Animation and All Things Related: Let's Watch This: "The Tale of Despereaux" (2008)

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Let's Watch This: "The Tale of Despereaux" (2008)

2008 was a pretty good year for animated movies, wasn't it? We had WALL-E, Kung Fu Panda, Bolt, Horton Hears a Who, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa... I'm not sure how good of a year it was for movies as a whole, but for animated movies, it was fantastic.

Of course, even a good year for animated movies is bound to have at least one stinker in it. Space Chimps was released in 2008, after all. But with so many animated films released in theaters during that time, it's only natural that a few have fallen through the cracks and been forgotten about nowadays. I can name at least three animated movies from 2008 that seemingly no one remembers. The first two are Fly Me to the Moon and Igor, but we'll look at those another time. The third is The Tale of Despereaux.

This movie, an adaptation of a 2003 novel by Kate DiCamillo, was directed by Sam Fell - who previously co-directed, fittingly, another animated film about rodents, 2006's Flushed Away - and Rob Stevenhagen. It was released on December 19th, 2008 by Universal Pictures, with the film's animation provided by Framestore Animation. It did... reasonably well at the box office, making $86.9 million on a $60 million budget and received mixed reviews from critics (it has a fifty-seven percent "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes).

I remember seeing ads for The Tale of Despereaux. I think I also had a tie-in storybook, but I never actually saw the film. Not sure why. Maybe it just didn't look that interesting to me. But it's been on my "to review" list for quite some time, so let's give it a watch. This is The Tale of Despereaux.

After the opening credits, the film starts off with narrator Sigourney Weaver telling us that once there was a mouse who loved honor and justice, and always told the truth. But instead of seeing this mouse, we see a ship sailing on the ocean blue. On that ship are a bunch of sailors... and also a rodent who is pointedly NOT the honor-loving mouse Sigourney Weaver was telling us about. This rodent is a RAT. And as we all know, rats are the scum of the Earth. The anti-mouse. Filthy vermin who carry plagues and dirtiness.

You'd think a film directed by the same guy who co-directed Flushed Away would be
a bit more tolerant of rats.

This is Roscuro, voiced by Dustin "Master Shifu" Hoffman. Apparently he can talk to humans, because a sailor named Pietro (Charles Shaughnessy) can understand him just fine. Pietro tells him that the ship is heading to one of the most magical places in the whole world... no, not Disney World. The Kingdom of Dor (I guess all the good kingdom names were taken). Which looks a lot like the kingdom from Tangled.

I know this film came out two years before Tangled. I'm not suggesting that whoever
was in charge of designing the kingdom snuck into the Disney animation studio and swiped
concept art of the kingdom from their still in-production Rapunzel adaptation. But it DOES look a lot like the kingdom in Tangled, doesn't it?

The Kingdom of Dor's claim to fame is that it has great soup. They love soup so much, in fact, that they have a whole holiday about it. Soup Day, where everyone wears funny hats and flies in hot air balloons that look like tomatoes and zucchini. It's an even bigger deal for them than Christmas!

I've never been in a hot air balloon (unless you count a ride at King's Dominion
with hot air balloon-shaped vehicles). That's probably not very interesting, but I couldn't
think of anything funny to say here.

On Soup Day, everyone in the kingdom flocks towards the castle, knowing that in the royal kitchen, a masterpiece is being created. Chefs, led by the Kevin Kline-voiced Chef Andre, are hard at work making soup for the whole kingdom to enjoy. I really like how the chefs use elaborate pulley systems and giant water wheels to make the soup. Sure, you could just chop the veggies by hand, but where's the fun in THAT?

I also love how they have a giant cauldron to put the soup in. Look at it. It's ginormous! Gotta be at least as big as a house. I wonder if they ever have any soup left over once everyone has gotten a bowl.

So THIS is where the Black Cauldron wound up after the Horned King was destroyed...

Andre takes a whiff of the soup and declares that it needs more onions (Shrek would approve). But even after the onions are added, Andre still isn't satisfied - he's one of those fussy French chefs who won't allow for anything less than perfection. So he consults his magic genie made of produce... wait, WHAT?

This is probably the character I remember most from the movie (aside from Despereaux himself, I mean). Say hello to Boldo (Stanley Tucci), who with his design that straddles the line between cool-looking and creepy and his weird accent is actually NOT in the original book, according to Wikipedia. He was created for the movie. Because... I guess the story needed a genie with a watermelon for a head, a pear for a nose, and pickle eyebrows. Unlike other genies, Boldo doesn't seem to grant wishes. Instead, he helps Andre with his soups... or rather, puts in ingredients that he thinks will improve the soups, but usually just results in Andre throwing a fit.

Do you think any fans of the film have ever actually attempted to build a Boldo out of actual produce? That would be neat.

"No, Andre, I am NOT going to sing 'Friend Like Me'! I am fed up with your Aladdin jokes!"

Andre and his magical mushroom-eared amigo start throwing things at each other, which culminates in a bottle that looks very much like a bottle of wine winding up in the soup. I'm not sure what exactly was in that bottle, but whatever it was, it apparently makes the soup taste magnifique. So... crisis averted, I guess.

Soon everyone is gathered in the royal banquet hall, and Andre brings in the soup - in a much smaller pot, presumably because the giant one is too hard to transport. The queen is the first to taste it, unaware that Roscuro is hanging out on a chandelier above her head. Unsurprisingly, he winds up falling off the chandelier and into her soup. Also unsurprisingly, she's all "EEEEEEEEEEEK! A rodent! In my SOUP!".

"Waiter, there's a rat in my soup!"

"SSSSSSSSSSSSSH! Not so loud! Everyone else will want one, too!"

The queen is so horrified that there's a rat in her soup that she dies. "GET! ME! THAT! RAAAAAAAAAT!" the king shouts, and suddenly Roscuro has a bunch of knights after his tail. Throughout this scene, he's constantly yammering, and nobody seems at all weirded-out that the rat can talk. They chase him into the kitchen... insert Ratatouille joke here... and, after nearly falling into the soup, he escapes into the sewers, where he runs into this guy:

I know I just made a Ratatouille reference, but when I saw this guy I immediately
thought "Anton Ego Rat". I can't be the only one who sees the resemblance.

Because a rat kinda sorta killed the queen, the king decides to outlaw not just rats, but also SOUP. Yep, no more soup in the kingdom of Dor. And if anybody harbors a rat, they will face the king's wrath. "So think about this: what happens when you make something illegal that is just a natural part of the world?" the narrator asks. "You may as well make FLIES illegal, or SWEAT, or MONDAY MORNING. But that's what the king did."

With soup and rats banned, the kingdom becomes a cloudy, drab, and depressing place. For a long time, it doesn't even RAIN. For some reason. I guess the Rain Gods are just really, really fond of soup and rats, and the king's outlawing soup and rats made them angry? But, the narrator says, if you know anything about fairy tales, you know that a hero doesn't appear until the world really needs one.

But first, the camera takes us through a small hole in the wall and into the little town populated by mice known as... "Mouseworld". Yeah, the name's a bit on-the-nose, but what are you gonna do?

If you ever have a tiny hole in your wall, chances are it leads to either here or Fraggle Rock.

One resident of Mouseworld, a chubby mouse named Lester (William H. Macy), is dashing around excited because his wife is having a baby. Just one? According to my research, mice can give birth to at least six or eight babies - or pups, which is what baby mice are called - at a time. Of course, real mice don't talk or wear clothes, so I guess we can just chalk it up to artistic license. When he gets home, the baby has apparently been born, but there's something odd about him. His eyes are open, and he's not cowering. But the weirdest thing of all is that he has huge ears.

So what? Mickey has huge ears and he's the most famous mouse in the world!

And from the very beginning, this cute little mouse, Despereaux Tilling, hears more, sees more, and even smells more than any of the other mice. He also becomes a risk-taker, jumping over mouse traps to snatch the cheese from them. And as he grows, he remains very small - even for a mouse. But he doesn't notice. In fact, in his own mind, Despereaux is a giant. A rodent of unusual size, if you will.

I'm guessing Despereaux plush toys sold really well. They DID make Despereaux plush
toys, didn't they?

Lester and his wife, Antoinette (Frances Conroy), are worried because Despereaux is so brave, instead of cowardly like all the other mice. In school, when his teacher shows the students a drawing of a carving knife, the other mice children shriek and hide... but Despereaux just sits there nonchalantly. It's during this scene that we get to hear Despereaux speak.

...and, with all due respect towards Matthew Broderick, why is his voice coming out of a mouse that's supposed to be a young boy? What, could they just not find a good child actor? Were the Spouse twins unavailable? Was having all these other celebrities in the cast not enough to sell tickets so they needed to cast a celebrity as Despereaux too?

There's a reason why PIXAR didn't cast, say, Ben Stiller as the voice of Nemo.

We then see Despereaux and three more mouse kids at a sewer grate. The other kids warn Despereaux not to go down into the sewer, because that's where the rats live and they'll eat Despereaux and pull his arms off. This is probably meant to be some sort of rodent racism, but rats actually do eat mice. Would that be considered cannibalism?

Apparently, mice are sent down to the sewer to be eaten by rats when they break the rules. One of the rules, apparently, is that they can't feed the rats, but that doesn't stop Despereaux from tossing down some cheese. After following the cheese down into the sewers, we see the charming town that the rats call home: "Ratworld". Very reminiscent of the rat city in Flushed Away, except there aren't any singing slugs.

I wish they'd put a bit more thought into the names of these towns.

Ratworld is a pretty creepy place, mainly because of the bones scattered around, but the rats themselves don't seem like too bad a bunch... with the exception of the ruler of Ratworld, that lanky rat we saw earlier. His name is Botticelli (Ciaran Hinds), and he might as well be wearing a giant neon sign that reads "I AM A VILLAIN".

I still think he looks like Anton Ego.

Back to Despereaux, who is starting to wonder what it's like outside his tiny home of Mouseworld. Before he can find out, he is summoned by his principal (Richard Jenkins), who tells him that he must learn to be afraid of everything like the other mice. Perhaps he just needs to see his brother, Furlough (Tony Hale), in action to get in touch with his inner coward. Furlough takes him to the castle library so they can nibble on some books, but instead of eating the books, Despereaux - horror of horrors - starts READING one. Apparently, it's a rule that mice aren't allowed to read. Who makes these rules?

Spoiler alert: Despereaux reads the book anyway as soon as Furlough scampers off. It's about a princess who's locked in a faraway castle where she can see the world but never touch it, and who longs for a prince to save her. Gee, doesn't this sound a lot like ANOTHER princess from an animated movie? An animated movie about a green ogre who I already mentioned previously in this review?

While reading the book one day, Despereaux catches a glimpse of the king's daughter, Princess Pea (Emma Watson). He sneaks into her bedroom and starts talking to her... and, again, she isn't all that fazed over the fact that a mouse can talk. She does call him "a strange little mouse", but still...

Not a huge fan of the princess' design. She's a bit too "just stepped out of Coraline"-looking,
if that makes any sense.

Oh no. I know where this is going. Please tell me they're not going to have a romance between a mouse - who, despite being voiced by Matthew Broderick, is supposed to be a young boy - and a human teenager. Please tell me this isn't another Bee Movie. I mean, what will the children look like?

Probably something like THIS...

Okay, so mouse likes human girl. Let's throw in another subplot to get our minds off how disturbing that is, shall we? The castle maid, Miggery Sow (Tracey Ullman), has wanted to be a princess since she was living on a farm tending to pigs... oh, I get it. That's why her name is Miggery SOW. 'Cause a SOW is what you call a female pig. Clever, guys.

So, is Miggery Sow going to become a princess? We'll have to find out later, because we cut to Despereaux telling Furlough about his encounter with the princess. Furlough is horrified - "Despereaux! You can't talk to a human!" he exclaims. "They will throw you in the dungeon! You will be eaten by RATS!" But Despereaux is too head-over-heels in love to care about that. Reminder: he is a mouse. A mouse who is also a little boy. The princess is A) human and B) clearly at least a teenager.

"Do you think she believes in interspecies dating?"

Lester overhears, and when he finds out that Despereaux had a conversation with a human, he starts to panic. "We need to tell them. We need to tell the Mouse Council," he frets. "This is bad. This is very bad. If they find out, if they find out that they DIDN'T find out... oooooooooooh, then they'll find out that it was ME who... oh no..." Maybe if they beg - they REAAAAAAAAAALLY beg - and show them that he's afraid, and that he's turned into a real mouse, they won't send him to the dungeon. I'm not sure if the mayor (Frank Langella) and the two other mice in ruffled collars and funny hats accompanying him are part of the Mouse Council, but if they are, them catching Despereaux in the act of reading is not exactly ideal.

"It's not right for a mouse to read. Soon they start getting ideas, and THINKING..."

Despereaux is put on trial for "refusing training as a mouse", "refusing to respect the will and guidance of elder mice", "repeatedly engaging in bold and unmeek behavior", "triggering willfully not less than seventeen mousetraps", and "having personal contact with a human being". "Despereaux Willing, our laws are here to protect us and our way of life," the mayor says. "And when one of our citizens strays from that way of life, he becomes a threat to us all." This seems a bit extreme - how exactly is Despereaux acting brave and talking to ONE human being a threat to all mice? What, do they think he's going to eventually revolt against the Mouse Council or something?

Shouldn't he at least have a lawyer?

The Mouse Council have decided that Despereaux must be banished to the sewers. And Lester, despite claiming that he would REAAAAAAAAAAAALLY beg and show them that his son is a real mouse, doesn't do anything about it. What the heck, Lester?

Two mouse guards take Despereaux to an old mouse named Hovis (Christopher Lloyd), who wraps red thread around Despereaux's waist and lowers him down - but instead of falling into the sewers, Despereaux manages to swing through a window with bars on it. After a run-in with a creepy skeleton, Despereaux finds a jail cell filled with rats - and one human guard, Gregory (Robbie Coltrane). Once again, Gregory does not question the fact that a mouse can talk, but isn't in the mood to hear Despereaux's "stories about princesses and sunshine" and suggests he tell them to the rats.

So is rodents being able to talk just common knowledge in this kingdom? If so, why are
the mice of Mouseworld banned from talking to humans?

Gregory leaves Despereaux to be swarmed by the rats. All of a sudden, Despereaux is in the middle of some sort of rat arena, where Botticelli is serving as the Emperor Nero equivalent. "Let the games begin!" he declares, prompting the rats to unleash a mangy-looking cat.

So, these rats have somehow managed to capture and chain up a cat? Why didn't the cat just eat them all? Was it just not hungry at the moment? And how come in this world, mice and rats can talk but cats don't seem to? I mean, don't get me wrong, this IS a really cool idea for a roman colosseum take-off - a mouse is put up against a cat for the enjoyment of rats - but it does raise a few questions.

"I actually don't hate Mondays. Wednesdays, on the other hand..."

Fortunately, Roscuro - the only rat who Botticelli hasn't been able to corrupt - saves Despereaux just as the cat has him cornered by asking if he can eat him instead. "Well, this is progress..." Botticelli purrs. Even though the other rats are irate... or should I say i-RAT-e (sorry, I couldn't resist)... Roscuro leads Despereaux away to the only part of the sewers where light shines through.

Over the next few weeks, Despereaux tells Roscuro everything he knows about honor and bravery and chivlery and the princess and all that. Meanwhile, Miggery Sow is tasked with bringing slop to Gregory, who reveals that he's a grouch because he had to give up his infant daughter. For some reason. I hope this subplot actually goes somewhere and we're not just wasting our time on the maid.

Roscuro, who overheard their conversation, explains to Despereaux that it was kind of his fault rats got banished from the kingdom. He wants to apologize to the princess for it, so he sneaks into the princess' bedroom. But as soon as she sees him, she immediately recognizes him as the rat who... well, y'know... and freaks out.

"You're going to give me the Black Plague!"

"No, no, that was the BLACK Rat. I'm a BROWN Rat. We helped END the plague."

Roscuro narrowly manages to escape while Princess Pea is shrieking about a rat in her room, but the knights give chase. After getting away from them, he sadly looks at his reflection in a pot and his heart hardens. Then he comes across Miggery Sow and tells her that he wants the same thing she does. Uh oh, what are they planning? Also, could we please have Boldo back? You can't just throw a genie made of produce at us and then just never have the character show up again. It's way too bizarre a character to waste.

Well, we get to see Andre again, at least. He finds Miggery Sow in the kitchen, swiping a knife. She claims that she's, uh, just borrowing it to chop apples. Oh, and Miggery Sow is Gregory's daughter. You probably saw that coming, didn't you?

Now, to be honest, I was initially expecting Miggery Sow to try and murder Princess Pea with that knife, but I guess the filmmakers thought that would be too dark. So instead, she simply ties her up and forces her at knifepoint into the dungeon. Then she will take over as the princess. I'm not quite sure that's how it works (for one thing, won't somebody wonder where Princess Pea is?), but okay...

So, the moral of this story is that ugly people are evil? That seems like a pretty bad moral.

Fortunately, Despereaux hears Princess Pea's cries for help (he's got big ears, remember) and rushes to the rescue. She tells him to go tell her father what's going on - he can take the necklace she's wearing as proof that he's honest and true - but to get to the king, he must first get by...

Cue the dramatic music.

...y'know, considering how rodent-infested that castle is, no wonder there are so many mousetraps set up. He gets by the mousetraps, but loses the necklace. Hopefully the king will still believe him - and they can save his daughter before the rats, who are currently carrying her into the arena from before, kill her. Oh, and in case you're wondering about Miggery Sow, Roscuro double-crossed her and locked her up too.

To get to the king, Despereaux flies down to him with his big ears - I knew I had to make a Dumbo reference SOMEWHERE in this review, but what luck, the film is doing it for me! Unfortunately, the king is too busy playing his lute that he can't hear or see the little mouse begging him for help. So then Despereaux goes back to Mouseworld and tries to get his dad's help. But because he's covered with flour, Lester immediately assumes that he's a g-g-g-g-GHOST and faints. Then he goes to Furlough, who ALSO assumes that he's a ghost and runs away screaming. He eventually gets the idea to ring a bell, which gets the attention of Andre, who... starts making soup. Geez, that princess is NEVER gonna be rescued, is she? Maybe Despereaux should've called up Super Mario...

The smell of soup wafts out of the castle and into the sky, pleasing the Rain Gods and causing a downpour. And guess who shows up again? That's right, Boldo!

I'll take THIS genie over Blue Will Smith any day!

Then Despereaux gets Andre's attention by jabbing a sewing needle into his foot... ouch... and tells him that the princess is in danger. Andre doesn't believe him, but Boldo does, and demonstrates why he is the best character in the movie by rushing with Despereaux to save her. Unfortunately, on the way there Boldo winds up falling apart after the rats find out he's edible. Fortunately, Gregory comes across Miggery Sow and lets her out - and realizes that she's his daughter. More good news - the sun returns and basks the kingdom in its warmth.

Alas, the princess is still captured and I guess the rats are planning to eat her. Roscuro is given the honor of doing so, but can't bring himself to do it (forgiveness and all that)... which doesn't stop Botticelli from doing it instead. The hungry rats attack the princess, and it's up to Despereaux to save her, which he accomplishes by releasing the cat.

I kind of want to know the cat's story... how did it get that scar?

"Gee, maybe keeping an animal much larger than us that's known for eating our species
chained up wasn't such a good idea!"

"YOU THINK?!"

But Despereaux still has to deal with Botticelli. Just as he's about to feed Despereaux to the cat, sunlight reflects into the sewers, and the rats go all Gremlins and react harshly to the light. Roscuro uses a magnifying glass to do this:

If it works on ants, it should work on a rat too.

...and Botticelli falls off the barrel he was standing on and is promptly gobbled up by the cat. Roscuro and Princess Pea apologize to each other, and the king looks out the window to see all of his subjects cheering. "So, you could call all of this a big misunderstanding if you wanted to," the narrator claims. "A king was hurt, so he hurt a rat. And a rat was hurt, so he hurt a princess. And a princess was hurt, so she hurt a servant girl without even meaning to. And that servant had been hurting for so long that almost nothing could make her feel better. But was it a mistake or... was it just good luck? Because the servant girl went back to her farm, and the jailer finally found his princess."

And now the mice are all brave like Despereaux, and the rats are now free to live among the people of Dor... except for Roscuro, who goes back to sea. And they all live happily ever after.

But wait - what about Boldo? Did all the king's horses and all the king's men put him back together? I demand an explanation on what happened to Boldo!

"Eat your heart out, Fievel!"

What's the Verdict?

The Tale of Despereaux is just okay, honestly. You know that old expression "too many cooks spoil the soup"? Well, in this case (and yes, I did bring up that expression simply because so much of the movie focuses on soup), I feel that too many plot threads spoiled the movie. There's so many characters here and so many subplots that it makes the film feel a bit unfocused, with Despereaux himself basically feeling like an afterthought when the third act starts up. Characters who have the potential to be interesting, like the king and Andre, are pushed to the side... exploring them would be a lot more interesting than the stuff with the maid and the jailer. The animation, being CGI from the 2000s, hasn't aged super-well... the mice look okay but the humans are kind of off-putting. The celebrities are all doing their best, but a lot of them are either miscast (Matthew Broderick, Tony Hale) or aren't given much to do (William H. Macy, Kevin Kline). I think this had the potential to be a much better movie, but as is, it's fine. Worth watching at least once. I give it three soup bowls out of five.

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