Someone came up to me this morning and said that he finally saw “Where the Wild Things Are,” and couldn’t believe how depressing it was.

“You should go see ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox,’” I said. “That will cheer you up.”

I was in a pretty bad mood when I walked into the movie theater, but after watching “Fantastic Mr. Fox’s” exhilarating opening sequence, where Mr. Fox and his wife break into a henhouse, and steal a bunch of chickens, I felt great. The scene unfolds at a breakneck pace — the spry Mr. Fox even does cartwheels and flips — and is impeccable in its choice of music: The Beach Boys’ “Heroes and Villains.” There are so many details to take in that immediately I knew that I wanted to see “Fantastic Mr. Fox” again, so I could get a second look at the scenery, the sneers on the farmers’ faces, the decor and knickknacks in the homes of the many animals who populate the film. The stop-motion animation really is something to behold.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. After stealing a bunch of chickens, Mr. Fox (George Clooney) and his wife (Meryl Streep) suddenly find themselves ensnared in a fox trap, as the farmer races toward them, rifle in hand. “I’m pregnant,” Mrs. Fox tells her husband. “We’re going to have a cub?” he answers. Fast forward a few fox years, and Mr. Fox has retired from poultry thievery and turned to a less dangerous and more honorable profession: newspaper reporting. But he’s not very happy. He’s always complaining that nobody reads his column (gosh, what’s that like?), and his wife is always telling him that their friends would read his column, if they subscribed to the Gazette (huh, sounds familiar.) Anyway, Mr. Fox is getting bored with this staid family lifestyle, and decides to relocate to a tree with easy access to a trio of farms owned by the evil Boggis, Bunce and Bean. Soon he is planning nighttime raids, and having the time of his life. But he’s keeping these nocturnal jaunts a secret from his knowing wife, which is bound to lead to trouble.

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” is the sixth feature film by Wes Anderson, a talented and original director that I’ve been a little down on in recent years. His films are always interesting, and very distinctive, but I’d tired of his mannerisms: the sadly quirky dysfunctional families he likes to tell stories about, the carefully arranged sets, with their bright colors and unusual patterns, the stifling, hermetic feel of the overall productions. At times, it felt like his films contained more artifice than art.

Which isn’t to say that Anderson’s films aren’t worth seeing, or that they don’t contain great things. I’m a huge fan of “Rushmore,” and I think “The Life Aquatic,” though flawed and somewhat superficial, contains real moments of wonder and beauty, specifically the final, undersea scenes with the claymation fish. But “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is so good it makes me reconsider everything that came before. In some ways it provides the key I needed to appreciate the rest of Anderson’s oeuvre.

As in Anderson’s previous films, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” has a lightness and comedy to it that masks an undercurrent of real pain. When gifted cousin Kristofferson comes to stay with the Fox family, Mr. Fox’s oddball son Ash is resentful and competitive. The rivalry is funny, but also sad; Ash’s sense that he is unloved by his father and unpopular with his peers is very real. And when Mrs. Fox slaps Mr. Fox and tells him that she never should have married him, it’s as biting and hurtful as anything contained in films that are ostensibly for and about grown-ups. Even the villainous rat is an unexpectedly tragic figure.

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” is based on the highly entertaining novel by Roald Dahl, a writer with a fondness for outcasts and petty criminals. In other words, this isn’t a story where Mr. Fox is going to realize that stealing is wrong — instead, he’s going to realize that stealing is part of his nature, the one thing he’s good at, and keep on doing it. When his wife asks him to justify his sneaky behavior, he explains that he’s a “wild animal,” and viewers might be reminded of Danny Ocean, the lovable rogue Clooney played in “Ocean’s 11, 12 and 13,” and his seeming inability to stop robbing casinos.

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” celebrates a certain type of untamed wildness, and in its closing moments SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW HOW THIS FILM ENDS!, when Mr. Fox invites his family to join him in a toast “to our survival,” the film achieves the neat trick of making you appreciate life and contemplate mortality at the same time. Of course, there’s no need to be so serious when discussing “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” The movie is a lot of fun — one of the best films of the year.

If you liked “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” you might enjoy these other films:

1. “Chicken Run” Do you feel sorry for the chickens that Mr. Fox steals and eats for dinner? Then you might enjoy this 2000 claymation film, where the poultry farm is depicted as something akin to a prisoner-of-war camp, and the chickens are plotting their escape.

2. “Wallace & Gromit: The Adventures of the Were-Rabbit” From the people who brought the world “Chicken Run,” comes this entertaining film about a clever dog named Gromit, and his gadget-obsessed owner, Wallace. If you like this, rent “Wallace & Gromit: Three Amazing Adventures,” which contains three short films about Wallace and Gromit.

3. “James and the Giant Peach” and “The Witches” These Roald Dahl film adaptations aren’t quite as well known as “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” but they’re just as good. “The Witches” is a live action film, with a terrifying Angelica Huston as the leader of the witches. “James and the Giant Peach” features splendid stop-motion animation.

4. “Ratatouille” All the sneaking around in “Fantastic Mr. Fox” reminded me of this 2007 Pixar film, about a rat who loves to cook, and is always sneaking around a five-star Parisian restaurant in search of the finest ingredients.

5. “Babe” The best farm animal film ever made.

Click here for my thoughts on “Where the Wild Things Are.”

Got a comment? E-mail me at sfoss@dailygazette.net.