Movie Review: The Tale of Despereaux

It isn't difficult to notice patterns within recent animated movies: penguins in Happy Feet and Surf's Up, fish in Finding Nemo, Shark Tale, and Ponyo, robots in WALL-E and Robots, African animals in Madagascar (1 and 2) and The Wild--and now we have rats in Ratatouille, Flushed Away, and, of course, The Tale of Despereaux.

If you want to rate Despereaux low, compare it to its big brothers Ratatouille and Flushed Away. The latter was a fun movie, cheeky and easy to like. The former was a beautifully animated film with a compelling story and plenty of humor and excitement throughout. Despereaux has these qualities as well, but not quite up to the standard of the other two. That isn't to say it's a bad movie.

In the beginning of Despereaux, we see our main rat, Roscuro (Dustin Hoffman), arriving in town in anticipation for Soup Day, the town's biggest holiday. The head chef, a genius in his soup skills, is just about finished preparing his latest creation. Roscuro follows his nose to the gigantic kitchen and, unfortunately, one event leads to another until the Queen ends up dead. This makes the King so sad that he bans soup and rats. The lack of soup casts unhappiness over the entire town, and eventually all sunlight disappears and rain ceases to fall.

Enter Despereaux (Matthew Broderick), a courageous little mouse who becomes an outcast because of his strange bravery and curiosity. He, too, finds a sad fate. This fate, however, leads to his friendship with Roscuro. Together, they make chivalrous vows. Their quest? To save the town and help the saddened Princess (Emma Watson).

This is just a taste of the entire plot, however. There are several more characters and one or two more subplots to discover.

The biggest criticisms of Despereaux stem from its many fantastical elements, some of which can be confusing and yet go unexplained. One example is the talking rats and mice--yet nobody complains when dolls and action figures speak in Toy Story, or that a bee converses with humans in Bee Movie, or that any number of animals and inanimate objects talk in various other animated films. Many also find a problem with a certain character in Despereaux that I see most commonly called the Veggie Demon. Introduced early on, the Veggie Demon is a friend of sorts of the head chef. When the chef retreats into his office, the vegetables inside magically pull together to form a humanoid shape. They throw ideas back and forth on cooking soup. The most commonly accepted theory is that the Veggie Demon is the chef's muse. The criticism, however, is that this doesn't make any sense at all and just doesn't happen in the real world.

Now, Despereaux is one of those movies that requires you to leave your mind open. Of course rats and mice don't talk, and vegetables don't spring to life. The point of Despereaux is to pull you inside another world, separate from ours. It just so happens that animals talk and magic causes vegetables to argue with you. This movie doesn't try to accurately display our world. But for what it does try to do, it's a fun ride. There is plenty of action, a few points of scandal, and even some dark moments. The dark aspects of the film aren't the type of frightening you find in movie like Coraline; rather, it's just plain creepy and might be too scary for children. Unfortunately, in a movie that doesn't hold as much for adults as Flushed Away and Ratatouille, it's hard to spot the best audience for Despereaux.

Still, the movie looks great. The animation is beautiful and each setting is fascinating--personally, I was most intrigued by Ratworld, a dank place where sunlight never strays and the little lighting that exists comes from matches used as street lamps. Despereaux is arguably the cutest character in each of these three rat movies and is easily lovable. The voice acting is generally good, as well, though the choice of Broderick to voice Despereaux is questionable. He has a good voice for an adult lion, but for a young mouse? I've never been able to warm up to giving animated children mature voices. This choice, however, is all I saw wrong with the voice acting.

All in all, Despereaux would not be able to stand up to his predecessors in a fair fight, but it's a decent movie all the same. If you're looking for a little magic, a little adventure, you may find a favorite in Despereaux. If not, just remember to keep an open mind when you go to see this movie.