As the last animated film I will see of 2008, Tale of Despereaux isn’t a bad one to end on, but not a great one either. The story centers around a mouse named Despereaux (voiced by Matthew Broderick). He’s different than the rest of the mice. He is brave, curious, and never gets frightened. However, he’s looked down upon for this in the Mouseworld. Meanwhile, there’s a rat who is completely different than the other rats. Roscuro (voiced by Dustin Hoffman) loves the light and hates the darkness. He is a very decent rat unlike the others in the Ratworld.
The heart of all of this is how these two rodents from polar opposite worlds meet and discover they are more alike than they think. With a solid supporting voice cast that includes Kevin Kline, Emma Watson, Richard Jenkins, Tracey Ullman and William H. Macy, the movie takes place in an ancient world with dragons, princesses, castles and knights. But, it’s pretty dark to be a children’s movie.
The film lacks a certain mirth until the last five to ten minutes. I almost respect that bold choice, but audiences of all ages won’t be enthralled when they should be. Even with its meaningful message about forgiveness, it never comes into focus until the end when everything is carelessly thrown at you.
There are elements of jealousy, love, revenge, and forgiveness in Tale of Despereaux that should be more than enough to entertain. Directors Rob Stevenhagen and Sam Fell‘s fatal flaw is possessing all the makings for a fantastic, adventurous movie about mice and rats and sadly doing nothing with them. By crafting something less imaginative than those that have come before, it is destined to be easily forgotten.
“Nature Boy” Brandon Vick is the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and star of Brandon’s Box Office In Your Mouth. Follow him on Twitter @SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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