Let’s first give you the timeline. Last Thursday I received the Blu-ray of FANTASTIC MR. FOX in the mail from Netflix. Friday night, the wife and I huddled up on the couch and watched it. By Saturday afternoon I’d won an Ebay auction for the Blu-ray. Wednesday of this week, I had it in my grubby little hands.

I haven’t bought a DVD or Blu-ray in months, maybe even a year. I can’t even tell you the last time a movie warranted me spending any of my hard earned cash to own it. I have around 100 DVDs. I only own one Blu-ray and that was a gift. (It’s Family Guy: Something Something Something Dark Side in case you were wondering). I’m an avid Netflixer and I try to watch at least a couple movies a week, whether it Time Warner On Demand or Amazon On Demand. The point being is it takes something special for me to spend any real money on owning a film.

Long and the short of it is, FANTASTIC MR. FOX is everything I hoped WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE would be but wasn’t. It’s a seminal picture from one of the real auteurs of my generation. It’s a departure from his former work while still remaining a part of his oeuvre. While I don’t fault Spike Jonze completely, I still think he’s a genius and hope he keeps amazing me with his movies. His short, I’M HERE – A LOVE STORY is pretty fantastic, so I’m not too worried, but WTWTA was kind of a mess. It’s probably Dave Eggers fault. Let’s just say it was and move on.

Both movies were based on classic children’s books and both were expounded upon to make them feature length. Wes Anderson’s FANTASTIC MR. FOX, however is not only good kids movie, it’s a great movie period. It’s funny, witty, clever, beautiful, smart, and just kind of amazing. My wife and I kept having to rewind it a just so we could laugh again at some of the action and dialogue. You could freeze frame virtually any shot in the movie and hang it on your wall as a work of art. The craftsmanship involved in the production of this movie is splattered all over the screen. I can’t wait to dig into the special features. Oh, and the voice work is impeccable as well. I love that they didn’t just sit in a booth recording the actors, but had Clooney, Streep, Murray etc. running around in places so you get a whole new organic sound instead of the deadened sound of a vocal booth.

All in all, I couldn’t recommend it more. I can’t wait to have some friends over to watch it together with them as well. It’s a fun ride.

So go.. Rent it, Buy it, See it.