The Tale of Despereaux User Reviews

This movie was FABULOUS! We anticiapted its release, then almost did not go to see it because of all the negative reviews. It had plenty of action to keep a busy 4 year content, great story line for a 10 year old, enough sentiment to cause a grown dad to shed a tear and even 78 year old grandma enjoyed it and has decided to follow it up with the book. I highly recommend this movie! Very fun, and clean. One of the best things I would say is that there are NO sexual inuendos that all the other "kid" movies seem to include to keep adults happy. Phew! Finally good clean fun for the family.

12/30/2008, 9:05 pm

The artwork in this movie was breathtaking, though I'm not usually a big fan of computer generated animation- which I suspect this was. As an adaptation of the book it may have taken a departure, but I guess most movies do. The worst thing about it was the way the humans looked, and that's only my distaste for the CGI images. For a story that was celebrating the unique in it's little tiny hero, it did not do much to shatter human stereo types: the thin blonde beautiful princess who needed to be rescued and the corrupted, overweight and unattractive servant girl- but I don't want to give too much away. As much as they explain the servant girl's hurt away, the stereotypes are there. Not what less than perfect looking children need to see, cartoon or not. That is why the use of animals works better in children's stories so that they can escape and project what they need to onto the characters. Otherwise, this was a good movie with a nice message. Better than most mediocre garbage they have for kids. Good to see on the big screen I think.

12/30/2008, 7:46 pm

Forgot to add a rating:)

12/30/2008, 3:46 pm

My wife and I took two grandchildren to the movie yesterday. Overall we liked the movie however at the beginning of the movie was a reference to Christmas that was derogatory. Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ. This to us was another using the cliche word of seemingly liberal people knocking this relegious day. Why was this line even in the movie? The impression of this Soup Holiday to these characters did not need bolstering. We do not know who had the final say over the script....directors, producers, etc. You were wrong and it does hurt people. Allen & Geri Ward

12/30/2008, 10:23 am

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Don't waste your money on this movie. Disgusted would best describe how I feel right now. I wouldn't take a child and put them thru the more than an hour and a half of depressing scene after scene if my life depended on it. BORING....NEGATIVE...NASTY. I could hardly stay awake and when I was awake all I had to watch was endless scenes of rats living in filth and mice being harped at for not being afraid and living in fear like good mice should. I won't even dignify this movie with a star.

12/29/2008, 11:28 pm

Ummmm. Defying authority? What if authority is WRONG? Hopefully someday parents will learn that teaching your children that authority is quite often deeply flawed is NOT a dangerous thing. Good god, if no one ever defied authority, I would hate to think of the world we would be living in. Bad as it is, it could be even worse. Long live the world of the imagination. Please read the book too. Or is that too threatening an idea for some parents?

12/29/2008, 7:31 pm

I was considering this movie as an after Christmas treat for our children, but as most of the reviewers, I also frown on disrespect for authority. It's not the message we want to send to our children, who are having a difficult enough time understanding the concept. The problerm I see here is the "average rating." 0 stars; 0 stars; 1 star; 1 star; 5 stars...the average becomes 3 1/2 stars, which is not so bad. However, if one took the median the "true" score is 1 star... hardly a reason to waste your money.

12/28/2008, 3:39 pm

I WAS OUTRAGED! DEFINITELY NOT A KIDS MOVIE. SUBJECT MATTER WAS MORE AN ADULT FILM BUT WITH CHARACTERS. VERY DISAPPOINTED THAT THE MOVIE INDUSTRY IS TRYING TO PASS IT OFF AS A CHILD'S MOVIE AND THE RATING OF "G" IS A JOKE. MY FAMILY SPENT A LOT OF MONEY TO GO TO THE MOVIE AND I ENDED UP LEAVING WITH MY FOUR YEAR OLD. IN MY OPINION.... DO NOT TAKE ANY CHILD UNDER THE AGE OF 10 TO THIS MOVIE..... AS AN ADULT... I DID NOT ENJOY IT.

12/26/2008, 9:54 pm

Definitely not a movie for kids. Too much violence for kids. This movie should have been rated PG or PG-13. Also, didn't appreciate the underlying subliminal message of defying authority. I'm all for marching to beat of a different drum, and also being more that the norm and swimming upstream against the flow; however, not by disrespecting those in authority.

12/26/2008, 8:09 pm