Psycho's Movie Reviews #141: The Tale Of Despereaux (2008)
- Dec 30, 2021
- 8 min read
The Tale of Despereaux is a 2008 computer-animated adventure fantasy film directed by Sam Fell and Rob Stevenhagen (in his feature directorial debut). It is loosely based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Kate DiCamillo. The film is narrated by Sigourney Weaver and stars Matthew Broderick, Emma Watson, Robbie Coltrane, Dustin Hoffman, Richard Jenkins, Kevin Kline, Frank Langella, William H. Macy, James Nesbitt, Tony Hale, Christopher Lloyd, Tracey Ullman, Ciarán Hinds, and Stanley Tucci. The animation was provided by Framestore Animation.
It was released in the United States on December 19, 2008, by Universal Pictures. The film is the second theatrically-released computer-animated film distributed by Universal Pictures, following The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie. The film grossed $86.9 million on a $60 million budget and received generally mixed reviews: many critics praised the film for its animation, voice acting, and the title character, but complained that it had an unoriginal and scrambled story.
Plot
A sailor named Pietro and his rat companion Roscuro dock in the French kingdom of Dor, famous around the world for its delicious soups, during the "Royal Soup Day." The chief cook, Chef Andre, makes good soup due to Boldo, a magical genie that emerges from his pot and is made entirely out of food. Roscuro sneaks into the royal banquet hall and falls into the Queen's soup, giving her such a fright that she has a heart attack and dies. The entire hall goes into a panic and the guards pursue Roscuro. He attempts to flee the castle but sees Pietro's ship has already sailed away. He narrowly escapes being killed by falling down a sewer drain, which leads to the castle dungeons. There, he is found and taken in by Botticelli Remorso, the leader of the large rat population. Distraught over his wife's death, the King forbids all things related to soup and makes rats illegal. Without its soup, Dor becomes impoverished and dreary. Andre is banned from making soup and Boldo stops appearing. The King's daughter, Princess Pea, despairs over the sad state of the kingdom and how her father has shut both her and the world out in his grief.
In a mouse village in an abandoned kitchen storage room, Despereaux is born into the Tilling family. As he grows up, it is clear he is not like other mice: he is not timid, but brave and curious, unnerving other mice around him. In an effort to teach him to be a "proper mouse", his brother Furlough takes him to the royal library to show him how to chew books, but Despereaux is more interested in reading them. He becomes fascinated by books about daring knights and trapped princesses. One day, he encounters and converses with Pea. He promises to finish the story about a trapped princess and tell her how it ends. Upon discovering Despereaux has violated mouse law by talking to a human, his parents Lester and Antoinette turn him over to the mouse council to avoid being blamed.
The council banishes Despereaux to the dungeons, where he meets and tells the princess story to the jailor, Gregory, but he stops listening and leaves Despereaux alone. There, he is captured by the rats and thrown into their arena with a cat. As Despereaux is about to be eaten, Roscuro saves his life by asking Botticelli to give Despereaux to him to eat. Having been unable to adjust to being a sewer rat, Roscuro is desperate to hear about the outside world. The two become friends, as every day Despereaux tells him the stories and of the princess and her sadness. Wishing to make amends for all the trouble he's caused, Roscuro sneaks into Pea's room and tries to apologize, only to be lashed out at and pursued by guards once again. Hurt by this, Roscuro vows revenge. He enlists the help of Miggery "Mig" Sow, Pea's hard of hearing young maid who longs to be a princess herself, by convincing her she can take Pea's place if she kidnaps her. After Mig drags Pea to the dungeons, Roscuro double-crosses her and locks her in a cell.
Meanwhile, Despereaux discovers the princess is in danger and he tries to tell the King but he is too despondent to hear him. Despereaux tries to get help elsewhere; he tries to enlist his family, but they are afraid by his presence (thinking he is a ghost); he rings the town's bell to prove his survival. Andre, having had enough of the law, gets back to making soup, which brings the enchanted smell back to the kingdom and brings back Boldo. Despereaux tries to get help from Andre and Boldo, but only Boldo agrees and takes him back to the dungeons. En route, they are attacked by rats; Boldo sacrifices himself to allow Desperaux to reach the arena.
In the aftermath, Roscuro apologizes to Pea once again and she apologizes too; Mig is reunited with Gregory, who has turned out to be her long-lost father, and they go back to their farm together; the King overcomes his grief and allows soup and rats back in the kingdom; the mice finally stop cowering (much to the mouse council's disdain); Roscuro returns to his life at sea with the light and gentle breeze, and Despereaux himself takes off on a journey to see the world.
Production
The film's production was marred by disagreements and malpractice, or accusations thereof, between the French, British and North American staff involved. Sylvain Chomet was employed by Gary Ross and Allison Thomas as director early on, before the film was approved for funding by Universal Pictures, with pre-production (including character design, the first drafts of the screenplay written by Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi, and the addition of the original character of Boldo) taking place at his studio Django Films in Edinburgh. Chomet came up against creative and ethical differences with the producers and was eventually fired from the project and thrown out of the studio space allocated to the film. Mike Johnson was hired to replace Chomet as director, before the role eventually went to Sam Fell and Rob Stevenhagen.
The score to The Tale of Despereaux was composed by William Ross, who recorded his score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Scoring Stage.
Release/Reception/Box Office
The Tale of Despereaux was theatrically released on December 19, 2008, by Universal Pictures.
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 7, 2009. One Blu-ray release also includes a standard-definition DVD of the film in addition to the Blu-ray Disc. The film brought in a revenue of $25,531,805 in the US DVD sales market.
Rotten Tomatoes reported that 57% of critics gave positive reviews based on 109 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The website's consensus reads, "Despite its striking visuals, The Tale of Despereaux as a story feels familiar and unimaginative." Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 53 out of 100 based on reviews from 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.
Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times awarded three stars and wrote in his review that "The Tale of Despereaux is one of the most beautifully drawn animated films I've seen", but also wrote, "I am not quite so thrilled by the story". Christy Lemire of Associated Press was more critical, writing that the film "feels obvious, preachy and heavy-handed."
The film opened at the third position in the United States, behind Seven Pounds and Yes Man, with $10,507,000 in 3,104 theatres with an $3,385 average; on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, the film was in second. The film closed in March 2009 after grossing $50 million domestically. The film grossed an additional $37 million overseas for a total of $87 million.
Budget $60 million
Box office $86.9 million
My Review
Okay we applauded at the end and I got teary at times.
I have no idea when I last saw an animated film this complex made in the US. I mean that in a good way. I also have to wonder when was the last time I saw a real meaty fairy tale on screen, Strings perhaps (oh what a great double feature that will be) How the heck do I explain this simply? I have no idea. Perhaps by saying this is the story of a mouse named Despereaux who isn't afraid of anything, who reads the stories of a knights and chivalry and takes an oath to be a gentlemen, who helps a princess trapped in a castle and a kingdom caught in gloom.
One of the most beautiful animated films, possibly the best looking computer animated film yet with a lush scheme that makes it look like various paintings by people like Vermeer. At other times this is the equivalent of book illustrations come to life. As good as the trailers look the film itself is even better. If you love art (both fine and animated, see this film since the film references numerous works.
For the most part this is a beautifully adapted film that is like curling up with a good book.Where recent films like City of Ember or Twilight or even the Harry Potter films have links to their source novels that make them less then stand alone movies, this film takes the book and puts it on the screen and doesn't dumb it down or make it so you need to have read the book. You have real fleshed out characters of surprising complexity (What is a character like Dustin Hoffman's doing in a film that is "for children?" I don't care frankly because its wonderful). These are not one note sketches but living breathing people. It doesn't rush things, this is a film that takes its time telling the story and requires you actually pay attention. Despereaux doesn't show up for at least fifteen minutes as we get a long run up of why things are the way they are. Its wonderful since it beautifully lays out the world we are walking through. Its a real fairy tale movie that is much more complex than anything that Disney has been churning out, or even Pixar with the film juggling several story lines- Despereaux, Roscuro(Hoffman), the maid, the Princess- all at the same time all seeming to get an equal amount of weight to their telling. It wonderful.
Unfortunately the film has one flaw that keeps it from being perfect. (This is a POTENTIAL SPOILER so you may not want to read this bit) There is a moment or two after the meeting of Roscuro and the Princess when the climax of the film is set in motion when it felt like something was left out. How does all of the villainy transpire? Its not fully clear and on some level I couldn't completely go with it to the next level. Its like coming to a canyon and you have to bridge it, but you suddenly find yourself on the other side without knowing how you got there. its the sort of thing that made the almost 10 out of ten film closer to 8 out of 10. (END OF SPOILER) Yes I really liked it. Yes I think you should see it, especially if you like really good fairy tales or stories that are not simple or simplistic. Its a wonderful movie. 8.7/10
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