The Tale of Despereaux

M: We have been getting our fill of some pretty good animated movies lately. I loved the idea of the mice learning how to be scared, and I laughed at how Despereaux's bravery was so appalling to the other mice. But, as the story progressed, I got a little bored. The storyline wasn't great, and the lessons seemed a bit heavy. All in all, it is a decent show, very good looking, but not great. I struggle where to put this, for me, 2 means average, 2 1/2 above average, 3 means good, 3 1/2 great, and 4 is exceptional. This movie falls somewhere in between above average and good. I have seen a lot of cartoons lately that make this pale in comparison. So I think I will give it 2 1/2 stars.

V: I enjoyed the book, which won the Newberry Award. Although, I felt the end wrapped up a little too quickly. What I really loved about the book was the language. That's hard to translate to film -- which is where the narrator voiceover comes in. That almost always weakens a movie, because they just can't seem to resist stating the moral. People don't like to be told what they've already figured out. (And when they figure it out for themselves, it seems profound, egotistical as we are. When it's stated for us, it seems trite.) For example, I really was enjoying the movie Seabiscuit and then, at the very end, the voiceover came on and said something like, "Seabiscuit may think I healed him, but actually, it was him who healed me." Groan. So anyway, the voiceover weakened Despereaux. I think they filled out the resolution better than the book. My main complaint was that they didn't keep all the story lines tight enough, so that I began to wonder, are they ever going to say anything more about the princess? the rat? Otherwise, it was stylishly done, some good humor and good characters. I agree with M, yet again, 2 1/2 stars.