In A Word: fantastic

The Film: Fantastic Mr. Fox

The Talent: Meryl Streep, George Clooney, Bill Murray, Jason Schwarztman, Willem Defoe, Michael Gambon, Owen Wilson, Mario Batali, A Coupla Coppolas, etc.

The Dealio: From the subversive children's book by Roald Dahl, this is the story of Foxy and his wife, his distressingly unathletic son, Ash, their cousin, Kristofferson (athletic AND spiritual, plus quite a babe-magnet) and the entire woodland menagerie of your usual: lawyers, real estateagents, chefs, accountants, football coaches, doctors, like I said. The usual. Into the mix throw three of the meanest, ugliest farmers in the area. This is, at once, part caper, part romance, part father-son scratchiness, part cautionary tale (sometimes, an obsession, allowed to run to completion, is as destructive to everyone else it touches as it is corrosive and lethal to the possessor of that obsession).

The Grading Session: 5 pengies out of 5. The art of the thing was wizard, the voice characterisations, masterful. The story was ambitious, but did not shirk any of the elements. And the soundtrack was so spot on, as well (Beach Boys and Bluegrass!). It is so hard for me to believe what was accomplished without mega-budget special effects.

Lessons Learned: Two: beagles are, apparently, fools for blueberries, and puffed cotton, oft-times colored, makes a perfectly respectable stand-in for smoke. See it, see it, see it, do.