It seems this movie is misnamed. If I were to be so bold as to rename it I would rename it: The Fantastic Team of Fantastic Individuals Who have Fantastic Gifts that Mr. Fox Fantastically Leads. But that may be too long.My wife actually ended up telling me this is a movie adaptation of a beloved classic book written by Roald Dahl.I am guessing my new title wouldn't go well for that reason as well.As a fourth grade teacher she had the privilege of going through this book with her students. According to her this movie was a great adaptation of that book. The visual styling of the movie lent itself well to the story. The cast and crew used a hybrid technique of live action being portrayed by claymation. I thoroughly enjoyed the little fur movements and how the facial expressions were somehow created with the clay models.

I also enjoyed the bits of interesting humorsprinkledin throughout the movie. For example, whenever Mr. or Mrs. Fox were said to be "glowing" they inserted in glowing models of the characters. These wonderful models looked like plastic Christmas lawn decorations that have a light bulb inside to make them glow. I was glad to see the old school technique of claymation used as well. There wasn't a lot of CGI which gave the movie a fascinating feel, where I just kept wondering, "How did they do that?"

Which brings me back to the movie. I guess it was life imitating art, but the way they made the movie was also the message of the movie: great individual talents put together in a team can accomplish so much more than even a fantastic individual. For the movie crew, as seen in the extra features, this took quite a bit of teamwork. The larger than life director even had to admit that he lent this movie its styling and direction but the (may I say) fantastic individual artists really made the movie as great as it is. Just as in the end the Fantastic Mr. Fox realized he needed each of the wild animals to accomplish the goal of rescuing his nephew and putting an end to the three farmer/tyrants.

Many of us are the same way, believing that saying, "If you want the job done right do it yourself." We often don't realize that hidden behind that saying is a bit of sarcasm, at least in my interpretation. The word right is the key. Right according to whom? Because in the meantime, as we are doing it right, we are shoving away a valuable person just as Mr. Fox was shoving away his own son for so long, only to find out when push came to shove that his son could really step it up.

Still, most of us are like the other characters in the book/movie. We don't think there is anything fantastic about us. We just go about our business doing what needs to be done. And when someone inconveniently creates a situation where our gifts are needed we get mad, like Badger in the movie... who, by the way, ends up being a lawyer/demolition expert.

I believe that God made each and every one of us with amazing talents and gifts; my actions don't always show that belief but it is there. I also believe that many times God puts us together with aneclecticgroup of people so that together we can accomplish much, including appreciating those differences and gifts.

Since God made you in his image I will close with one of the last lines of the movie used to describe different characters, "You are fantastic!"