such as “The Royal Tenenbaums” and “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,” calls upon his usual suspects for the rest of the voices, including Bill Murray as Badger, the well-meaning Fox family’s lawyer; Jason Schwartzman as Ash, the anxious and misunderstood son of the Fox’s; and Owen Wilson as Coach Skip, Ash’s whackbat coach.

After living in the ground for many a year, Mr. Fox purchases a large house inside of a tree trunk on top of a hill overlooking three large farms, against Badger’s advice.

The farms are individually owned by Boggis, Bunce and Bean, three of the “meanest, nastiest and ugliest” farmers around. Living so close to these mountainous farms proves to be too tempting for Mr. Fox, and he sets a plan in motion to execute one final three-part heist.

We’ve seen Anderson centralize his films around socially awkward, well-off individuals whose problems consist of defunct families and relationships.

The director seems to sprinkle flakes of elitism onto the screen when he matches these high-class social problems with his Victorian style of storytelling — with his heavy use of pastel on-screen titles, voiceover introductions and slow motion tracking shots accompanied by indie-rock anthems; however, this hasn’t by any means stopped me from watching and eating up his films.

With “Fox,” Anderson’s source material of a children’s book is much more accessible, and by creating a form of animation that visually is and universally beautiful, he frees himself of any aristocratic tendencies.

Anderson’s attention to detail is extraordinary — look for the glowing lamplight in Fox’s home, the rotating fan in Ash’s room and the movement of each fiber on Fox’s brow. Computer animation never will be able to create such organic textures.

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” is constructed with an antique charm that hasn’t been seen since the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials of the ’60s and ’70s (“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “The Year Without A Santa Claus,” etc.).

Perhaps it’s that nostalgic appeal that makes the sights in “Fox” as rich as the healthy soil our heroes dig through to outsmart Boggis, Bunce and Bean.

In a year where it looked like Pixar would yet again dominate the Academy Awards’ Best Animated Film category, this fox has a fantastic chance.

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