This is a hard show to talk about. It was done rather well although it feels a bit off. The sad thing is, I don't know why. You can definitely tell it was created for children in how they react too many different things. In fact, the main story line seems a bit forced in my mind about little creatures doing big things is found throughout the whole story.I'm not really fond of the way they show the rats and the mice, rats being lowlifes and mice looking like they are higher up in the chain. It also seems a bit to ironic that a rat becomes the bad guy. It just feels a bit too used in a lot of different shows. I understand that it's for kids, but it would be really nice to see something new. The ending, though I will not spoil it, just feels really odd, pretty much putting way too much into the thought that if you just say sorry, it would be alright thing. It just seems really forced again.Just a little thing I do need to say, the side character, Boldo, feels a lot like Don Quixote. The way he acts and talks is pretty much alike.The characters are interesting looking with large heads and even bigger eyes. The animals look a bit more human then the actual humans in fact. The world around them is really gray, even before the bad stuff started. I have to say though; the textures are really really well done. They look wonderful and the bump maps don't seem to be overwhelming even when they do close ups to the mice. Unfortunately, it is a little to much considering the look of the characters.The voices are pretty good though it's sometimes hard to understand one or two of them with how heavy the accent is. It is a little bothersome and makes my head hurt. Princess Pea and Despereaux are the only ones that actually sound pretty good on the accent.

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.

I know that comparing an adaptation to the source book is too close to not looking at the film for its own merits. I won't go into a line by line list of the changes, but the changes bring nothing to the film. They only take away. The changes seem designed to make the movie more like a typical animated film, which the story wouldn't have been had it stuck closer to the themes of the book.The three characters who really have a story in the book are Roscuro, Miggery Sow, and of course, Despereaux. In the movie, only Despereaux is painted with any real background and character, and all of that is noticeably different from the character in the book. The subtleties that made him so charming are gone, replaced by a devil-may-care nature. Where the Despereaux in the book found heroism in himself, where he didn't expect it, the Despereaux in the film was depicted as being born for heroism. This difference sums up the change in theme and direction of the movie. It becomes much more typical because of this change, without room for character growth. Roscuro and Miggery Sow are similarly rewritten so that they don't develop. The plot is rewritten around them, with strange additions such as the chef and the man made of food.At first, I was confused by comparisons to Ratatouille, but after seeing the first twenty minutes of this movie, I understood it, and perhaps they have something in that comparison. I can't think of a good reason for some of the additions that came out of the blue into the movie adaptation.

I just saw this movie again, and stand by my original assessment of it. It's an underrated classic, with far more depth than most family movies. On the one hand it's more simplistic than, say, a Pixar film. It's more of a fairy tale like The Little Prince. And while I don't care for the character designs too much (though they do have an artistic charm to them), from a writing standpoint I would put Despereaux on par with the best Pixar films, maybe more so.Most of the main characters are seriously damaged, yet believably human (even the rodents). The way some characters fall from grace is more believable than anything Lucas came up with in Star Wars III.If it has a failing it's with some of the secondary characters, such as the Soup Maker's assistant (made up of vegetables) which just didn't really seem necessary.But the themes of anger, regret, sadness, depression, and the power of forgiveness makes this a movie I feel more children should be exposed to. It's a very much a children's movie, but deals very much with adult themes.