The Tale of Despereaux (2008)

The tale of three unlikely heroes - a misfit mouse who prefers reading books to eating them, an unhappy rat who schemes to leave the darkness of the dungeon, and a bumbling servant girl with cauliflower ears - whose fates are intertwined with that of the castle's princess.

Directors:

Sam Fell, Robert Stevenhagen

Writers:

Kate DiCamillo (book), Will McRobb (screen story),

Stars:

Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Watson

1 win & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Matthew Broderick	...	Despereaux (voice)
Dustin Hoffman	...	Roscuro (voice)
Emma Watson	...	Princess Pea (voice)
Tracey Ullman	...	Miggery Sow (voice)
Kevin Kline	...	Andre (voice)
William H. Macy	...	Lester (voice)
Stanley Tucci	...	Boldo (voice)
Ciarán Hinds	...	Botticelli (voice)
Robbie Coltrane	...	Gregory (voice)
Tony Hale	...	Furlough (voice)
Frances Conroy	...	Antoinette (voice)
Frank Langella	...	Mayor (voice)
Richard Jenkins	...	Principal (voice)
Christopher Lloyd	...	Hovis (voice)
Charles Shaughnessy	...	Pietro (voice)

Storyline

The tale of three unlikely heroes - a misfit mouse who prefers reading books to eating them, an unhappy rat who schemes to leave the darkness of the dungeon, and a bumbling servant girl with cauliflower ears - whose fates are intertwined with that of the castle's princess.

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Plot Keywords:

book | darkness | princess | dungeon | rat | 

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Taglines:

Small Mouse. Big Dreams.

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Genres:

Adventure | Animation | Comedy | Family | Fantasy

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [es] Universal Studios

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 December 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Despereaux - Un pequeño gran héroe

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£560,870 (UK) (19 December 2008)

Gross:

$50,818,750 (USA) (27 February 2009)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Relativity Media, Larger Than Life Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A number of characters have names that are artistic references. "Roscuro" refers to the "Chiaroscuro Movement", Botticelli is a reference to the artist Sandro Botticelli, painter of "The Birth of Venus", and Boldo is named after Giuseppe Arcimboldo, a famous surrealistic painter who composed faces and figures out of various objects in the way that Boldo himself is made out of fruit, vegetables and kitchen utensils.

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Goofs

When Despereaux is about to be dropped into the rat dungeon, he has red string wrapped around his waist. The camera cuts away to show the dungeon, and when it comes back to see Despereaux, the red string is missing.

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Quotes

Narrator: Ok, remember when we said that grief was the strongest thing a person could feel? Well, it isn't. It's forgiveness because a single act of forgiveness can change everything.

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Connections

References Dumbo (1941)

User Reviews

Enjoyable Fairy Tale!

It's sad that movie producers don't make this kind of movie anymore. This is a classic, wonderful fairy tale that is good for the whole family. It does have a few flaws such as this movie is too dark for a G-rating. But the movie itself works and it's not boring like many people say it to be.

This is about a mouse who is different from the rest of the mice. After being kicked out of this tribe, he befriends a rat and together they must save a kingdom from darkness.

This movie has an impressive voice cast. Matthew Broderick does a good job playing the hero mouse.

The animation is pretty good. It looked like the animation was drawn. I liked it though. It reminds me of old Disney movies. In fact, this has a great moral like the rest. I liked this film a lot. I rate this film 8/10.