Despereaux, the brave mouse – The Tale of Despereaux (2008)

Directed by: Sam Fell, Robert Stevenhagen | 100 minutes | animation, comedy, adventure, family, fantasy | Original voice cast: Matthew Broderick, Robbie Coltrane, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Kline, Christopher Lloyd, William H. Macy, Tracey Ullman, Emma Watson, Sigourney Weaver, Stanley Tucci, Ciarán Hinds, Tony Hale, Frances Conroy, Frank Langella, Richard Jenkins, Christopher Lloyd, Charles Shaughnessy, Patricia Cullen, Sam Fell, Jane Karen, Bronson Pinchot, McNally Sagal, Robin Atkin Downes | Dutch voice cast: Levi van Kempen, Thom Hoffman, Loretta Schrijver, Loek Beernink, Sara Kroos, Hein Boele, Hans Hoekman, Huub Dikstaal, Rob van de Meeberg

Roscuro (Thom Hoffman) is not a rat like others. He does not like darkness but light, behaves like a gentleman and likes to be among people. By an unfortunate set of circumstances, he is responsible for the death of the queen of the kingdom of Dor. The king is so sad that he forbids his people to ever make or eat soup again, a disaster for those for whom the annual national soup feast is even more important than Christmas. And the rats, they are now ruthlessly hunted, so is Roscuro. He barely escapes a pair of hatchet guards and finds himself in an underground rat kingdom.

Despereaux (Levi van Kempen) is not a mouse like others. He has ears way too big, loves stories and reading, is not afraid of anything, but the worst part is that he dares to talk to a human being. The mouse court doesn’t care that this is a sweet princess who has lost her mother and whose father is deeply mourning and no longer pays attention to her. The little mouse with the big ears is banished to the underground rat kingdom. There he finds himself in an arena with a hostile mob of rats who howl loudly as he has to fight a cat for his life. Fortunately, Roscuro takes care of him and saves him from certain death. Together they then go on all kinds of exciting adventures.

There is no dispute that this animated film is beautiful to watch. The sets are beautiful, people and animals move in a natural way and their facial expressions are lifelike. The many loving details and visual finds are also worth a try. But what breaks up is the classic problem of a book adaptation that explodes due to too much storylines and events. The result is a receptacle with a lot of loose threads instead of a coherent story.

It does not help that Despereaux does not play the lead role, but only one of the lead roles. It reinforces the highly fragmentary impression the film makes. Another downside is the threatening, gloomy atmosphere, the film is mostly set in very dark rooms, and the sometimes cruel incidents. Kids are used to it, but there are a few scenes in it that can give even a tough six-year-old of this time some stuffy hours in the night when the memory of that comes up. What about a screaming mob of rats that can’t wait to sink their teeth into the juicy flesh of a tied up princess, screaming rhythmically and menacingly ‘Eat, eat!’ Even for an adult, the bloodlust that expresses this is downright unpleasant.

But what hurts the most is the way Despereaux and Roscuro are different from their ilk. For Roscuro that is not disastrous, but for Despereaux it is. The underlying message of the film is that it doesn’t matter if you are different, as long as you stay yourself, everything will be fine and you will end up as the hero. But what you see is a sweet, brave mouse surrounded by friends and relatives who are themselves very scared and would rather have him sentenced by a court and face certain death than cause unrest in their community. Whether it is pedagogically sound that children see waywardness punished in such a way and that someone who deviates is simply sent to death by his loved ones, is a legitimate question in this case. A film that is very beautiful to watch, but just too fragmentary to really captivate. And for young children it might be very exciting.