| Audience: | Kindergarten - 3rd Grade |
| MPAA Rating: | G |
| Profanity: | None |
| Nudity/Sex: | None |
| Alcohol/Drugs: | Wine |
| Violence/Scariness: | Cartoon/action peril including swords, traps, falling, scary cat, gladiator-style fighting, sad on-screen death of a parent (from shock) |
| Diversity Issues: | None |
| Movie Release Date: | December 19, 2008 |
The visuals are rich and inviting but a complicated three-part story makes an uneasy transition to screen for the well-loved book by Kate DiCamillo.
Sigourney Weaver narrates the story, beginning with the description of a hero we will not meet for a while, the first of several confusing narrative zig-zags. Before we can meet the title character we must follow a sea-faring rat named Roscuro (voice of Dustin Hoffman) who causes a lot of trouble when he falls into a bowl of soup. And this is not just any soup. This is the soup of the queen of Dor, a country where soup is the national passion. The most important day of the year is the day the new soup presented by the royal chef (voice of Kevin Kline), a true artiste with a muse made of vegetables. Curious Roscuro accidentally falls into the bowl of the queen and she is so shocked that she dies. The grieving king bans soup -- and rats -- and the kingdom becomes cold and sad, the skies perpetually overcast but never finding the release of rain.
Meanwhile a small mouse with very big ears named Despereaux (voice of Matthew Broderick) cannot seem to learn important mouse skills like cowering. He is brave, adventuresome, and chivalrous. He is a gentleman. And a lonely gap-toothed scullery maid envies the princess and begins to think maybe she should replace her.
The animation is truly magnificent, brilliantly imagined and gorgeously realized. There are a hundred brilliant details from the play of light in the dungeon to the dash across the mousetraps and an Archimboldo-inspired vegetable-man muse. The vistas are jewel-toned and glowing and the physical properties are wonderfully real and thrillingly vivid. The story, however, is less so, over-complicated and murky. What happens in front of those beautiful backgrounds is never quite as interesting as the setting.
Parents should know that despite the G rating this film includes a sad on-screen death of a parent and action/adventure violence and peril including swords, falling, and gladiator-style combat with a scary cat and a girl tied up and turned over to hungry rats.
Family discussion: Why did being hurt make Roscuro want to hurt others? Why wasn't Despereaux afraid of the things that scared the other mice? What does it mean to be a gentleman?
If you like this, try: the book
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It is interesting that so many people have focused on that scene, which I did not find as disturbing as having the queen keel over at the beginning of the movie, leaving the king and the princess so devastated. I think that the gender issue relates not just to that scene but to the generally passive females throughout the story. But I agree that misogynistic is too strong a term.
Also looking for a review of Marley & Me - not sure if appropriate for children even though it has a PG rating....
SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
I am sorry for the delay, Traci and I hope to review it soon. But in the meantime, I do not recommend it for kids because the dog dies at the end and it is very, very sad.
This has got to be one of the weirdest kids movies I've ever seen... the muse (which my husband and I called the vegetable golem) seemed completely incongruous with the rest of the plot, which was itself pretty bizarre. I did a shocked ha! when the queen died in her soup, but it didn't phaze the kids. My 7 year old burst into tears when the tied up princess was in the arena, which completely baffled me. I asked him what was wrong and he said "It's just so sad!" Not scary, sad. It was just bizarre. I couldn't fathom the rat's actions at all. (Oh I just want to be forgiven! I'm so sorry for causing all these horrible events. Oh, wait - you don't forgive me? Then I'll kill you. Mmmmm - huh?) The title character's main virtue seemed to be an absence of fear, rather than the courage to overcome fear for a worthy cause. It was just altogether odd.
Great comment, thanks. This is what I meant when I spoke of the uneasy translation to screen, Monkiecat. It works better in the book. But I think the title character's main virtue was his commitment to chivalry -- to honor, justice, and helping those in need.
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