Theatrical Review of The Tale of Despereaux

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Theatrical review

By Jason P. Vargo
First published Dec 18, 2008

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Mainstream animated films have an illustrious history from the groundbreaking "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" to the equally groundbreaking "Shrek." They are designed to enrapture both young and old, tell a unique story and deliver a world live action can´t. Then there´s the moral message of the piece, as we say in "Wall-E"s environmental mantra. The newest entrant in this field, "The Tale of Despereaux," successfully combines nearly all the elements audience´s expect out of a family-friendly film, including the obligatory 2 x 4 to the head with its message of forgiveness.

Roscuro the rat (voiced by Dustin Hoffman, the first in a long line of A-list actors lending their voices to the project) is inadvertently left behind when his ship sails back to sea. He´s left in a kingdom where soup is all the rage. Roscuro enjoys it too…in fact, he enjoys it too much as he falls into the queen´s bowl, prompting her to accidently drown in the bowl. In Mouseworld, underneath the kingdom, the titular Despereaux (Matthew Broderick) is having his own problems. He refuses to act like a mouse: he isn´t afraid of cats or knives and doesn´t cower like everyone else. And then there´s Mig (Tracy Ullman), a servant girl who has always dreamed on being a princess. These three storylines intersect, leading to the same story destination.

And that is the most aggravating aspect of "Despereaux," based on the 2004 Newbery Medal winner. There is no qualm with the morality of the piece; surely, a story about characters forgiving one another for inadvertent mistakes is a worthwhile lesson to teach. The way the film goes about it, though, is the issue. By the end, each storyline is so filled with ancillary characters and side trips into Ratworld and other locales, Sigourney Weaver´s narrator actually has to remind the audience exactly what happened, effectively wrapping the movie with a nice little bow. Now, I´m just as much a fan of montages as the next guy (the finale of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" gets me misty eyed every time I watch it), but this one borders on insulting the audience. Not even the kids will need a refresher; they probably checked out of the film a long, long time before the finale comes to the screen.

Why? Because "Despereaux" has the feel of a grand piece of art. The animation is exquisite to look at, filled with tiny details designed to make this fantasy world feel real. It doesn't tun out to be kid-friendly with bright, overflowing characters or gigantic personalities like "Kung Fu Panda." There's are no musical numbers like most Disney outings. The color palette is reserved, dark and broodish. In short, the production is trying to bill itself as a children's movie when it can't hope to grab that audience in any manner.

The story is a lumbering creature trying to throw everything it can into the finished product. Whether a symptom of the source material or limited to this screen version, it simply comes across as boring, lacking zip or any modicum of flash. It goes from set piece to set piece as if trying to only get the message across, which I won´t begrudge. In fact, a movie with an actual idea behind it is a rare thing nowadays. But that´s all "Despereaux" is: morality on top of morality on top of even more morality. With each subsequent layer of the same exact thought, how many adults can actually watch without rolling their eyes?

A servant who wants to be a princess needs to forgive the father who gave her up. A princess and king forgive Roscuro for killing the queen. Despereaux is forgiven for not being what society expects of him (society forgives him, too). Alright, we get it. How do we go about calling "uncle" as the blunt object we´re being hit with finally draws blood? The 94-minute running time feels double that; the movie flips between each storyline, expecting the audience to keep up. Honestly, none of the characters are interesting or sympathetic enough to warrant that much concentration.

One also has to question an entire society (Mouseworld) who demands everyone act the very same way. Sure, some audience members will know better and laugh it off as a joke. Others, particularly the smaller ones, won´t have the patience to sit through the entire film to finally get the right message at the end. So what are they left with? Mice of all shapes and sizes proclaiming a homogeneous society is the best thing, for everyone to have the same exact reactions to every outside stimulus in the world. To run and cower in fear as opposed to stand up to the Big Bad´s of the world.

Maybe I´m taking a simple cartoon too seriously. Maybe we should all enjoy it for being wonderfully detailed and having a stellar voice cast behind it. Maybe we should, as many people have suggested, simply allow ourselves to be entertained instead of be critical. Maybe. A 5 out of 10, depending on your temperament for heavy-handed message movies.

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