Review of The Tale of Despereaux (2008) by Benjamin W — 04 May 2014

What could have been a sweet and humorous little fairytale gets lost amid a convoluted plot that seems to go on an on with no sense of direction and a tone that veers between cutesy to downright creepy and disturbing.

The baby Despereaux is actually much cuter than the grown-up version and you find yourself disappointed once you realise that this is what your hero is going to look like for the next 60 minutes. Despereaux's life at home isn't fleshed out enough and the situation between him and the other mice isn't so much chucklesome as vaguely worrying, as if they do actually have a point and he is a bit mental instead of heroic.

The rat and the maid quickly alienate the viewer because of their selfish motives that lead to quite sinister consequences, and you never know if Sigourney Weaver's tone as the narrator is meant to be ironic or imply a dry sense of humour. But the princess and her predicament is quite winning as are Despereaux's attempts to help her. In the end it was rather entertaining and all's well that ends well, but it could have been so much better.