Let me say this first: this is a glorious, hilarious, exciting, joy of show.

The cast are without exception brilliant, the staging is clever and effective. The disco theme that runs through the costumes is perfect. There’s not a dud song. You will laugh out loud a LOT. In short, we loved it.

Just – if your children are major Fox fans, maybe warn them that their hero might not save the day in quite the way they’re expecting.

It’s always a bit of a gamble to change a much-loved story for the stage. And Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox is an all action, no filler, thriller of a book, with a very well known story that doesn’t allow much room for deviation.

But what Sam Holcroft has done is take the essential essence of Mr Fox – the swaggering show-off in all his ‘smoke me a kipper, Skipper, I’ll be back for breakfast’ flying ace glory – and pushed it up a level.

From the first thirty seconds of the production it’s clear the spirit of Roald Dahl runs through the cast. The gruesomeness of the farmers has been dialled up to eleven (no sparing the feelings of the younger members of the audience here) while Greg Barnett’s Fox remains intensely loveable despite his conviction he can do everything on his own.

Mrs Fox is no longer the feeble woman of the story, but a pregnant feisty vixen who feels dismissed by her I-can-do-everything husband, and his sons have been replaced by a daughter who’s desperate to go out on raids just like her dad (while simultaneously being tech-obssesed like every teenager you know).

And when Fox tries to make his raids on Farmers Boggis Bunce and Bean’s storerooms, things don’t go entirely according to plan. And it makes sense. After all, wouldn’t a fox with no tail find it harder to balance? Wouldn’t a wife stuck at home with a baby bump dream of being out hunting?

As the show romps to its hilarious, satisfying conclusion, it doesn’t really matter that the story’s not the one you know. But don’t go expecting Fox to save the day single-handedly – this fox is fantastic in a different (but equally brilliant) way.

Fantastic Mr Fox is on at Nuffield Southampton Theatres until January 8, when it transfers to London.