The Tale of Despereaux – Film
Universal
Fantasy
ISBN: B0018ATR2S
Synopsis
In a happy and magical kingdom, the royal monarchy and the people are in love with soup. On one fateful day, the special soup day of the year, a rat who loves the light named Roscuro comes in on a ship to enjoy the holiday. Unfortunately, he falls into the Queen’s soup, causing her to die, which creates a chain reaction that leads to the banishment of rats into the darkness and the banishment of soup and anything soup-like from the kingdom, including bowls and spoons. Soon the kingdom falls into disarray, as the magic of the soup creates happiness for the people and affects the weather. It’s now cloudy all the time, but never rains. Crops die throughout the land, and the people suffer.
However, the most unlikely hero is born, a small mouse with no fear and big ears. He gets into trouble and is banished from his own society of mice when he visits the princess and talk to her. Through a chain of events, he becomes friends with Roscuro and the two set to make things right in the kingdom.
Critique
Usually, the films in this genre stray too much from the original books, or add unnecessary things to the story. However, in this case, the addition of the magical elements and the slight tweaks to the story overall were good, and helped to tell a wonderfully enrapturing tale. Roscuro’s character especially is good, because in the book, he’s a little too dark. Here, though, he’s good-natured and one minor mistake from the princess is what sets him off. I recommend this movie to all families with children under 10.
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