The Tale of Despereaux (film)

The sailor Pietro and his rat companion Roscuro dock in the kingdom of Dor, famous around the world for its delicious soups, during the "Royal Soup Day." The chief cook, Chef Andre, makes good soup due to Boldo, a magical genie that emerges from his pot and is made entirely out of food. On a banquet, when Roscuro slips away and ends up in the royal banquet hall, he slips and falls into the Queen's soup, giving her such a fright that she has a heart attack and dies. The entire hall goes into a panic, as the guards pursue Roscuro. He attempts to flee the castle but sees Pietro's ship has already sailed away. He narrowly escapes capture by falling down a sewer drain, which leads to the castle dungeons, where he's found and taken in by Botticelli, the leader of the dungeon's large rat population. Distraught over his wife's death, the king forbids any and all things related to soup and makes rats illegal. Without its soup, Dor becomes impoverished and dreary. Andre is banned from making any more soup and Boldo stops appearing. The king's daughter, Princess Pea, despairs over the sad state of the kingdom and how her father has shut out both her and the world in his grief.

In a mouse village in the castle's abandoned kitchen storage room, a baby is born to the Tilling family. They name him Despereaux. As he grows up, it becomes clear Despereaux's not like other mice: he isn't meek and timid, but brave and curious, unnerving other mice around him. In an effort to teach him to behave like a proper mouse, his brother Furlough takes him to the castle library to show him how to chew books, but Despereaux is more interested in reading than eating them. He starts to become fascinated by fairytale books about daring knights and trapped princesses. One day while reading, he encounters and converses with Pea. She makes him promise to finish reading the story about a trapped princess and tell her how it ends. Upon discovering Despereaux has violated mouse law by talking to a human, his parents turn him in to the mouse council.

The council banishes Despereaux to the dungeons, where he meets and tells the princess' story to the castle jailor, Gregory, but he doesn't listen and leaves Despereaux alone. There, he is captured by the rats and thrown into their arena with a cat. As Despereaux is about to be eaten, Roscuro saves his life by asking Botticelli to give Despereaux to him to eat. Having been unable to adjust to being a sewer rat, Roscuro is desperate to hear about the outside world. The two become friends, as every day Despereaux tells him the stories and of the princess and her sadness. Hoping to make amends for all the trouble he's caused, Roscuro sneaks up to Princess Pea's room and tries to apologize, only to be lashed out. Hurt by this, Roscuro vows revenge. He enlists the help of Miggery "Mig" Sow, Princess Pea's slightly deaf young maid who longs to be a princess herself, by convincing her she can take Pea's place if she kidnaps her. After Mig drags Pea down to the dungeons, Roscuro double-crosses her and locks her in a cell.

Meanwhile, Despereaux discovers that the princess is in danger; he tries to tell the king but he is too despondent to listen. Despereaux tries to get help elsewhere; he tries to enlist his family, but they are afraid by his presence (thinking that he is a ghost); Despereaux rings the town's bell to prove his survival. Andre, hearing this and having had enough of the law and gets back to make some soup, which brings the enchanted smell back to the kingdom and brings back Boldo. Despereaux tries to get help from Andre and Boldo, but only convinces Boldo to accompany him into the dungeons. En route, they are discovered and attacked by rats; Boldo sacrifices himself to allow Desperaux to reach the arena.

Back in the rat colony, Roscuro sees the apologetic sincerity in Pea's eyes and regrets his actions, but an enraged Botticelli signals the rats to eat or trample over Pea. Despereaux lets loose a cat into the arena to scare some of the rats away, and fights the others off as sunlight flows into the rat world; Boticelli, with a combined effort from Desperaux, Roscuro and Pea, is trapped in a cage with the cat.

In the aftermath, Roscuro apologies to Pea for causing her mother's death; Mig is reunited with her long-lost father Gregory, who recognizes the heart-shaped birthmark on the back of her neck, the king is able to overcome his grief and soup and rats are allowed back in the kingdom. The mice all then try to be braver like Despereaux, while Roscuro returns to a life at sea, where there is always light and a gentle breeze, and Despereaux himself takes off on a journey to see the world.

• Matthew Broderick as Despereaux Tilling, the brave but nonconforming mouse who does not run from danger as a mouse should. His big ears are in great use for flying and listening to things other mice cannot.
• Dustin Hoffman as Chiaroscuro "Roscuro", the rat who once lived at sea, and is currently working for Botticelli
• Emma Watson as Princess Pea, the human princess who befriends Despereaux
• Tracey Ullman as Miggery "Mig" Sow, Princess Pea's servant girl
• Ciarán Hinds as Botticelli, the leader of the rat world
• Robbie Coltrane as Gregory, the jailer and Mig's father
• William H. Macy as Lester Tilling, Despereaux's father
• Tony Hale as Furlough Tilling, Despereaux's older brother
• Kevin Kline as Chef Andre, the cook.
• Stanley Tucci as Boldo, Andre's Arcimboldo-like soup genie and friend
• Frank Langella as The Mayor of the mouse world
• Frances Conroy as Antoinette Tilling, Despereaux's mother
• Richard Jenkins as The Principal at Despereaux's school
• Charles Shaughnessy as Pietro, the sailor who Roscuro accompanied to Dor
• Christopher Lloyd as Hovis, the threadmaster in the mouse world
• Sam Fell as Ned and Smudge, two rats
• Patricia Cullen as The Queen
• Bronson Pinchot as The Town Crier
• Sigourney Weaver as The Narrator

The film's production was marred by disagreements and malpractice, or accusations thereof, between the French, British and North American staff involved. Sylvain Chomet was employed by Gary Ross and Allison Thomas as director early on, before the film was approved for funding by Universal Pictures, with pre-production (including character design, the first drafts of the screenplay written by Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi and the addition of the original character of Boldo the soup spirit) taking place at his studio Django Films in Edinburgh. Chomet came up against creative and ethical differences with the producers and was eventually fired from the project and thrown out of the studio space allocated to Despereaux.[2] Mike Johnson was also hired as director before the role eventually went to Sam Fell and Rob Stevenhagen, who, reportedly, had not read the original novel and directed the film, made at Framestore in London, via speakerphone and e-mail.

The score to The Tale of Despereaux was composed by William Ross, who recorded his score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Scoring Stage.[3]

The Tale of Despereaux was theatrically released on December 19, 2008, by Universal Pictures.

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