Although Twentieth Century Fox’s new animated comedy “Fantastic Mr. Fox” retained the English countryside setting and its English farmers from the original book by Roald Dahl, all the animal characters are American. At the very least they’re voiced by American actors.

“The animals tend to have American accents and the humans are English,” explains producer Allison Abbate. “No one knows what accent an animal would have if it talked and animals have nationalities. We started with George Clooney as Mr. Fox and that kind of set the rule to keep them all consistent.”

To play the crafty, sly and decidedly roguish antihero Mr. Fox, director Wes Anderson only ever had George Clooney in mind. “George seemed like a natural choice,” he states of the producer, writer, director and Oscar®-winning actor, “because we needed somebody who was going to be a hero, and I think he is that automatically. I’ve wanted to work with him for a long time. So we sent him the script, and he said he’d do it.”

Adds Abbate, “George was born to play this part. He’s the right combination of Cary Grant and Clark Gable. He’s got the debonair, gentlemanly quality of Grant as well as the animalistic, sexy side. I really believe he could steal some chickens.”

As Mr. Fox’s pragmatic, artistic and resolutely faithful wife Felicity, Anderson cast multiple Academy Award® nominee and two-time Oscar® winner Meryl Streep.  “When else am I going to be Mrs. George Clooney?” laughs Streep of accepting the role.

“There is no better actress and she completely brought to life a character,” says Anderson .

“She was an amazing choice,” says Abbate. “She’s the moral center of the movie in many ways.  She can be strong, she can be funny, and she is definitely wifely. She stands by her man and helps him get out of scrapes.  She’s got a great relationship with Mr. Fox.  She keeps him honest.”

“She’s the one person he can’t lie to,” muses Bill Murray, who voices Mr. Fox’s lawyer Badger and previously lent his voice to Garfield the cat for “ Garfield .” “I mean, he can sort of try to deceive her but she knows who he is. She is sort of a magical creature.”

In the film, Mr. and Mrs. Fox (Clooney and Streep) live an idyllic home life with their son Ash (Jason Schwartzman) and visiting young nephew Kristofferson (Eric Anderson).  But after twelve years of quiet domesticity, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr. Fox’s wild animal instincts.  Soon he slips back into his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief and in doing so, endangers not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community.  Trapped underground without enough food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil Farmers who are determined to capture the audacious, fantastic Mr. Fox at any cost.  In the end, he uses his natural instincts to save his family and friends.

To be shown exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas (Glorietta 4 & Greenbelt 3) starting Dec. 9, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is distributed by Twentieth Century Fox through Warner Bros.

Twentieth Century Fox presents “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” visionary director Wes Anderson’s first animated film, which utilizes classic handmade stop-motion techniques to tell the story of the best-selling children’s book by Roald Dahl (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”).

Featuring the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe and Owen Wilson, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” will be shown soon exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas (Glorietta 4 & Greenbelt 3).

In the film, Mr. and Mrs. Fox (Clooney and Streep) live an idyllic home life with their son Ash (Jason Schwartzman) and visiting young nephew Kristofferson (Eric Anderson).  But after twelve years of quiet domesticity, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr. Fox’s wild animal instincts.  Soon he slips back into his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief and in doing so, endangers not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community.  Trapped underground without enough food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil Farmers – Boggis, Bunce and Bean – who are determined to capture the audacious, fantastic Mr. Fox at any cost.  In the end, he uses his natural instincts to save his family and friends.

First published in 1970, Roald Dahl’s beloved book “Fantastic Mr. Fox” has enchanted and delighted generations of children and their parents alike for almost 40 years. Now, thanks to the bittersweet, wryly funny vision of acclaimed filmmaker Wes Anderson (“Rushmore,” “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “The Darjeeling Limited”) and the magic of stop-motion animation, Dahl’s darkly humorous tale of the noble, charming and fantastic Mr. Fox is set to enthrall and delight an even wider audience.

Anderson first read Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox as a child growing up in Houston , Texas and was captivated by it. “It was not only the first Roald Dahl book I ever read, it was the first book I ever owned,” he says.  “I loved the character of Mr. Fox, this sort of heroic and slightly vain animal. And I also loved the digging. My brothers and I were obsessed with being underground and with tunnels and forts. He’s a wonderful writer and his personality comes through in the writing so forcefully.

“We spent time at Dahl’s house when we were writing and a lot of the details of his life found their way into our story and into the character of Mr. Fox,” notes Anderson. “Dahl probably wrote Mr. Fox to be an animal version of himself, and so when we were writing it, without ever putting it into words, that was intuitively what we were doing.”

“I think Roald would quite like to think of himself as Fantastic Mr. Fox,” muses the author’s widow, Felicity Dahl. “He loved helping people, particularly the underdog, and he hated injustice. So yes, I think he would have liked to have been Mr. Fox, and he was in a certain way.”