The Tale of Despereaux
The Tale of Despereaux Image
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Metascore
53 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 25 Critics What's this?

User Score
5.3 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 32 Ratings

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0 out of 10
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  • Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Emma Watson, Matthew Broderick
  • Summary: 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)… Expand
  • Director: Robert Stevenhagen
  • Genre(s): Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy, Animation, Family
  • Rating: G
  • Runtime: 93 min
  • More Details and Credits »

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 25
  3. Negative: 3 out of 25
  1. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Tracie Cooper
    88
    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.
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    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.
  3. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Michael Rechtshaffen
    60
    The flatly generic results certainly appear at odds with the picture's stirring visual style, which pays homage to the great Flemish artists.
  4. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    30
    The lesson learned from The Tale of Despereaux is that an overabundance of vocal talent does not a good cartoon make.

See all 25 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 21
  3. Negative: 7 out of 21
  1. AdamB
    9
    Great Movie! So cute. Great Music. Very original.
  2. MikeC
    8
    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.… Expand
  3. MovieLonely94
    6
    Two years ago during Christmas of 2008, I got this book of the same name written by author Kate Dicamillo. I read it, enjoyed it, and was desperate to see this CGI movie-adaptation of a great book. I did saw it at the Clifton Park Mall at Albany, New York during my visit with my cousins at Christmas. Throughout the whole movie, it didn't meet my expectations, but for a kids movie, its just pretty decent.

    The storyline was weak and scrambled, it had some very dark moments and the villain's death in the movie was very mediocre, but the animation was excellent, The characters were worth-seeing, The acting was great, and The music score by William Ross was lovely.

    Although, did I forget to mention that it had every single actor I've known for the past few years? Man, was that awesome! H*ll, Even Matthew Broderick (The Lion King, Bee Movie), Emma Watson (The Harry Potter Series), and Dustin Hoffman (Kung Fu Panda) were so freaking good.

    Bottomline: "The Tale of Despereaux" isn't the best CGI cartoon and its not intended for adults, but for the kids, its definitely worth a watch on DVD rental only.

    Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars    … Expand
  4. Agrotera
    3
    This film was a mess. The plot was like three very crappy early-morning children's TV shows stripped of all personality and quirk and rolled into an hour and a half of extremely dull, artsy-fartsy, fragmented storylines. They obviously pushed the 'morbid' theme as far as they could while still advertising as G-rated.
    I thought the voice acting was pretty bad despite all the big names that worked on this movie. Every time Sigourney Weaver jumped in to preach at us through the narration, I couldn't help groaning a little ... it was that bad.
    I haven't read the book, but I have a feeling that most of the parts I really loathed were invented for the film.    … Expand

See all 21 User Reviews

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