"The Tale of Despereaux" Could Be Boring-er

Running Time: 1 h. 34 min.

Release Date: December 19th, 2008 (wide)

MPAA Rating: G

Distributors: Universal Pictures

Directed by: Sam Fell, Rob Stevenhagen

JJ Rating: C+

Despereaux (Matthew Broderick) is a mouse that's not like other mice and he becomes acquainted with Roscuro (Dustin Hoffman) who is a rat unlike other rats. A kingdom that loves soup and a princess are involved. The Tale of Despereaux.

The voice talent is, of course, good. The animation is interesting because I think the mice and the rats looked good with their very disturbing noses, but the humans looked a bit stiff. The food looked stale and not appetizing as it should have been. I guess the animators of Ratatouille did not share their secret.

The characters were slightly charming but not enough to eek out caring for them or what they were going through. They were too one dimensional. Compacted with the storyline that was boring it produced a film that just failed. This is a film I wouldn't want my children to have because I could not stand it being played over and over again in the off chance that they liked it that much.

The Tale of Despereaux almost made me wish I had seen Yes Man, but considering how dismal the box office was for that on top of it eerily similar to Liar, Liar I can't be so sure it would have been better. I am disappointed in this weekend's movie choices. Hopefully Christmas Day gifts me with some good ones because this tale was boring. And by boring I mean I fell asleep.