Question: How can you loose on an animated feature that features a voice cast including Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Watson, Tracey Ullman, Kevin Kline, William H. Macy, Stanley Tucci, Ciaran Hinds, Robbie Coltrane, Frances Conroy, Singourney Weaver, Christopher Lloyd, Frank Langella and Richard Jenkins (the latter two just nominated for Golden Globes)?

Answer: Take the script from a dark, esoteric children’s book and have adult actors voice all the children’s parts.

The Tale of Depereaux should have worked. The animation is certainly cute enough. Who can resist a big-eyed mouse with huge, floppy ears? Perhaps it would land better if we hadn’t seen another rodent hit, Ratatouille, done much better by Pixar just last year.  Despereaux even has a culinary plot device: In the beginning, a mystical being assists the chef in creating world famous concoctions, but one too many rats in the kitchen spoils the soup and sends the entire kingdom into a downward spiral. Dustin Hoffman is fine as the in hapless soup spoiler, but his character goes from good to bad to good again with very odd motivation that hardly makes sense. Despereaux, the title character, is supposed to be a young boy mouse, but is obviously voiced by a guy in his mid-forties (Broderick). Takes some of the childlike wonder and innocence out of the character, to say the least.

The convoluted plot involves a special mouse who is born without the rodent-like quality of fear. His destiny it is to save his kingdom from three things: rat, soup and rain banishment. They’re all loosely connected. An evil pig-tender, a beautiful princess bound and about to be devoured by rats, and an eerie specter made of vegetables all add to the creep factor. A narration (well-executed by Sigourney Weaver) attempts to draw the fairytale together, but fails, eliciting an “oh no! not one more ingredient in this already too complicated soup!” response. Beautiful animation alone cannot save this film. There is a reason no “Best Animated Feature” campaigns have been launched for it. Still, those who have read the book will be able to follow and enjoy.

Rated G

Lisa Johnson Mandell