Nappaland Movies

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THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX (G)

(Universal Studios Home Entertainment)

Plot Summary: A banished mouse and a misfit rat must save the village of Door.

Reason for the Rating: N/A.

First a beloved children’s book, The Tale of Despereaux makes an adventurous and beautiful movie. Animated to look like a storybook come to life, the visuals here are beautifully done. The talent of actors such as Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Watson, and Kevin Kline also bring the story to life.

Despereaux Tilling (voiced by Matthew Broderick), is a small but courageous mouse - and he's different from the other mice. When his schoolteacher shows him a picture of a cat, he doesn’t cower. When a human is around, he doesn’t scurry away. He refuses to become a proper, fearful mouse, and so he is banished from Mouseworld, and must enter the scary and sinister Ratworld.

Rats are illegal in the Village of Door, and so they all hide in the darkness. As a result, they've let darkness take over their hearts, reveling in cruelty.

One rat, Roscuro (Dustin Hoffman), at first refuses to become like the other rats. He takes in the banished Despereaux. But Roscuro lives with the guilt of knowing that he is the one who caused a great sadness to come over the village of Door. It was he who accidentally scared the Queen to death, literally, by falling in her soup. From that day on, all rats were declared illegal - and soup was outlawed! Grey clouds covered the sky, and sadness covered Princess Pea (Emma Watson) and her father, the king.

But Despereaux, being a curious and daring mouse, befriends the princess and sets out on a quest for her that ends with him eventually saving her life and, along with Roscuro, restoring the village of Door.

The Tale of Despereaux deals with themes such as forgiveness, disappointment, and being different, as both Despereaux and Roscuro do not meet the requirements of being a proper mouse or a proper rat. Another major theme is how one deals with sorrow and grief—whether one allows it to swallow himself or to make himself bitter. Throughout the story, it shows how we make conscious choices that affect other people and that those choices can be for good or evil.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

"Making Of..." documentary short, Sneak Peek at Curious George 2, Interactive Map of the Kingdom of Dor, Despereaux's Quest game, plus a DVD-ROM with card creator, coloring pages, wallpapers, screensavers, and more.

NAPPALAND RECOMMENDS:

Although the movie ends very quickly, tying up a number of plot threads in the swish of a rat’s tail, it is still a fun and charming film. And the moral of the story will leave you with much to discuss with family.

AFTER THE SHOW: 

• If you were the princess, how do you think you would have reacted to Roscuro when he apologized?

• How do you think the story would have ended differently had she forgiven him when he apologized?

• Have you ever felt like Despereaux, that you don’t quite fit the mold that you’re supposed to? What do you do when you feel like this?

AV

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Note: All movie-related graphics in this column are standard publicity/promotional shots and are owned by their respective movie studios.