The Tale of Despereaux (2008)

G| 1 hr. 34 min.

Plot Summary
Once a thriving place of sunshine and delicious soup, the faraway kingdom of Dor has fallen into sadness. An accident leaves the king brokenhearted; the sunshine fades, and the soup disappears Into this world is born Despereaux (Matthew Broderick), a book-loving mouse and friend to Princess Pea (Emma Watson). When Pea is kidnapped, Despereaux must find a knight's brave heart within his tiny body and rescue his friend.

Cast: Matthew Broderick , Dustin Hoffman , Emma Watson , Tracey Ullman , Kevin Kline , William H. Macy , Stanley Tucci , Ciarán Hinds

Directors: Rob Stevenhagen , Sam Fell

Genres: Children, Adventure, Fantasy, Animated

Distributor: Universal Pictures

The Tale of Despereaux (2008)

Release Date: December 19th, 2008|1 hr. 34 min.

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critic reviews ( 3 )

fan reviews ( 24 )

75

Peter Hartlaub San Francisco Chronicle

May not be a classic, but it still has a lot of class. show more
63

Claudia Puig USA Today

While the story does not quite come to magical life, the themes of courage, hope and decency are sweetly inspiring. show more
63

Steven Rea Philadelphia Inquirer

The tiny, intrepid rodent is so cute it's impossible not to ooh and aww, just looking at him. Which is a good thing, because you'll need something to get you through the long stretches of fairytale pastiche that make up this overwrought yarn. show more

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April 15, 2011 Kristin M.
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Ok, so it wasn\'t ratatouille, but it was an ejoyable film. I liked it. I never read the book, and only watched it because of Emma Watson voicing the princess, but I found myself liking it a lot. Personally, I think the reviews are a little unfair about this movie (I mean, it\'s not an Oscar-contending movie, it\'s just a cartoon), but whatever.
August 06, 2009 john
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What a great movie! I went to see this on a "free movie" morning at the Regal Cinema, and I thought it was great! It was first class all of the way, and what a great story!
January 03, 2009 LorenaCA
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I am tired of all the subliminal messages I am finding in kids movies, the middle easterners playing the bad rats, saying Soup Day is more important than Christmas, what is going on around here?!?! How come they didn't say Soup Day is more important than Hannukah or Kwanza? The editing was bad. The only thing holding this movie is imagary, nice graphics etc. Sigourney Weaver's voice was drabby as a narrator. We wasted $40 on nothing! Another Madoff scam!

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