The Tale of Despereaux | Rotten Tomatoes (2024)

57% Tomatometer 111 Reviews 44% Popcornmeter 100,000+ Ratings

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.

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Critics Consensus

Despite its striking visuals, The Tale of Despereaux as a story feels familiar and unimaginative.

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Critics Reviews

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The Tale of Despereaux | Rotten Tomatoes (1) Nell Minow Movie Mom Rated: B- Feb 18, 2012 Full Review The Tale of Despereaux | Rotten Tomatoes (2) Jake Wilson The Age (Australia) Scratch a CGI fairytale and you'll find an allegory about class, particularly if rodents are involved. Rated: 1.5/5 Jan 9, 2009 Full Review The Tale of Despereaux | Rotten Tomatoes (3) Sara Michelle Fetters MovieFreak.com While the film's heart is certainly in the right place, and while certain moments exude honest warmth and refreshingly direct truth, on the whole there is nothing about this computer animated epic that remotely sets it apart from the crowd. Rated: 2/4 Dec 21, 2008 Full Review The Tale of Despereaux | Rotten Tomatoes (4) Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review The film contains a certain storybook quality that is quietly appealing, though the story is ultimately flat and uninvolving. Rated: 1.5/4 Mar 3, 2024 Full Review The Tale of Despereaux | Rotten Tomatoes (5) Mike Massie Gone With The Twins The mediocrity of the story is rivaled only by its terribly indistinctive character designs and video game equivalent animation. Rated: 3/10 Nov 28, 2020 Full Review The Tale of Despereaux | Rotten Tomatoes (6) Jason Best Movie Talk With so many story threads to weave together, the makers of The Tale of Despereaux can't help getting their plot in a tangle, but Sigourney Weaver's delightfully wry narration prevents things from unravelling completely. Nov 22, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Stettafire The book was fantastic, a really dark fantasy that showed hope in dire situations. The film was a heartless cash grab that bore no resemblance to the book and spoke down to it's audience. Rated 0.5/5 Stars • Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/24 Full Review Luke R The movie was bad, the plot was bad, the characters were bad, everything was bad. Rated 0.5/5 Stars • Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 03/10/24 Full Review Iss M A very beautiful movie with beautiful feelings I recommend Rated 5/5 Stars • Rated 5 out of 5 stars 12/02/23 Full Review Blu B It feels like it only has the key story points in it without any of the emotional character devlopment scenes. That's the best way to describe the biggest issue this has. We see Des meet the Rats, meet the supporting cast, saving the day, but we never see or get to know anything about these characters beyond surface level motivations at best. Especially Ros & Des who hardly have 2 minutes together. This lack of emotional development scene leads to characters just being introduced and than forgotten about once there contribution is over and a very unfocused narrative. At first it seems like Ros is going to be the main focus and than 25 minutes later we forget about him and get Des's backstory and coming of age. On top of that the subplot with the ugly cleaning girl feels completely unneeded and just adds to the unfocused narrative. When the Queen dies at the start we ever see her interact or learn anything about her and it leads to no emotional impact or for the King or Princess. It never makes all these subplots really work together in a cohesive way. On top of that the animation is subpar. Most of these scenes don't ever pop with color or lots of emotion because of the lack of character development scenes and the dim lighting in many scenes means there isn't much life or investment to be had. The voice acting is ok enough because of this. There isn't much chemistry or humor to be found but no one is really out of place save for Weaver's narration which feels very subpar. The music is decent and better in the start but slowly devolves into generic forgettable stuff. All this leads to subpar editing and pacing as well. I can't recommend this really to anyone. This could've been a charming tale instead of a cash in on another rat movies popularity around this time if it had more character development. but as it is just skip it. Rated 2.5/5 Stars • Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 10/23/23 Full Review Green F I love this movie. It's unique and has a good message. Rated 5/5 Stars • Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/06/23 Full Review Cyrus K My one really big complaint is that Matthew broderick who is an adult is voicing a little kid mouse. Rated 2.5/5 Stars • Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/06/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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Cast & Crew

Rob Stevenhagen Director Sam Fell Director Matthew Broderick Despereaux Dustin Hoffman Roscuro Emma Watson Pea Tracey Ullman Mig
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The Tale of Despereaux

The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Boldo The Brave The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Boldo The Brave 3:27 The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Fighting the Cat The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Fighting the Cat 3:21 The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Rat in the Soup The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Rat in the Soup 3:31 The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Tales of Chivalry The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Tales of Chivalry 2:47 The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Apology Gone Bad The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Apology Gone Bad 2:08 The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Mousetrap Gauntlet The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Mousetrap Gauntlet 2:08 The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Kidnapping the Princess The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Kidnapping the Princess 3:15 The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Protecting the Princess The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Protecting the Princess 2:40 The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Despereaux, The Fearless The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Despereaux, The Fearless 2:40 The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Despereaux vs. Botticelli The Tale of Despereaux: Official Clip - Despereaux vs. Botticelli 2:28 View more videos

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Synopsis 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.

Director
Rob Stevenhagen, Sam Fell

Producer
Gary Ross, Allison Thomas

Screenwriter
Gary Ross, Will McRobb, Chris Viscardi

Distributor
Universal Pictures

Production Co
Larger Than Life

Rating
G

Genre
Kids & Family, Adventure, Fantasy, Animation

Original Language
English

Release Date (Theaters)
Dec 19, 2008, Wide

Release Date (Streaming)
Jul 6, 2016

Runtime
1h 34m
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The Tale of Despereaux | Rotten Tomatoes (2024)
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