For me, Wes Anderson’s films divide into “Before and after Fantastic Mr. Fox.” I don’t care nearly as much for the before films as I do for the after ones. My theory is that Anderson didn’t quite know how to write a script early on. FantasticMr. Fox was his first adaptation of a literary work. Mr. Fox and Roald Dahl seem to have taught him how to create a script with cohesion and complex, sympathetic characters. Animation also injected the charm that the earlier films lacked. His next film was Moonrise Kingdom, David’s and my favorite of his, with its combination of humor and emotion. The rest of his films reflect the lessons he learned from Fantastic Mr. Fox. – Kristin Thompson