If you have ever read the children's story The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo, then you've been exposed to an expert novel, one that can show how a creative story and lessons about fear and forgiveness can be excellently woven together- so excellently, in fact, that it garnered itself the Newberry Award Medal for achievement in children's writing.
When they announced that the book would be adapted into a movie, I, of course, was very excited. But, to my slight disappointment, the film version doesn't succeed as much as the book does in its excellence of combining entertainment and value. After seeing the television previews for the movie, however, I was utterly convinced that all pretenses of a book were thrown away and that a shlock-filled version of a "cutesy family film" would be the byproduct. Fortunately, for all our sakes, this wasn't the case. Instead, there is an awkward in-between of both the excellent, albeit mature novel and the overly cute family film- which is somewhat exhilarating and laughable at the same time.
The place is the kingdom of Dor, renowned for its soup-making skills. Both the novel and the film follow a small ensemble of characters: the dubious and confused rat, Roscuro (Dustin Hoffman), the pitiful servant girl Miggery Sow (Tracey Ullman), the princess full of longing, Pea (Harry Potter's Emma Watson), and, of course, the lovable big-eared titular character himself (Matthew Broderick). After the unfortunate death of the kingdom's queen, and subsequent banning of all soup from the kingdom, all of the characters struggle to prevail through these hard times and succeed in their goals. Some of the characters don't...that is to say, they don't succeed in the way they expect to. But Despereaux remains a tale of inspiration that everybody can benefit from.
First off, the film took quite a few pratfalls. Although it's difficult to judge a film as its own when its adapted from a novel, I couldn't help but notice some of the glaring omissions, altercations, and additions to "Hollywood-ify" the film. The book's lineage makes it very easy to follow, focusing on Despereaux, Roscuro, and Miggery by jumping around in time and focusing on their individual goals in their own chapters before jumbling their interactions together in the final chapter. The film chooses to portray the entire story from start to finish in chronological order, so it becomes very difficult to keep track of what's going on in the story.
Of course, the additions are the most distracting and even absurd. The cliche barrier of outracing a cat gets two whole sequences in the film, and barely a feline was mentioned in the novel. Despereaux's dream sequences of himself as a knight in shining armor- although present in the book, but not in depth- are drawn out to their own sequences here as well, in a totally different animation style. Not only are they distracting, they're almost unnecessary. But, perhaps the most upsetting inclusion can only be intended purely as a (failed) attempt at humor and cohesiveness by adding a giant vegetable-man/chef as a character (Stanely Tucci) and passing him of as just an ordinary part of the kitchen- oh look, here's the mixing bowl, the giant pot roasting over the fire, the animate pile of food preparing a meal, and the drawer of silverware. Lovely.
Despereaux does have its pluses. Despite these faulty additions, a lot of the charm from the novel pulls through into the book. Ullman provides strong voice work, making her character easily one of the most interesting in the film. And Sigourney Weaver, as a narrator, brings the film a very complimentary and down-to-earth feeling. The animation itself is also pretty nice to watch from time to time- the designs of structures like the castle exterior and the individual worlds of "Miceworld" and "Ratworld" are delightful, to say the least.
That being said, Despereaux is cute, but ultimately a little flat. A tighter script that stuck closer to the book would've worked wonders in its own right. But it still remains a cute film, that's worthy of watching sometime- but, at my suggestion, at home in the DVD player.
7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment