Anderson explains American 'Fox' voices

Wes Anderson has admitted that the animals in Fantastic Mr Fox speak with American accents because he finds it easier to write US characters.

The stop-motion animated film, which is set in Britain and based on the children's book by Roald Dahl, features the voice talents of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman.

"Noah Baumbach and I adapted the script together, we're American," said Anderson of his accent choice. "I feel like we're better writing American voices so we decided that we would make all the animals American and the humans would be British."

"Because they're the bad guys!" interjected Murray.

Anderson added that using old-fashioned animating techniques appealed to him more than cutting-edge computer technology.

"I always intended for it to be stop-motion," he noted at the film's BFI London Film Festival press conference. "I wanted to do a stop-motion movie with animals and fur because I always loved the way that looked, that odd magical style."