Review of The Tale of Despereaux (2008) by Julio S — 11 Apr 2010

This one's a odd one. Being that it's not pixar, adults didnt flock to see it. Not being Disney, children didn't flock to see it. It was a children's fairy tale, but a sort of dark and cruel one and written in a way where it's actually multi-layered and not straightforward. This is not a "funny" animated movie, but has a cute lead - who incidentally does not show up until we're well into the movie. So who was the target audience? I couldn't figure it out, and seeing how poorly it did, it seems it's one of those movies that did have a lot of creative talent, just didn't know what to do with it.

The animation, colors and backgrounds are actually gorgeous to look at. The story though does take it's time - and it seems that was huge part of why people complained about the movie. I actually like this sort of storytelling, taking its time to get to where it has to get to, so you understand the characters more. Sure there's a lot of stuff you have just take with a grain of salt, you know magical kingdom crap and all, but it's not a horrible story.