Stuart Little 2

Stuart Little 2
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Rob Minkoff
Screenplay by	Bruce Joel Rubin
Story by	Douglas Wick Bruce Joel Rubin
Based on	Characters by E. B. White
Produced by	Douglas Wick Lucy Fisher
Starring	Geena Davis Hugh Laurie Jonathan Lipnicki
Cinematography	Steven Poster
Edited by	Priscilla Nedd-Friendly
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Production companies	Columbia Pictures Red Wagon Entertainment
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Releasing
Release date	July 19, 2002 (2002-07-19)
Running time	78 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$120 million
Box office	$170 million

Stuart Little 2 is a 2002 American family CGI animated/live-action comedy film directed by Rob Minkoff. It is the sequel to 1999's Stuart Little, itself loosely based on the original 1945 children's book by E. B. White, and stars Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie, and Jonathan Lipnicki, alongside the voices of Michael J. Fox, Nathan Lane, Melanie Griffith, James Woods, and Steve Zahn. Set three years after the first film, Stuart Little and Snowbell must save a small canary named Margalo from the Falcon, an evil falcon and Margalo's adoptive father.

The film was released to theaters on July 19, 2002 by Columbia Pictures, and grossed $170 million against a $120 million budget. It was followed by a third film, a direct-to-video sequel titled Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild in 2005. However, unlike the previous two films, which were hybrids of live action and animation, the third one was entirely animated.

Plot

Three years after being adopted, Stuart Little questions his abilities following a disastrous soccer match alongside his adoptive brother George, who accidentally kicked him with a soccer ball despite said kick scoring the winning goal for their team. Stuart's relationship with George is strained further after he accidentally crashes a model airplane they were working on in the house. Stuart's adoptive father, Frederick, tries to encourage him, telling him that "every cloud has a silver lining."

Later, an apparently injured canary named Margalo falls into Stuart's roadster on his way home from school. Stuart takes her home and introduces her to the Little family, where he invites Margalo to stay with them for a while, to which she accepts. However, Margalo is secretly assisting her adoptive master Falcon, a greedy falcon to steal valuables from households upon earning the homeowners' trust. Orphaned as a fledging, Margalo assists Falcon in exchange for a home, but she grows reluctant to steal from the Littles. Unable to concentrate on her assignment for Falcon, Margalo becomes close friends with Stuart. Falcon eventually loses patience and threatens to kill Stuart unless Margalo steals Eleanor's wedding ring. Concerned for Stuart's safety, she reluctantly complies.

When the Littles discover that the ring is missing, they think it has fallen down their kitchen sink. Stuart offers to be lowered down the drain on a string to get it, but the string breaks while he is down the drain. A guilt-stricken Margalo saves him, then leaves the Littles' house the following night to protect Stuart. Upon realizing Margalo's disappearance, Stuart assumes she has been kidnapped by Falcon and decides to rescue her with the help of the Littles' cat Snowbell. Before he leaves, Stuart asks George to lie about his whereabouts to his parents while he is gone.

With the help of Snowbell's alley cat friend Monty, Stuart and Snowbell discover that Falcon resides in the disused observation deck of the Pishkin Building. Despite revealing to Stuart that Margalo works for him, faked being injured, and stole his mother's ring, Stuart does not believe it until Falcon reveals to him his mother's ring. Having overheard the debate, Margalo appears and assures Stuart that although she was following Falcon's orders, she is still his friend. Stuart begs her to come home with him, but Falcon flippantly refuses to let Margalo quit his business for Stuart's sake. In retaliation, Stuart attacks Falcon by shooting an arrow at his face, but this turns out to be futile and he only succeeds in provoking Falcon to the point of trying to kill Stuart by dropping him over the side of the building intending to let him fall to his death. When he does so, Stuart plummets toward the street, but fortunately lands in the back a passing garbage truck. Falcon traps Margalo in a paint can as punishment for betraying his trust, but Snowbell manages to reach the top of the building while Falcon is absent and releases her.

Regaining consciousness on board a garbage barge departing from the harbor, Stuart sadly considers giving up until he finds his and George's broken yet still-functioning model airplane on the barge; he cobbles it together with various pieces of junk and uses it to rescue Margalo and Snowbell. Meanwhile, George tells the Littles that Stuart is sleeping at his friend Will's house to rehearse a play but they discover he has lied to them when they find out Stuart is not there. They demand George reveal where Stuart is and tell the truth, telling him he was wrong to make such a promise and that he should never lie to his parents. Eleanor asks George how George would feel and how they would all feel if something happened to Stuart, but George tries not to break Stuart's promise. When Frederick reveals that he understands and that he has a brother but if he was in danger that would matter more to him than the promise, George reluctantly tells them that Stuart is at the Pishkin Building, but Frederick makes it clear he will still have to face the consequences for lying before they head out to find Stuart. The Littles eventually come across Stuart's Roadster, only to find it wrecked and vandalized. Meanwhile, Falcon attacks Snowbell for getting involved, but Margalo declares her independence from him and threatens to toss the ring off of the roof if Falcon persists in killing Snowbell. Angered by her persistence, Falcon demands that she return the ring to him immediately, but Margalo firms her resolve and attempts to flee. Just as Falcon catches up, Stuart catches Margalo in his plane, enraging Falcon to the point of trying to focus on killing Stuart first.

At the same time, the Littles follow them by taxi as Stuart and Margalo fly through Central Park, with Falcon chasing them. Falcon then claws the upper wings of Stuart's plane with his talons and rips them off, dropping him and Margalo with the plane temporarily inoperative as they plummet speedily towards the ground and the flight lever is stuck. With Stuart ready to accept his fate, his family and Margalo encourage him to continue, and he manages to pull the lever and regain flight, just before they hit the ground. Realizing they can't outrun Falcon, Stuart decides to attack him directly. Using the light of the sun reflected in Eleanor's ring to temporarily blind Falcon, Stuart jumps out of the plane just before it crashes into Falcon and explodes into pieces. Margalo catches Stuart as he falls when the loose propeller slices right through his handkerchief parachute, and they reunite with the Littles to return home. Falcon, now crippled and unable to fly, falls out of the sky and lands in a trash can where Monty is searching for food, implying that Monty is now going to eat him since cats eat birds.

Sometime later, Margalo says goodbye to the Littles and leaves to migrate south for the winter. After this, Martha, George and Stuart's new infant sister, says her first words, "Bye-bye Birdie", much to the delight of the family (except for Snowbell who snarkily says he would be more impressed her by jumping out of a tree and landing on her feet), who celebrate before heading into the comfort of their home.

Cast

• Michael J. Fox as the voice of Stuart Little, an anthropomorphic mouse adopted as the middle child of the Little family.
• Melanie Griffith as the voice of Margalo, a canary who befriends Stuart. She is the falcon's adoptive daughter.
• James Woods as the voice of Falcon, a falcon and Margalo's adoptive father.
• Geena Davis as Eleanor Little, Stuart, Martha, and George's mother, who is overprotective of Stuart.
• Hugh Laurie as Frederick Little, Stuart, Martha, and George's father and Eleanor's husband.
• Jonathan Lipnicki as George Little, Stuart's "older" brother.
• Nathan Lane as the voice of Snowbell, the family cat who is Stuart's best friend.
• Steve Zahn as the voice of Monty, an alley cat who is friends with Snowbell and Stuart.
• Anna and Ashley Hoelck as Martha Little, Frederick and Eleanor's infant daughter and George and Stuart's younger sister.
• Marc John Jefferies as Will Powell, George's friend and classmate.
• Jim Doughan as Stuart and George's soccer coach. Doughan previously voiced Lucky and played the role of Detective Allen in Stuart Little.
• Brad Garrett as Rob, a plumber called to find Eleanor's ring in the kitchen sink's pipes.
• Amelia Marshall as Rita Powell, Will's mother.
• Ronobir Lahiri as the cab driver
• Maria Bamford as Teacher

Puppeteers

• Greg Ballora
• David Barclay - supervising animation puppeteer
• Kevin Carlson
• David Greenaway
• Greg Manion
• Drew Massey
• Karen Prell
• Michelan Sisti

Production

Filming began in New York City and Culver City, California on March 5, 2001, and lasted until June of that year. After the September 11 attacks, scenes of the Twin Towers were digitally removed and certain scenes were re-shot.

Reception

Critical reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an 81% approval rating based on reviews from 124 critics, with the consensus, "Stuart Little 2 is a sweet, visually impressive sequel that provides wholesome entertainment for kids." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 66 out of 100 based on 29 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A on an A+ to F scale.

Ann Hornaday wrote a positive review in The Washington Post, noting how the film's idealized setting makes it family-friendly. Hornaday praised the vocal performances of Fox, Griffith, and Woods in their roles as Stuart, Margalo, and Falcon, respectively, as well as the characters' computer animation: "The animated characters engage in such natural movements and, more important, exude such subtle emotional expression that they mesh seamlessly with their live-action counterparts." Tom Shen of the Chicago Reader, described the film as "fairly formulaic", but praised its jokes as "hilarious", especially those coming from the character of Snowbell, the Littles' cat.

Box office

The film had an opening weekend gross of $15.1 million. The domestic total was $65 million and the worldwide total was $170 million against an estimated production budget of $120 million.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack, Music From And Inspired By Stuart Little 2, was released by Epic Records and Sony Music Soundtrax on July 16, 2002 on Audio CD and Compact Cassette. The final two tracks are score cues composed by Alan Silvestri.

The next album features the entirety of Silvestri's orchestral score for the film.

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"I'm Alive (End Titles)" (performed by Celine Dion)	Kristian Lundin, Andreas Carlsson	Kristian Lundin	3:28
2.	"Put a Little Love in Your Heart (Opening Titles)" (performed by Mary Mary)	Jackie DeShannon, Jimmy Holiday, Randy Myers	VME	3:09
3.	"Top of the World" (performed by Mandy Moore)	Jeff Cohen, Leah Haywood		3:22
4.	"Another Small Adventure" (performed by Chantal Kreviazuk)			2:57
5.	"One" (performed by Nathan Lane)	Harry Nilsson	Rick Jarrard	2:18
6.	"What I Like About You" (performed by The Romantics)	Wally Palmar, Mike Skill, Jimmy Marinos	Pete Solley	2:56
7.	"Hold On To The Good Things" (performed by Shawn Colvin)	Roxanne Seeman, Holly Knight		3:30
8.	"Count on Me" (performed by Billy Gilman)			3:42
9.	"Smile" (performed by Vitamin C)	Josh Deutsch, Colleen Fitzpatrick	Josh Deutsch, Garry Hughes	3:58
10.	"Alone Again (Naturally)" (performed by Gilbert O'Sullivan)	Gilbert O'Sullivan	Gilbert O'Sullivan	3:38
11.	"Born to Be Wild" (performed by Steppenwolf)	Mars Bonfire	Gabriel Mekler	3:30
12.	"Little Angel of Mine" (performed by No Secrets)	Orrin Hatch		3:47
13.	"Falcon Finito" (Alan Silvestri)			6:51
14.	"Silver Lining" (Alan Silvestri)			4:21
Total length:				51:27

Video game

Video games based on the film were released for the PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, and Microsoft Windows.

Accolades

Year	Awards	Category	Nominee	Result
2002	BAFTA Children's Award	Best Feature Film	Douglas Wick Lucy Fisher Rob Minkoff Bruce Joel Rubin	Nominated
2003	Golden Trailer Award	Best Animation/Family Film		Nominated
	Visual Effects Society Award	Best Character Animation in an Animated Motion Picture	Tony Bancroft David Schaub Eric Armstrong Sean Mullen	Won
		Best Visual Effects Photography in a Motion Picture	Earl Wiggins Mark Vargo Tom Houghton Anna Foerster	Nominated
	Young Artist Award	Best Family Feature Film	Rob Minkoff	Nominated

Home media

Stuart Little 2 was released on VHS and DVD on December 10, 2002 (November 24 in the UK) by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment. A Blu-ray/DVD combo pack was released on June 28, 2011 alongside the first film by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

External links

• Official website
• Stuart Little 2 at IMDb
• Stuart Little 2 at AllMovie
• Stuart Little 2 at the TCM Movie Database