The Tale of Despereaux

The very fact that the main character is named Despereaux shows how much the creators wanted to appeal to the audience, especially the children’s audience. The calculation is evident from whom the actual main hero is. Yes, it’s a mouse. What’s so unusual about that? Perhaps the fact that a year before this film, Ratatouille was made. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Pixar comes up with something, and it’s as if nothing else exists. The same happened with Finding Nemo. Shortly after that, the film Shark Tale was released, which—if nothing else—was at least funny and contained a few good lines. I won’t even mention Shark Bait, that one's just pathetic. The Tale of Despereaux wanted to show us that rats and mice are now in vogue, plus it’s based on a popular children’s book, so why not give it a try? However, it could have used better animation, which looked incredibly thin in some moments. The story doesn’t really excite; it’s simply about a coward who poses as a mouse, a rat who should improve himself, and a soup festival that holds more significance than Christmas. It’s too big a scheme to truly capture interest and provoke any emotional reaction from me, at least for even one of the scenes. And I am capable of emotional reactions. The thirteenth and fourteenth episodes of How I Met Your Mother could tell you that. (2013-02-21)

Unlike his colleagues, this mouse with big ears is not afraid of cats and wants to rescue princesses. Unfortunately, he lacks charm, wit and humor and reminds you of the little boy who used to go to primary school with you, always sitting in the first row, always raising his hand and helping the teacher carry the notebooks. He's an annoying brat that nobody likes. Like this movie. (2009-02-03)

Indeed, The Tale of Despereaux is a pure fairy tale. Not a pure comedy, not a parody, not an action spectacle, but simply a fairy tale. And beautiful. It appealed to me mainly because of its engaging story full of various characters, none of whom (well, maybe with one exception, but that's debatable) were downright negative. They were all driven to their behavior by someone else's behavior. There's nice animation (even though it's not Pixar) and excellent dubbing - especially in the case of the rat with the voice of Dustin Hoffman and narrator Sigourney Weaver. I'm rounding up four and a half stars for a perfect "ghost" named Boldo inspired by Arcimboldo's paintings. (2014-04-20)