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I say that with a hint of mischief, because I’m not a big fan of Anderson’s work, films like “Rushmore” and “The Darjeeling Limited.” What I now understand, though, is that in essence, he’s always been making cartoons. He just confused the issue by putting real live actors in them.

In “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” Anderson creates an endearingly tactile fairytale thrift-shop universe, with quaintly painted backdrops, cotton balls for smoke, and a family of foxes who move in such deliberate fashion that, up close, you can see the hairs on their faces bristle and jerk. It’s like the homegrown version of a “Wallace and Gromit” caper.

Freely adapting Roald Dahl’s 1970 children's book, Anderson tells the story of Mr. Fox, a chicken poacher-turned-newspaper columnist voiced with deadpan self-mockery by George Clooney; Mrs. Fox, voiced by Meryl Streep; and their son, Ash, played by Anderson veteran Jason Schwartzman.

As our hero plots to rip off a trio of evil farmers, the movie turns into a modly surreal, underground-burrowing heist yarn.

Despite the fact that they’re animated critters, the fox family inhabit a world that’s disarmingly, well, lifelike. There are impish jokes about agriculture and flipped real estate, plus a very unchildlike soundtrack powered by the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones.

Clooney, in a great vocal performance, manages to project as much sly charisma as he does is in the “Ocean’s” films.

The whole movie spins around the amusingly practical attitude of Mr. Fox, who finds it hard to stay away from the henhouse because, as he points out, “I’m a wild animal.”