The Tale of Despereaux – Movie Review
Movie Title: The Tale of Despereaux
Rating: G
Director: Sam Fell
Staring: the voices of Matthew Broderick; Dustin Hoffman; Kevin Kline Tracey Ullman; Emma Watson; Christopher Lloyd; Sigourney Weaver and others.
Category: Children’s
Moms of Faith Rating: 5 out of 10
Intro: When I saw the previews for this film, I thought I would be in for a treat. Unfortunately, there are some very dark issues that I honestly think should have made this movie a PG not a G rating. We saw Bolt right after and it was rated PG. I thought…huh? It should have been the other way around. Weird. Anyway, on to the review…
Review: The Tale of Despereaux has all the elements of a Medieval adventure. It has the princess, the hero, the underdog, the whole shebang. All in all the film was OK. I mean JUST OK. What really threw me, as I mentioned above, was the rating. My 5 year old was not happy with some of the scenes….and neither was I. There was also a little girl next to us that was crying.
There was one positive thing that stood out for me and it was little Despereaux’s loyalty to his “calling” to protect the princess and good did win in the end. However, I think the G rating gives parents the false peace of mind that this film will be OK for their small children. I disagree. Watch it first and you will see what I mean.
A few examples of the dark sides of the film;
- Chef Andre’s cooking “helper” gives the feel of witchcraft to me. Very weird.
- In a scene that had the same concept as a Roman Colosseum, the princes was tied up and going to be dinner for the rats. They were all chanting “eat, eat, eat.” It was all very scary. Again…not feeling the G rating.
- Rat world is a very dark place. Lots of bones and skulls and not very nice rats.
Conclusion: My 15 year old, who loves suspense type movies, thought this was way too dark for a cartoon. She was covering her little sisters eyes more than I was! LOL!
Seriously, put the little ones to bed early and “preview” the film before you allow them to see it. I really think this movie is not for little children. I know we will never watch it again.
Copyright © Lara Velez, Moms of Faith, All Rights Reserved
Wow! We were going to add this to our NetFlix for the kids but now I know that we better watch it before letting them see… thank you for the honest review!
Have you seen bolt? Awesome! I will be reviewing that next…Great kids movie.
awww that’s disappointing about Desperaux.
But we loved Bolt.
thanks for the review! Wow its hard to find decent movies these days!!!
Suzanne
Thanks for the review Lara. We didn’t go see it when it was in the theaters but my daughter’s teacher read it to the class last year (3rd grade.) She really liked it.
My daughters tend to be pretty sensitive to anything dark or scary in films. Glad we didn’t see it.
BTW, we DID go to see Bolt and loved it.