The Tale of Despereaux (2008)

Directors:

Sam Fell
Robert Stevenhagen

Writers:

Kate DiCamillo (book)
Will McRobb (screen story)

Release Date:

19 December 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Animation | Comedy | Family | Fantasy

Tagline:

Small Hero. Big Heart.

Plot:

The tale of three unlikely heroes - a misfit mouse who prefers reading books to eating them, an unhappy rat who schemes to leave the darkness of the dungeon, and a bumbling servant girl with cauliflower ears - whose fates are intertwined with that of the castle's princess. |

Plot Keywords:

Book | Darkness | Dungeon | Princess | Rat

Awards:

8 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Matthew Broderick	...	Despereaux (voice)
Dustin Hoffman	...	Roscuro (voice)
Emma Watson	...	Princess Pea (voice)
Tracey Ullman	...	Miggery Sow (voice)
Kevin Kline	...	Andre (voice)
William H. Macy	...	Lester (voice)
Stanley Tucci	...	Boldo (voice)
Ciarán Hinds	...	Botticelli (voice)
Robbie Coltrane	...	Gregory (voice)
Tony Hale	...	Furlough (voice)
Frances Conroy	...	Antoinette (voice)
Frank Langella	...	Mayor (voice)
Richard Jenkins	...	Principal (voice)
Christopher Lloyd	...	Hovis (voice)
Charles Shaughnessy	...	Pietro (voice)

Runtime:

93 min | 90 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS | SDDS

Certification:

USA:G (certificate #44910) | UK:U | Ireland:G | Australia:G | Portugal:M/4 (dubbed version) | Portugal:M/6 (original version) | Norway:7 | Czech Republic:U | Portugal:M/6 (subtitled version) | Finland:K-7 | Canada:G (all jurisdictions) | Singapore:G | South Korea:All | Netherlands:6 | New Zealand:PG | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | Hong Kong:I | South Africa:PG | Greece:K | Argentina:Atp | Peru:PT | Brazil:Livre | Mexico:A | Sweden:7 | Germany:6 (w)

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

A number of characters have names that are artistic references. "Roscuro" refers to the "Chiaroscuro Movement", Botticelli is a reference to the artist Sandro Botticelli, painter of "The Birth of Venus", and Boldo is named after Giuseppe Arcimboldo, a famous surrealistic painter who composed faces and figures out of various objects in the way that Boldo himself is made out of fruit, vegetables and kitchen utensils.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Despereux is about to be dropped into the rat dungeon, he has red string wrapped around his waist. The camera cuts away to show the dungeon, and when it comes back to see Despereux, the red string is missing.

Quotes:

Narrator: Ok, remember when we said that grief was the strongest thing a person could feel? Well, it isn't. It's forgiveness because a single act of forgiveness can change everything.

Movie Connections:

Featured in 81st Annual Academy Awards (2009) (TV)

Lackluster, Meandering

This film is not doing anything noteworthy at the box office, and for good reason. Whatever merits this story had in its original form are lost in this translation.

The story feels directionless at all times, the plot takes nothing but left turns, there is nothing approaching believable character development, the motivations of all characters remain a mystery, and the narration (though given its all by Sigourney Weaver) is nothing but patronizing and annoying.

Kids can tell good and bad storytelling when they see it. They learn the normative laws of storytelling from Saturday morning cartoons. And this films has abysmal storytelling. And that is why kids are not telling their friends to see this movie.

There is a reason why Pixar films do bang-up business at the box office and all the other studios pale in comparison with their CGI efforts: Pixar are the last custodians of storytelling in cinema.

The Tale of Despereaux is just not a good story.