The Tale of Despereaux

In the midst of holiday parties yesterday, we had few hours to spare between Muskego and Kenosha and decided going home wasn't the best use of time, so we headed out to see a movie. I had been wanting to see The Tale of Despereaux because it is one of my favorite middle reader books. It's a quick read, a fun story, brings a few tears, and of course, has a happy ending. As with many books made into movies, I'm a little skeptical. How can you really recreate a beautiful story? I've seen a couple good movie adaptions (most recently, The Secret Life of Bees and The Kite Runner). I'm sad to report, this movie missed the boat. If you haven't read the book, it was a nice children's movie, but I probably wouldn't have gone to see it in the theater.

If you're interested in checking out the movie, it is a story about a very small and unusual mouse named Despereaux Tilling. Despereaux is does not cower and in fact, likes cats. How unusual for a mouse! He is banished from Mouseworld for not escaping into the castle of Door to read in the library. How dare he! At the same time, an unusual rat named Roscurio, who does not like garbage or tormenting humans, gets left behind his ship only to live in Ratworld, a very undesireable place. And yet another story line, the Princess and King of Door are very sad after the Queen died an untimely death while seeing a rat (Roscurio) in her annual bowl of soup. A lot going on, right?

Needless to say, Despereaux and Roscurio join forces to save the Princess and eventually the whole Kingdom. It did have a happy ending, but missed some key elements of the book which I truly enjoyed.