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The Tale of Despereaux
It's a brazen production company that seeks to duplicate the success of Pixar but this is just what the London-based, Framestore Animation sets out to achieve with their first full feature film. The visual effects company, whose work includes the title sequence of Casino Royale and visual effects for Quantum Of Solace, intended to sire a Ratatouille-killer but something goes awry in the process.
Framestore's film has an undeniable beauty in its intricate style but it just isn't as friendly as Pixar's work. The devil is in the details insofar as the level of detail is so high that it obfuscates the focus of the film in a can't-see-the-picture-for-the-pixels kind of way. This level of detail permeates every aspect of the film to the same effect. The many sub-plots stack to the rafters, including: a fearless, chivalric mouse who refuses to conform with the ideals of ‘sensible’ rodent society; an honorable rat who is ostracised merely for his creed; a princess mourning the loss of the sunshiny days which preceded the death of her Queen mother; and a royal chef who concocts splendiferous dishes with the help of a bizarre mystical fruit-genie-thing. And just when you're thinking how complex the story is, further layers of complexity are revealed: a peasant girl has aspirations of affluence; a dungeon guard forced to abandon his daughter for fear of destitution; a secret, oppressive subterranean rat society modeled on gladiatorial ancient Rome (led by a rat whose character has clearly been lifted from that of the film critic in Ratatouille).
It's an intimidating array of storylines which is presumably born partly out of over enthusiasm and partly out of providing significant parts for each and every one of its enormous stellar cast; a cast which includes: Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Watson, Tracey Ullman, Kevin Kline, William H Macy, Stanley Tucci, Robbie Coltrane, Frank Langella, Richard Jenkins, Christopher Lloyd and Sigourney Weaver, phew. Add to this, the heady themes of oppressive censorship, restrictive caste societies and public vilification of pioneering rule breakers and you have a very ambitious movie that loses sight of the fact that it's supposed to be for kids.Clearly Framestore have much to learn from Pixar in terms of restraint - they have still to grasp the meaning of the KISS paradigm (Keep It Simple, Stupid) - but this is their first feature and the talent on show here is of a magnitude that warrants future attention. Watch this space.
Stuart Jamieson
official website
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