It’s a comedy first and a family film second (or maybe even third), and that’s part of why Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animated film is such a charmer. The novelty wears off instantly and you get swept away in the film’s laugh-a-minute breeze. It helps that animation is the perfect format for screen versions of Roald Dahl’s demented stories. Even many of Dahl’s “adult” pieces with human characters seem to take place in cartoon worlds. It’s the only way to film Fantastic Mr. Fox, a tale of the eternal struggle between farmers and predator foxes. The foxes here have human personalities and relatable motives (survival) and Dahl seizes fast on the comedy of it all—and Anderson follows suit here with a witty screenplay co-written with Noah Baumbach. Our main fox here (voiced with heaps of charm by George Clooney) is your regular gentleman thief of things like chickens and cider. His enemies are three businessmen who run major farms and look to stop him. Along the way, the film throws in commentary on alcoholism, capitalism and adolescent rivarly. It’s all very entertaining on a classic screwball level.