The defence The Popcorn Loyalist
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
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The Tale of Despereaux
Adventure · Animation · Family · 2008
Once upon a time... in the far away kingdom of Dor... lived a brave and virtuous mouse with comically oversized ears who dreamt of becoming a knight. Banished from his home for having such lofty ambitions, Despereaux sets off on an amazing adventure with his good-hearted rat friend Roscuro, who leads him, at long last, on a very noble quest to rescue an endangered princess and save an entire kingdom from darkness.
Movie details
The Tale of Despereaux
“Small Mouse. Big Dreams.”
2008 Adventure · Animation · Family 1h 33m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
6.1 / 10
40.7K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
56 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
53 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
6.2 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
Once upon a time... in the far away kingdom of Dor... lived a brave and virtuous mouse with comically oversized ears who dreamt of becoming a knight. Banished from his home for having such lofty ambitions, Despereaux sets off on an amazing adventure with his good-hearted rat friend Roscuro, who leads him, at long last, on a very noble quest to rescue an endangered princess and save an entire kingdom from darkness.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over The Tale of Despereaux?
For the defence
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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Tom and Jerry: The Movie
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The popular cartoon cat and mouse are thrown into a feature film. The story has the twosome trying to help an orphan girl who is being berated and exploited by a greedy guardian.
The Amazing Maurice
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Maurice is a streetwise ginger cat who comes up with a money-making scam by befriending a group of self-taught talking rats. When Maurice and the rodents meet a bookworm called Malicia, their little con soon goes down the drain.
The Rescuers
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Two agents of the mouse-run International Rescue Aid Society search for a little orphan girl kidnapped by sinister treasure hunters.
Cinderella and the Secret Prince
Animation · 2018
Cinderella discovers a secret that could shake their world: an evil witch turned the prince into a mouse and replaced him with a look-alike. Cinderella and her friends must save the real prince and help him defeat the evil witch.
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
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When a young owl is abducted by an evil Owl army, he must escape with new-found friends and seek the legendary Guardians to stop the menace.
Justin and the Knights of Valour
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A heart-warming tale about friendship, honor & courage, which sees a young boy become a man as he embarks on a quest to become a knight.
Where it lives
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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.
Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Sam Fell · Robert Stevenhagen
Written by
Gary Ross
Matthew Broderick
Despereaux (voice)
Dustin Hoffman
Roscuro (voice)
Emma Watson
Princess Pea (voice)
Tracey Ullman
Miggery Sow (voice)
Kevin Kline
Chef Andre (voice)
Sigourney Weaver
The Narrator (voice)
William H. Macy
Lester (voice)
Court is in session
Put The Tale of Despereaux on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.