The Tale of Despereaux ***

Cast (voices): Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Waston, Tracey Ullman, Kevin Kline, William H. Macy, Stanley Tucci, Frank Langella, Sigourney Weaver
Directors: Sam Fell, Robert Stevenhagen
Running Length: 1:30
MPAA Classification: G

Despereaux (Broderick) is a mouse who is banished from Mouseworld for not acting like a mouse. He doesn’t cower, he doesn’t intentionally trip mousetraps, and he speaks to humans. In the human’s world, he meets Princess Pea (Watson), and decides to go on a quest for her to restore sunlight to a dark and grey kingdom. He is assisted by the rat Roscuro (Hoffman), who had caused the problem in the first place. Meanwhile, Miggory Snow (Ullman), the princess’s servant, is plotting to remove the princess and take her place.

“Despereaux” has a more complex story than one might expect from G-rated fare, but it is not too much to alienate younger viewers. The storylines intersect well, and all come together in the end. The animation is good, but not Pixar quality. That is a small complaint, and Pixar is in a league of their own anyway. The voice talent is made up of many big names, and Broderick, Hoffman, and Watson are all excellent. This is an entertaining family film that can be enjoyed by all.

WALL•E ****
Cast: (voices) Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy, Sigourney Weaver, Fred Willard
Director: Andew Stanton
Running Length: 1:37
MPAA Classification: G

700 years into the future, Earth is uninhabited. Humans have left its wasteland and now live among the stars. Left behind to clean up the mess are WALL•Es (Waste Allocation Load Lifters-Earth class). After all this time only one WALL•E (Burtt) remains. He goes about his insurrmountable job, collecting and compacting trash. One day, things change. A spaceship arrives and a robot named EVE (Knight) emerges. She is on a mission of her own, but soon becomes friends (of a sort) with WALL•E. When the time comes for her to leave, WALL•E hitches a ride, and is off on a new adventure that may just save the human race.

Pixar has done it again. WALL•E is an amazing film that introduces one of the most loveable characters in recent memory. The animators humanize the robots through their actions, making the audience care for them. There is very little dialogue in the film, especially in the first half, and the high quality animation drives the story successfully. There is an ecological message to be found here, but it isn’ forced. There is enough humor and action to entertain the whole family. WALL•E is probably the best family film of the summer, and I highly recommend seeing it.

Vantage Point **
Cast: Dennis Quaid, William Hurt, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, Eduardo Noriega, Edgar Ramirez, Said Taghmaoui, Ayelet Zurer, Sigourney Weaver
Director: Pete Travis
Running Length: 1:30
MPAA Classification: PG-13

At an anti-terrorism summit in Spain, an assassination attempt is made on President Ashton (Hurt). After the president is shot, chaos reigns. During the pandemonium, there is a distant explosion followed by one in the arena. Secret service agent Thomas Barnes (Quaid) must find the assassin before its too late.

The movie’s hook is that is shows the events from multiple points of view. First, through the eyes of a news broadcast, then through Barnes’ eyes. Next is a police officer’s (Noriega) point of view, a tourist’s (Whitaker), and then the President’s. There is backtracking to show perspectives from the same starting point, and each point of view takes the story a little further into the future.

“Vantage Point” has two large drawbacks. First, the very nature of the film reduces all the roles to extended cameos. None of the characters feel like the focus of the film, and none have any real development. Quaid and Hurt do what they can, but they aren’t given much to work with. The other problem is that for a movie built around the novelty of seeing the characters’ point of view, they abandon that approach in the last 30 minutes, reverting back to a “normal” movie. What does work is the level of intensity that is maintained through much of the film. There is enough action to make one forget about some of the absurdities of the plot as well. Overall, this was a movie that could have been better with some tweaking.