The Review

The good news is in: Desperaux has finally filled the void of the lovable big-eared mouse protagonist that Fievel Mousekewitz left in our hearts when he last graced the silver screen in 1992. The bad news? Desperaux did not break out into a heartfelt chorus of “Somewhere Out There” during the third act. Suffice it to say, if you like mice, rats, and magically appearing soup genies, this movie might be right up your alley.

The film is “loosely” based on the book, The Tale of Despereaux: Being Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo. Sources close to me represent the adaptation as a thorough bastardization of the novel, where the film has embellished and fabricated complete scenes and relationships that do not otherwise exist in print. Opposed to their more segregated treatment in the book, the movie assumes the burden of intertwining the three major plot lines too intimately, which oftentimes translates into jumbled and labored storytelling.

Roscuro (Dustin Hoffman) is a rat who lives on the surface world and enjoys the fineries of human society. After he indirectly causes the death of the queen, he flees for his life and is banished to live in Rat World–a subterranean civilization of Orc-like rats. For what it is worth, Roscuro has the quickest good to evil to back to good character transformation I have ever seen, and it is every bit as confusing in the movie as it was described here.

Desperaux (Matthew Broderick) is a mouse whose Dumbo-ian ears help compensate for his small stature. Desperaux is something of a sociopath, seemingly unable to experience the typical mouse emotions of fear (and–dare I say–love?) He is known to cavort with humans, steal cheese from spring-loaded mousetraps, and read books instead of eat them. For all their efforts, the mouse community cannot teach him to be scared. Because of these reasons, combined with the fact he is an insufferable know-it-all, Desperaux is also banished to Rat World. Miggery Sow (Tracy Ullman), who is every bit as piggish as her name suggests, is a lady-in-waiting to Princess Pea (Emma Watson, a.k.a. Hermoine Granger). Mig has delusions of being royalty and eventually attempts to usurp Princess Pea, or kill her, or help her, or not…I forget. These story lines are all set on a collision course for wackiness as we, the audience, learn a few things about the good and evil of mice and men…and rats.

If you haven’t read the book and can ignore the unexplained ensemble of accents: American, French, Australian, and British (both proper and Cockney), there is actually very little to dislike about The Tale of Desperaux. The author receives additional props for resisting the strong gravitational pull towards using the tail=tale pun so many other animal adventures (i.e., An American Tail, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, etc.) have succumbed to. Sigorney Weaver gives a lackluster performance as the film’s narrator, and I’m sure her bland uninteresting voice could be rivaled by any number of local bank tellers or coffeehouse baristas. Matthew Broderick seemed to me an odd selection as the voice of Desperaux, but then again he seems like an odd selection in anything since and including Ferris Bueller (I cite Human Decency vs. Inspector Gadget for anyone who wants to fight me on this).

The Kids:

I’m not exactly sure where the age threshold is on a movie like this, but I’m guessing it would be at least grade school and above. I would advise against having the 5-and-under crowd attempt this movie, as they will lose interest after the first twenty minutes and bend their minds towards the further destruction of your house. Older children may or may not like it, but will most likely not be begging you for repeat viewings. Ergo, the value of this movie in keeping the little rapscallions occupied and out of your hair is exceedingly low.

The Verdict: Almost Pleasant

Despereaux merits at least one viewing if only for the animation, which is original, beautiful, and very un-Pixar-ish. The story is enjoyable enough and the annoyances are mostly kept to a minimum. So go forth and feel free to Netflix or TiVo at will!

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