The Tale of Despereaux (film)

The Tale of Despereaux
Movie Poster
Directed by	Rob Stevenhagen Sam Fell
Produced by	Gary Ross Allison Thomas
Written by	Gary Ross Will McRobb Chris Viscardi Rob Stevenhagen
Based on	The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
Narrated by	Sigourney Weaver
Starring	Matthew Broderick Emma Watson Robbie Coltrane Frances Conroy Tony Hale Ciarán Hinds Dustin Hoffman Richard Jenkins Kevin Kline Frank Langella Christopher Lloyd William H. Macy Tracey Ullman
Music by	William Ross
Cinematography	Brad Blackbourn
Editing by	Mark Solomon
Studio	Relativity Media Framestore Feature Animation Universal Animation Studios
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	December 19, 2008 (2008-12-19)
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$60 million
Box office	$86,947,965

The Tale of Despereaux is a 2008 computer-animated film directed by Sam Fell and Robert Stevenhagen. Loosely based on the 2003 fantasy book of the same name by Kate DiCamillo, the movie is narrated by Sigourney Weaver and stars Matthew Broderick and Emma Watson. It was released on December 19, 2008 by Universal Pictures.

Plot

A ship sails into the kingdom of Dor, known for its 'Royal Soup Day.' Roscuro (Dustin Hoffman), a rat, is aboard with a human companion, Pietro.

Roscuro is mesmerized by the aroma of soup being prepared in the castle's kitchens and he escapes Pietro to find the source. In doing so, he finds the castle banquet room and accidentally falls into the Queen's soup after she takes the first sip. The Queen then gets shocked and faints from sheer terror, falls headfirst in her soup bowl and eventually drowns with no one noticing. Meanwhile, Roscuro is being chased about the castle. The chase finally ends when Roscuro falls into a vent and plunges into the dungeons.

The king in his grief orders soup to be forbidden and rats banished. These were the Dark Ages and the town falls into eternal darkness and famine. Roscuro, meanwhile, meets Botticelli (Ciarán Hinds), the brutal leader of the rat world.

A few years later, an adventurous mouse, Despereaux Tilling (Matthew Broderick) is born, and becomes friends with the lonely Princess Pea (Emma Watson). Upon finding out that Despereaux has broken the law by speaking with a human, the Mouse Council banishes him to the dungeons. Antoinette Tilling (Frances Conroy), Despereaux's mother tries to run through to stop the Mouse Council from sending Despereaux into the dungeon, but Lester (William H. Macy), Antoinette's husband, grabs her by the arm, because he cares more about the Mouse Council than he does about Despereaux. In the dungeon, Despereaux is caught, but he is saved by Roscuro from being eaten by the other rats. Despereaux tells Roscuro of the princess's gloom, which touches the rat.

Roscuro approaches the princess to apologize, but she is terrified of him and he is chased out. Hurt, he decides to kidnap the princess. He enlists the help of a servant girl, Miggery Sow (Tracey Ullman), whom he later double crosses, and locks in a cell.

Meanwhile, Despereaux realizes that the princess is in danger. Back in the rat colony, Roscuro sees the apologetic sincerity in Pea's eyes and regrets his actions, but is unable to stop the rats, to whom he has given her, from clambering over her. Roscuro tries to tell the rats that Pea is not bad, but Botticelli does not let him because he wants Pea dead, even going as far as allowing the rats to eat or trample over Pea. Roscoro figures out that Botticelli is a double-crossing traitor and that Pea is doomed. However, little Despereaux lets loose a cat, and the rats run away before the cat goes back into its cage. Roscuro then makes Botticelli go into the cage, where he is eaten by the cat.

Miggery is rescued by the jailer, who is revealed to be her father, and goes back to her farm with him. Roscuro is reunited with Pietro, and the princess and the king decide to soothe their grief by relying on each other for support. The mice no longer live in fear, and Despereaux, reunited with his family, remains close friends with the princess even as he departs for his next adventure.

Cast

• Matthew Broderick as Despereaux Tilling, a brave but nonconforming mouse who does not run from danger as a mouse should.
• Robbie Coltrane as Gregory
• Frances Conroy as Antoinette
• Patricia Cullen as Queen, a queen who is scared of rats and drowned in her soup upon the sight of Ruscuro.
• Sam Fell as Ned/Smudge
• Tony Hale as Furlough
• Ciarán Hinds as Botticelli, the leader of the rat world. He was part of the princess being kidnapped, and when Roscuro regretted letting the other rats attack the princess, he was the one that that did not let Roscuro stop them. He eventually met his doom when he went into a cat cage by accident. He is the main antagonist.
• Dustin Hoffman as Roscuro, a rat who once lived at sea, and is currently working for Botticelli.
• Richard Jenkins as Principal
• Kevin Kline as Andre, the cook
• Frank Langella as Mayor
• Christopher Lloyd as Hovis
• William H. Macy as Lester
• Bronson Pinchot as Town Crier
• Charles Shaughnessy as Pietro
• Stanley Tucci as Boldo, the soup genie
• Tracey Ullman as Miggery "Mig" Sow, Princess Pea's servant girl. She feels discontented with her role as a slave, and wants to become a princess herself. She is a secondary antagonist, but reforms.
• Emma Watson as Princess Pea, a human princess who befriends Despereaux.
• Robin Atkin Downes as The Cat (uncredited)
• Sigourney Weaver as The Narrator

Production

This was Universal's first animated film to be filmed in a 2.35:1 widescreen format. Its 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 the soup spirit) taking place at his studio Django Films in Edinburgh. Chomet came up against creative and ethical differences with the producers and was found to be using budget intended for Despereaux to fund his own traditional animation film The Illusionist, which was being developed simultaneously on another floor of the same studio, and was eventually fired from the project and thrown out of the studio space allocated to Despereaux. Mike Johnson was also hired as director before the role eventually went to Sam Fell and Robert Stevenhagen, who, reportedly, had not read the original novel and directed the film, made at Framestore in London, via speakerphone and e-mail.

Music

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.

Home video release

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 7, 2009. The 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.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 55% of critics gave positive reviews based on 87 reviews. Another review aggregator, Metacritic, gave the film a 53/100 approval rating based on 23 reviews.

Many critics praised the film for its excellent animation and the charming title character, but complained that it had an unoriginal and scrambled story. Roger Ebert of the 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 he also wrote "I am not quite so thrilled by the story..." Christy Lemire of the Associated Press was more critical, writing that the film "feels obvious, preachy and heavy-handed."

The film opened at the third position behind Seven Pounds and Yes Man with $10,507,000 in 3,104 theaters 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, which was lower than its $60 million budget. The film grossed an additional $37 million overseas for a total of $87 million, making it a modest success.

External links

• Official website
• The Tale of Despereaux at the Internet Movie Database
• The Tale of Despereaux at AllRovi
• The Tale of Despereaux at Box Office Mojo