The Tale Of Despereaux
The Sunday Age
Sunday January 11, 2009
3.5/5
THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX(G, 94 minutes) On general releaseNo one could accuse this CG-animated fairytale of talking down to kids. It is the tale of an unusually courageous mouse named Despereaux (voiced by Matthew Broderick) whose lack of proper mouse timidity sees him banished from Mouseworld and on to a classic knight's quest to save a (human) princess. But, while adopting a classic fairytale template, the film is a complex fable where good characters do bad things before finding redemption. Too self-consciously smart for a simple heroic romp with innately good and evil characters, it is more interested in the social complexities of circumstance, misfortune and upbringing. We get a nature versus nurture argument, and an allegory of race and class using the human kingdom of Dor, the Mouseworld beneath it, and the dark, fetid Ratworld below that. Whether children require these kinds of philosophical contemplations from an adventure story is moot - though Kate DiCamillo's book from which it is adapted has sold more than 2 million copies, indicating strong approval from the kids themselves. Or is it the parents? Regardless, art-loving parents will adore the attention to detail in a film that borrows from Flemish painters Bruegel and Vermeer. Plus, the line-up of voice talent is awesome: the hero's offsider is rat Roscuro (Dustin Hoffman in true "Ratso" Rizzo style), Sigourney Weaver narrates, Robbie Coltrane and Tracey Ullman have smaller parts; the list goes on. It is not a perfect tale by any means - amid all that philosophising, the gutsy derring-do essential to all heroic adventures gets given the softly, softly treatment. The film is curiously placid when compared with, say, the almost sublime physical action of some of Pixar's work. Nevertheless, the children in the preview audience sat quietly throughout, so I guess they enjoyed it, leaving us adults to get on with our pleasant pontificating.
© 2009 The Sunday Age
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