The Tale of Despereaux

The Tale of Despereaux

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This a compilation of three intertwined stories, a mouse who chooses to be different, a rat who is trying to leave the dungeon, and a poor peasant girl who wishes to be a princess and live in the castle. It all starts off where the kingdom of Nor has a glorious holiday where the royal chef makes a soup. Not just any soup, but a soup that can be shared by all. When a horrible accident happens, a rat named Roscuro "Dustin Hoffman" falls into the Queen's bowl of soup, after it had been finally finished, only to shock her to death, literally. The king of Nor decides from that day on that all rats are illegal and to be banished, along with the soup festival forever. The problem is the movie keeps going down hill.

Not long after that you meet the Hero of the story Despereaux "Matthew Broderick", not your typical mouse. While being taught at school he questions the teacher on what he is being taught, for example "Why should I be scared of cats?", your typical nonconformist. Well since Despereaux does not act like the other mice they decide to banish him from Mouseworld, down a deep dark pit to Ratworld, to be gone forever. He is saved by Roscuro, before he dies by being eaten by a large cat in a large gladiator arena in Ratworld.

The third part of the tale is about Miggery Sow who's only dream is be a princess and to live in the castle. She does manage to make it into the castle, by being sold into slavery by her own father. Miggery Sow does have the attitude that every cloud has a silver lining, she might not be a princess, although she does live in the castle. Now, only being the princess is left on her list of dreams to be accomplished.

I have not read the book "The Tale of Despereaux", but it has to be a better book than a children's cartoon. There must be a serious communication problem here between the book and the film. The film was rather dark and depressing through out that did not offer much hope for any of the characters. A story about constant strife, one thing after another. It lacks humor and I found it quite disturbing as a kids film. Even thought there were pastel colors on the screen, it seems to lack hope or even an ounce of laughter. I feel this movie is quite hard for kids to understand and, you will end up having to explain quite a bit to your children on why things happened the way they did.

The Tale of Despereaux had a lack luster fairy tale ending, that was like a dull cloudy day. Not my idea of a children's movie.




 

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