This issue, a fox and a teenage girl reach for better lives.

Fantastic Mr. Fox
(PG, Now Available)

I am a Wes Anderson super fan. "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums" both rate very highly on my list of all-time favorites. In his latest he does something he's never done before, but it's still patently Wes Anderson.

"Fantastic Mr. Fox" is Anderson's first venture into animation. Stop-motion animation to be exact. Based on the children's book by Roald Dahl, it's the story of one Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney), a successful bird thief whose wife (Meryl Streep) asks him to give up his chosen profession when she learns she's with child. Two years later ("twelve fox years"), Mr. Fox is a newspaper columnist with a happy wife and a very typical twelve-year old son, Ash (Jason Schwartzman). But Fox feels unsatisfied.

"Honey," he tells Mrs. Fox, "I am seven non-fox years old. My father died at seven and a half. I don't want to live in a hole anymore, and I'm going to do something about it."

What he's not telling her is that he's going to pull one last heist. A three-part heist really, that involves swiping chickens from the three meanest farmers known to fox-kind, Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. His lawyer, Badger (Bill Murray) from the law firm Badger, Beaver and Beaver, is decidedly against this idea. In a response very typical of an Anderson character, Fox dryly states, "I understand what you're saying, and your comments are valuable, but I'm gonna ignore your advice."

With the loyal Kylie (Wallace Wolodarsky) and overachieving nephew Kristofferson (Eric Chase Anderson) by his side, Fox dons his bandit cap and embarks on the "triple header." Things begin relatively smoothly for Fox and along the way we learn that "beagles love blueberries." But when Bean (Michael Gambon) realizes who's been behind the recent thefts, he leads Boggis and Bunce on a crusade to kill Fox, his family, and any other wild animal that gets in their way.

"Fantastic Mr. Fox" is Wes Anderson through and through, from the dry, subtle comedy to the sets and costume design, use of music, and theme of strained familial relationships. Like so many of Anderson's characters, Ash is an outsider, constantly trying to prove himself to Fox, who seems much more impressed with Kristofferson.

After "Where the Wild Things Are" fell short as a full length adaptation of a very short story, Anderson shows us how it's done. It does my heart good to know that we're in a time when films are being made for children that give them credit for having a brain. It's not perfection and only occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, but "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is highly enjoyable and a must for fans not only of Wes Anderson, but fans of genuinely entertaining films. 8.5/10.

An Education
(PG-13, Avail. 3/30)

A few weeks shy of her 17th birthday, Jenny Mellor (Carey Mulligan, "Pride and Prejudice") feels as though she's going to burst. It's 1961 and this London girl from a modest family yearns to experience life to its fullest extent. She is far and away the brightest student in her school and is steadily on the track towards acceptance to Oxford.

Her father Jack (Alfred Molina) makes sure her life is as crafted as it can be. It's important, he feels, that she play classical music in the school orchestra, not for artistic reasons, but because it shows she's a "joiner-inner." Her mother (Cara Seymour) is not so strict herself but she tends to go along with her husband's rules for their daughter. Listening to a French singer on a record is an almost forbidden escape for Jenny. Living a life of excitement seems to be far, far away until she meets the older David (Peter Sarsgaard).

David is an ideal suitor in Jenny's mind because he can not only offer her excitement and seemingly never-ending fun, but he's a perfect gentleman upon meeting her parents. Even Jack approves of him within moments. But as Jenny and David get closer she realizes the jazz clubs and weekend getaways come with some very serious strings attached. David isn't the gentleman he presents himself to be and the life he promises may not be real.

Written by Nick Hornby (author of the novels About a Boy and High Fidelity) and based on the memoir by Lynn Barber, "An Education" is filled with characters who may seem one dimensional at a glance but who are given greater depth with each passing moment. David's not the only character who's more than meets the eye.

Jack is not simply a stuffy British father of a teenage girl. He's a deeply fallible but ultimately loving parent who desperately wants Jenny to have a better life than he's had. Molina breathes an enormous amount of life into the character.

Olivia Williams ("Rushmore") also does a terrific job as one of Jenny's teachers, who cares greatly for her students. It's another character who is more than she initially appears to be.

Ultimately though, this film belongs to Mulligan and Sarsgaard as the couple that cannot conceivably work. They each have a lot to work with, thanks to the wonderful writing, and they make the most of it. Mulligan has a tall order playing a teenage girl torn between two staggeringly different choices, each of which has its advantages. She pulls it off almost effortlessly, never going over the top or hitting a false note.

As always, you just can't catch Peter Sarsgaard acting. He's as natural as they come (subtle and stellar in "Shattered Glass," "Garden State," "Jarhead," and "Kinsey"). He doesn't do flashy theatrics. Even after we've seen who David really is, we still find ourselves a bit charmed by him. It takes an actor like Sarsgaard to make that possible.

"An Education" is not to be missed. 9/10.

Also New to DVD and Blu-Ray

Now Available

Mad Men: Season 3

The Blind Side (PG-13)

Toy Story/Toy Story 2: Combo Pack

The African Queen (first time on disc)

The Men Who Stare At Goats (R) - 7.5/10

The Prisoner (2009 mini-series)

Available March 30

Sherlock Holmes (PG-13) - 8/10

The Abbott and Costello Show: The Complete Series