This afternoon we went to see Desperaux for Caitlyns birthday. All said and done, she said she liked it, so that made the expenditure a little bit more bearable but seriously, this movie is horrible. Wouldn't recommend it for kids. There are some scary parts (for kids). Chad and I sat there thinking "Yikes, this is pretty intense", but really that wasnt the worst part for me. It was the overall lessons in the movie that I didnt agree with.
Sure, the mouse is cute, cuddly but thats about it. The lessons learned are coveting, envy, revenge, sorrow and vanity.
It starts out illustrating that rats have a lesser value than mice and therefore must live in the dungeon. The mice have a cute little village with a school and families and what-not. Oh, and all of the mice are light haired and the rats all have dark hair. All kids love a good racial stereotype right?
Lets now move on to vanity. If you have a young daughter that may be a little gravitationally gifted (chubby), do not take her to this movie. According to this movie you can only be a princess if you are blonde, perfect teeth, skinny, blue eyed and possess a nose that appears to have as much work done on it as a few vain movie stars. Meanwhile, the girl servant who feeds the pigs and scrubs the floors is plump, brown haired and snaggletoothed. She speaks with an accent to her voice that rivals that of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady.
This poor downtrodden young girl becomes convinced that she deserves to be the princess. The envy is portrayed in scenes of maniacal jealousy and stealing personal items of the real princess. It gets to a point where the brown haired girl is packing a meat cleaver away and preparing a rope to dispose of the princess. Seriously, I don't think we need to encourage kids that may be facing a more difficult social experience growing up that they can just "remove" their competition.
This is just all around an unhealthy display of how to deal with the lemons that life gives you.
1/2 out of 4 stars - because the mouse is so darn cute.
4 comments:
Oh, how sad. I loved the book so much. I just read a review that the movie did a disservice to Kate DiCamillo... the author. I still want to see it for the fact of having read the book. Oh well.
thanks for the heads up you saved me some $$$$$!
I have never even heard of that movie! Thanks for the heads up though, we won't be taking our kids. Happy Birthday little miss 6 year old! Where has the time gone?!?! Oh my heck we are getting old!
I would agree that the movie was a disappointment compared to the book. But, Kate DiCamillo is currently my absolute FAVORITE author; I've read all of her books. The lessons in her books are about love, goodness, forgiveness and finding the good in others. You always feel uplifted after reading her stories. She's won book awards on three of her four chapter books. If you havn't read Despereaux yet, don't let the movie keep you from reading it.
Post a Comment