"Fantastic Mr. Fox" may be the perfect kids' movie for grown-ups.

Whether it's the perfect kids' movie for kids is a more complex question, but any parent who has endured repeat DVD viewings of "Barbie: Fairytopia" will leave the theater giddy with delight.

And once the DVD comes out, it'll likely be the parents hitting the "repeat" button on the DVD player.

Director Wes Anderson, the man behind such quirky delights as "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums," manages to bring his signature offbeat voice to Roald Dahl's book (Anderson and Noah Baumbach co-wrote the expanded screenplay.)

Notably, at a time when smoothly animated 3-D is all the rage, Anderson uses stop-motion animation, making "Mr. Fox" feel simultaneously old-school and fresh.

George Clooney, a great choice to play a loveable rogue, gives voice to the title character. He's a bird thief gone straight — or at least as straight as a job as a newspaper columnist makes you. But, while Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep) has happily settled into married life and motherhood, Mr. Fox finds the button-down life constraining.

So he decides to raid the three farms he can see from the window of his family's new home in a tree, despite having promised Mrs. Fox years before that he'd give up the thieving life (a promise that leads to one of the best lines of the year: "I used to steal birds, but now I'm a newspaper man").

Focused as he is on stealing from the loathsome farmers, Mr. Fox ignores his son, Ash (Jason Schwartzman), an odd kid who struggles to live up to his father's legacy as a great school athlete. Mr. Fox does, however, have designs on using the athletic talents of his nephew, Kristofferson (Eric Anderson), to aid him in his schemes.

Of course, with the kitchen pantry becoming increasingly stuffed with the spoils of Mr. Fox's nighttime exploits, it's hard to hide the truth from Mrs. Fox. How could he break his promise?

Well, Mr. Fox says with a shrug, he's a wild animal. She's not particularly impressed with his self-awareness.

Things go south, not just for the Foxes but for all their friends, as the farmers are not ones to sit idly by and let their products be stolen. It's up to Mr. Fox to fix things, which only seems right, since he's the one who caused all the trouble in the first place.

"Mr. Fox" jumps around a bit in tone and pace (accentuated by the stop-motion animation). But its pieces ultimately fit together, telling a sweet family story in a most unconventional way.

Along the way, we're treated to excellent vocal performances from the likes of Bill Murray as Badger (a lawyer, naturally); Willem Dafoe as Rat, who's sold out to the Man (fitting); and Wallace Wolodarsky as the easily distracted yet loyal Kylie. Anderson himself gets into the act as Weasel, who is, in a nice bit of scripting, a Realtor.

Is that the kind of joke kids will get? Probably not. They might not grasp how fitting the use of the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man" is in a later scene, either.

And frankly, I didn't care. There is plenty of action for them here in other places, sight gags and pratfalls. What's so good about "Mr. Fox" is that, even if it rates as only a serviceable kid film (and savvy children will see it as more than that), it's a genuine entertainment for adults, as well.