Absolutely brilliant

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The Tale of Despereaux (2008): Dir: Sam Fell, Rob Stevenhagen / Voices: Matthew Broderick, Emma Watson, Dustin Hoffman, Tracey Ullman, Robbie Coltrane: Exciting animation about bravery. Despereaux is a little mouse with big ears who knows no fear. Roscuro is a rat that accidentally caused the Queen a heart attack when he landed in her soup. Since then rats have been outlawed. Clever writing flawed only with a few silly elements including a ghostly character that the vegetables become. Directed by Sam Fell and Rob Stevenhagen with terrific colorful animation. Strong voice talents included Matthew Broderick as Despereaux, the brave mouse who dares to associate with humans. We know that he will save the day but it is great fun for its young audience. Dustin Hoffman voices Roscuro who causes tragedy with the Queen. He attempts to correct his mistake only to be at ends with greater conflict. Emma Watson voices Princess Pea, human Princess who freaks at the sight of Roscuro until she is kidnapped by her slave girl. It is obvious that she will learn a big lesson. Tracey Ullman voices the servant girl who desires to be a Princess and assists in the kidnapping of Pea. Robbie Coltrane voices her father who is a jailer. She will gain a void filled in the end. A terrific tale of bravery and adventure that should entice the imagination. Score: 9 / 10

I haven't read the book yet, so I can't make a comparison between movie and book. The movie itself was OK at best; good points first - it was beautifully animated, the characters lavishly designed, great visuals, the voice talent was pretty much as good as it can get. Now, the bad points - it made no sense, the story/plot was all over the place, it wasn't engaging and it was all a bit mediocre. It brought nothing new to the table. There were too many characters to keep track of and yet none of the characters are really that likable. I felt that there was no charm at all, as if the film-makers were trying too hard, and in doing so they've lost any magic that the story and characters may have had. All in all, it just felt really contrived and desperate. Oh, and why the heck do they have to make the mice and rats look so much like real mice and rats??? At least the rats in Ratatouille looked cartoon-y and were cute, the mice and rats in T.O.D were just plain creepy looking.

I truly enjoyed this movie although I do have to agree with some posters and their question of ratings. Personally I didn't find anything terrible about it and would allow my 8 or 9 year old to watch, possibly 7 if I felt they where able to handle it. I grew up watching the visually amazing cinematic accomplishments like Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Watership Down (that one was horrible for a child), and The Secret of Nimh, while I never found those scary (except Watership) I can imagine some parents wouldn't want their young ones to watch them either.From a story stand point, The Tale of Despereaux is lovely; the animation is quite stunning with the colors running more towards the dark then the light (since the sun went away). It's a fairly classic tale, brave mouse gets ostracized for being brave (different) and banished to be eaten by the rats. One rat takes him in and they become friends. All through out there are different characters with their own personal stories emerging which all in all I found well done. The cast was amazing with some well known actors lending their voices, while personally I didn't like Matthew Brodericks voice as Despereaux, I still think he did a fine job of it. I think it's a movie worth watching for adults and older children, but I would think a PG rating would be better suited.

As a few people know already I am a huge fan of animation, and would immediately see something no matter how good or bad it was. I was interested in The Tale of Despereux, it actually looked interesting, and naturally I wanted to see how much justice it did to one of my favourite books, written by Kate DiCamillo.I have to say, The Tale of Despereux was a bit of a disappointment. Not terrible, but it could have been better, considering the source material. I have to admit though, the animation is wonderful. I admit I was more impressed by the backgrounds and colours than the character designs, the character designs were good in general but the backgrounds were nicely rendered and the colours were suitably bold and bright. Also the music is beautiful, it had lovely motifs and a sense of adventure, and the message was a nice one. And I was surprised at the voice acting, it was very good on the whole. Initially, I wasn't sure of some of the choices, but all did well. Emma Watson is good enough, but Dustin Hoffmann, Kevin Kline and Robbie Coltrane are great. Wasn't sure about Matthew Broderick though. He can be likable and above average, but he flounders when his characters are badly underwritten or poorly explored, which was sadly the case here.I think I would have had a better reaction to The Tale of Despereux if I hadn't read the book. I do try to judge films by their own merits, but for those who haven't read the book or are considering reading it, I want to share my opinion. It is a wonderful book, full of memorable characters, exciting and poignant stories, a great atmosphere and a full emotional punch at the end. On its own, this film is reasonable, as an adaptation it is sadly quite poor. Some of the characters are poorly explored, particularly Despereux who is disappointingly bland, while Roscuro doesn't come close to the complex character he is in the book. The story is a bit of a mess, it had a great idea, but some of it felt rushed and skimmed over, while scenes were unfocused and pointless. I really wasn't taken with the subplot about soup, sorry but that felt somewhat superfluous to the story. Worse was the script, the actors delivered very well but some of the dialogue is pretty bad, instead of being intelligent, funny, poignant or thought-provoking, it came across as trite and hackneyed.Overall, reasonable attempt but doesn't quite work. Oh, and for those who haven't read the book and weren't taken with the movie, you may find the book is much more worthwhile. 5/10 for the animation, voice cast and music. Bethany Cox