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Tale of Despereaux, The

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 25 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Adventure | Animation | Comedy | Family/Kids | Fantasy
Written by:
Kate DiCamillo (book)
Gary Ross
Directed by:
Sam Fell
Rob Stevenhagen
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 19, 2008
DVD: April 7, 2009
Running Time: 94 minutes, Color
Origin: UK | USA
Summary
RATING: G for General Audiences
Starring Matthew Broderick, Robbie Coltrane, Frances Conroy, Tony Hale, Ciaran Hinds, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Kline, and Frank Langella
Once upon a time, in the faraway kingdom of Dor, there was magic in the air, raucous laughter aplenty and gallons of mouth-watering soup. But a terrible accident left the king broken-hearted, the princess filled with longing and the townsfolk despondent. All hope was lost in a land where sunlight disappeared and the world became dreary gray. Until Despereaux Tilling was born... (Universal)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
TV Guide Tracie Cooper
A perfect fairytale, adhering to The Princess Bride's standards of fighting, fencing, torture, and true love, without the ham-fisted moral element of so many of its fairy-tale predecessors.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It is a joy to look at frame by frame, and it would be worth getting the Blu-ray to do that. I am not quite so thrilled by the story, which at times threatens to make "Gormenghast" seem straightforward.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
A skillfully managed fairy tale about a mouse, a rat, and fairy tales in general.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
May not be a classic, but it still has a lot of class.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
More like Disney's "Sleeping Beauty," somber, slow and elegant instead of frantic and dazzling.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Sheri Linden
A rare creature, not only for the handmade look and subtlety of its computer-generated imagery but also for its irony-free embrace of once-upon-a-time storytelling.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
A pleasantly immersive, beautifully animated, occasionally sleepy tale.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
Despereaux at least has too much ambition rather than too little, but its curiously intellectual pleasures suggest a quaint puzzle rather than a passionately loved fairy tale.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
While the voice acting is fine and the story is nicely paced, the visuals are disappointing.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
While the story does not quite come to magical life, the themes of courage, hope and decency are sweetly inspiring.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
I admired the craft more than I loved the results. But The Tales of Despereaux is still better-than-average animation.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
The tiny, intrepid rodent is so cute it's impossible not to ooh and aww, just looking at him. Which is a good thing, because you'll need something to get you through the long stretches of fairytale pastiche that make up this overwrought yarn.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
The flatly generic results certainly appear at odds with the picture's stirring visual style, which pays homage to the great Flemish artists.
Read Full Review >Empire Staff (Not credited)
While it meanders on its way to the requisite happy ending, the lush, stylised animation and courtly flourishes would win over anyone.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall
Many of the charms of Kate DiCamillo's best-selling children's book are lost in this British animation by Dreamworks alumni Sam Fell (Flushed Away) and Rob Stevenhagen.
Read Full Review >NPR Bob Mondello
A little slow for the very youngest kids -- though the messages it imparts are certainly ones you'll want them to hear.
Read Full Review >Variety Justin Chang
This graphically well-rendered kidpic is less crass and mouthy than many recent feature-length toons, but also more sluggish and ungainly as it tries to approximate DiCamillo's singularly delicate tone.
Read Full Review >Washington Post John Anderson
As usual with these animated epics, much depends on the vocal performances, and it's a mixed bag.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
Unfortunately, the life has been sucked out of DiCamillo's story about a brave, unusual little mouse.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
The movie is a freakish creature, with lush, painterly animation inspired by Dutch and Flemish masters, attached to a convoluted, gloomy narrative punctuated with scenes of sadism that rival "The Dark Knight."
Read Full Review >Film Threat Stina Chyn
As easy as it is to pass down mantras of fear and hate from parent to child or society to community (and individual), so is the imprinting of courage and compassion through conversation, emulation, books, plays, films, and the like. The Tale of Despereaux, aims to share such a message.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ella Taylor
Clumsily wedged in like a TV commercial between deafening stunts, the emotional storytelling sinks without trace, leaving you with only one flawed character to cling to.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The lesson learned from The Tale of Despereaux is that an overabundance of vocal talent does not a good cartoon make.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Kids will get antsy, wondering why their favorite characters disappear for long stretches of the film, while adults will wonder just when this scattershot approach to storytelling will congeal into something resembling coherence.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.4 (out of 10) based on 25 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Levente S. gave it a2:
A boring pseudo-legend with unconvincing characters, phoned-in voice acting, a completely unnecessary narrator, mediocre visuals, poor dialogue, a bad plot, and, despite the potential for comic brilliance, was completely unfunny after the first half hour, and would only be funny if you hadn't seen the trailer in which they threw away all the good jokes. This is strictly a kids' movie, and not a very good one, at that. Definitely not worth the first viewing, much less a second.
Mike C gave it an8:
Maybe this movie simply suffers in comparison to a virtuosic film like Ratatouille? My family found it to be a great sweet story, well-animated, with none of these bullsh*t, Brooklyn-accented wiseacres that plague lesser animated films. A fine, quality entertainment.
Adam B gave it a9:
Great Movie! So cute. Great Music. Very original.
Jay H. gave it a6:
Nicely animated, but it just seems they took a lot of ideas and characters from other animated films and made a movie out of it. It lacks imagination and freshness, but I was still entertained.
Christian C gave it a9:
People telling been scared because of this movie, they're as coward as the mice in it. This movie is about honor, bravery and not to give up, even in the worst situations. A very nice movie.
Parentof Three gave it a9:
I must have missed something. My wife and I took our 3 kids to this movie (7, 5 and 3) and we ALL loved it! It is multi-layered, requires some thought and attention and is a very enjoyable movie! A few scary parts? Yes, but my kids got passed that quickly. They enjoyed the dreamy sequences of the story, the drama and, especially, the chivalry of Despereaux. A real treat!
Timo V. gave it a5:
A food loving rat ends up messing around in the kitchen with a soup, which unleashes a mayhem like never seen before. Sounds familiar, a bit like Ratatouille? Well, it's not. The Tale of Despereaux has some very beautiful passages to it, some wonderful artwork, but the animation sucks and the story is a bit too fractured to really work for this type of a film.
