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The Tale of Despereaux (2008)

G  |   |  Adventure, Animation, Comedy  |  19 December 2008 (USA)
6.1
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Ratings: 6.1/10 from 30,008 users   Metascore: 53/100
Reviews: 103 user | 118 critic | 25 from Metacritic.com

The tale of three unlikely heroes - a misfit mouse who prefers reading books to eating them, an unhappy rat who schemes to leave the darkness of the dungeon, and a bumbling servant girl with cauliflower ears - whose fates are intertwined with that of the castle's princess.

Writers:

(book), (screen story), 2 more credits »
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Edit

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
...
Despereaux (voice)
...
Roscuro (voice)
...
Princess Pea (voice)
...
Miggery Sow (voice)
...
Andre (voice)
...
Lester (voice)
...
Boldo (voice)
...
Botticelli (voice)
...
Gregory (voice)
...
Furlough (voice)
...
Antoinette (voice)
...
Mayor (voice)
...
Principal (voice)
...
Hovis (voice)
...
Pietro (voice)
Edit

Storyline

The tale of three unlikely heroes - a misfit mouse who prefers reading books to eating them, an unhappy rat who schemes to leave the darkness of the dungeon, and a bumbling servant girl with cauliflower ears - whose fates are intertwined with that of the castle's princess.

Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis

Plot Keywords:

book | dungeon | darkness | rat | princess | See All (77) »

Taglines:

Small Mouse. Big Dreams. See more »


Certificate:

G | See all certifications »
Edit

Details

Country:

|

Language:

Release Date:

19 December 2008 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Despereaux - Un pequeño gran héroe  »

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£560,870 (UK) (19 December 2008)

Gross:

$50,818,750 (USA) (27 February 2009)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

| |

Color:

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

There are many simarities in the score between this and Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban See more »

Goofs

When Despereaux is about to be dropped into the rat dungeon, he has red string wrapped around his waist. The camera cuts away to show the dungeon, and when it comes back to see Despereaux, the red string is missing. See more »

Quotes

Narrator: [voiceover] I could say they lived happily ever after, but what's the fun in that?
See more »

Connections

Featured in Troldspejlet: Episode #41.2 (2009) See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

See more (Spoiler Alert!) »

User Reviews

 
Qualities and flaws
19 January 2009 | by (Romania) – See all my reviews

The qualities:

  • Superb graphics, expressive, beautiful and stylish;




  • Solid characters, both intrinsically and visually;




  • A compelling atmosphere, and mood in general.




The flaws:

  • A chaotic script, confusing and unprofessional. They were too


ambitious to keep as much as possible of the novel's sub-plots and secondary characters, but didn't know how to organize them according to the screen-writing rules.

  • A linear direction: everything flows on too uniformly, the important


scenes are not accented and developed enough. As such, it gradually becomes boring, and during the culminating moments it's positively anticlimactic.

  • The disadvantageous comparison with "Oblio". That one had spark! This


one is also smart, but less inspired.


54 of 95 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

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