By: Holley Sinn

Verdict:  Approved!

To what lengths would you go to preserve your own happiness and that of those around you?  Sounds like an easy task, but as one little mouse proves in "The Tale of Desperaux", despair and selfishness are nasty villains, and defeating them takes courage, nobility and the willingness to say "I'm sorry".

Our first encounter is not with a mouse, but with an adventurous rat named Roscuro who is, as it turns out, a vegetarian.  Roscuro, voiced by Dustin Hoffman, finds himself stranded in the land of D'Or after his attempt to taste the city's famed soup results in the death of D'Or's queen.  With sorrow in his heart, the King bans the making of soup, and Roscuro finds himself in the company of some dark and dastardly rats far below the castle in Ratworld. 

Meanwhile, a tiny mouse named Desperaux is being chastised for his inability to "cower" and "scurry" in the face of cats and kitchen knives in Mouseworld.  Little Desperaux, voiced by Matthew Broderick, is curious and brave, qualities which get him exiled to Ratworld, but not before he forms a friendship with the kingdom's beautiful but sad Princess Pea, voiced by Emma Watson.  

While the other rats would like to eat Desperaux or subject him to torture, Roscuro wants to learn from him and the two become friends when the rat saves the mouse from a horrible fate.  All the while, a servant girl named Miggory Sow, voiced by Tracy Ullman, is fantasizing about being a princess and wearing a beautiful crown.  When Roscuro's attempts at making up with the real princess go awry, he and Miggory become entangled in a terrible plot which only tiny Desperaux can avert.

"The Tale of Desperaux" is not just the story of a valliant little mouse and his quest to save a princess from certain doom.  It's about the things we do when we've been hurt - when our pride has been compromised and our hearts have been broken.  It's about learning to see through despair and recognizing grief in others.  It's about vulnerability and the fact that everyone hurts from time to time, but that decisions should never be made or action taken when pain clouds the heart and mind.

There are some frightening images in "The Tale of Desperaux" which might be unsettling for children under the age of 5, but for anyone with a heart who has graduated from kindergarten, I strongly recommend this charming, PG rated film.    Also, parents, prepare to be shopping for a Desperaux Tilly toy for your little ones after you leave the theater...he is just THAT cute.