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| Source: rec.art.movies.reviews newsgroup | | Rating: 3
| PLOT: An orphaned mouse gets adopted by two human parents. The real son of the duo does not take well to the mouse at first, but eventually begins to understand and appreciate him better, until one day, the mouse's real micey parents show up to claim back their child. Who will Stuart, the cute little mouse, end up with?
CRITIQUE: I expected more fun and laughs from this cute mouse tale. It was an okay movie, great special effects with the talking mice and cats blending right into their human entourage, some fun moments including a mafia cat ring looking out for revenge, but not enough punch to recommend with much enthusiasm. In fact, I think the filmmakers went a little too far on the sentimentality bit, chiming in with sad music during every conceivable moment of uncertainty. Mrs. JoBlo also liked it but nothing more than that. There just seemed to be something missing, something that could've been there, should've been there, but in the end, just wasn't. Will kids dig it? Yeah, I'm pretty sure they will but don't expect them to start dusting off their shelves for a new spot next to their TOY STORY and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST videos.
I did love the way the mice all happened to be accepted in modern day society as a matter of fact, and the excellent close-ups of the cats talking and emoting their feelings, but when all was said and done, most of their jokes fell flat, and I suppose that after the amazing spectacle that was TOY STORY 2 (8/10), most other kid movies have to seriously drum up their bang-for-a-buck factor, in order to be appreciated by today's expectant movie-going audience. It's really too bad because I was thoroughly impressed by the superior computer-generated character of Stuart Little, whose cute face and impeccable body movements certified him as a truly original film personality. Unfortunately, the film lacked that slickness, that hipness, that humor, that action-packed craziness that takes a kid's movie and rises it above the rest. All in all, it was okay, a couple of funny moments, a couple of decent action scenes, a quick runtime, one too many emotional moments, but a fun time for most kids. See it just for the slick mouse effects and all of the cats talking shtick...that is, if you're into that kind of thing.
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: Michael J. Fox was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, but currently makes his home in New York City with his wife, actress Tracy Pollan, and their three children. Michael stands 5'4" and recently revealed that he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991. Actress Geena Davis has been married to two really tall showbiz guys: actor Jeff Goldblum and director Renny Harlin. She is also a member of the geniuses-'R-us organization of MENSA, speaks Swedish and placed 24th out of 28 semi-finalists for the American Olympic Archery Team in 1999. Her full name is Virginia Elizabeth Davis. No doubt you all remember the cute boy in this film, Jonathan Lipnicki, from the 1996 Tom Cruise film, JERRY MAGUIRE (8/10), which also happened to be his big screen debut. Ironically, his endearing portrayal of Ray Boyd earned the kid the "1996 Best Child Performance of the Year" award presented by the National Broadcast Film Critics Association. Many familiar guest voices make appearances as characters in this film including Nathan Lane, Chazz Palminteri, Steve Zahn, David Alan Grier, Bruno Kirby and Jennifer Tilly. Screenwriter M. Night Shyamalan is the man behind one of the biggest movie successes of 1999: THE SIXTH SENSE (8/10). He wrote and directed that film. By the time he was sixteen years old, he had already completed his 45th short film, and at the tender age of 17, he stood before his parents, both doctors, surrounded by pictures of the other 12 doctors in his family, and informed them that although he graduated cum laude and received academic scholarships to several prestigious medical programs, he had instead decided to attend the New York University Tisch School of the Arts to study filmmaking. The rest, as they say, is history.
By : Berge Garabedian
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| | Source: rec.art.movies.reviews newsgroup | | Rating: 4
| Once upon a time, good, old-fashioned kids' movies were released regularly to the theaters. But these days, Hollywood has increasingly given up on their theatrical releases in favor of the cheaper direct-to-video route. Columbia Pictures, bucking the trend with their good-spirited and unabashedly wholesome STUART LITTLE, offers something that the whole family can love.
Many of the kids' movies that are released theatrically feature nothing but walking product placements as in POKEMON: THE FIRST MOVIE. The live-action STUART LITTLE, starring a digitally created mouse, is so sweet that it should appeal to everyone but card-carrying members of the Bah Humbug set.
As the simple story opens, Mr. and Mrs. Little (Hugh Laurie and Geena Davis) are off to an orphanage to adopt a sibling for their small son George (Jonathan Lipnicki from JERRY MAGUIRE). They end up choosing, not a human child, but a mouse one, Stuart.
"We try to discourage people from adopting outside their own (pause) species," the prim and proper director of the orphanage, the ironically named Mrs. Keeper (Julia Sweeney), tells the Littles. "It rarely works out." The picture has several really cute lines like these, which unfortunately, are almost all shown in the trailers.
The beauty of the film's approach is that all of the characters try hard to ignore the fact that Stuart is (whisper this part) a mouse. Stuart is treated as much a part of the family as George, their human offspring. Thanks to the special effects artists, Stuart is far cuter than any real mouse imaginable. The film's many real cats, with their artificially moving mouths, are not nearly as successfully rendered, and they are 99% real.
Michael J. Fox voices Stuart with wonderfully sweet innocence and spunk. The rest of the voice casting is well chosen, especially Nathan Lane (Timon from THE LION KING) as Snowbell, the Little's sassy cat. Poor Snowbell gets ridiculed by his buddies, who say that Stuart is "a mouse with a pet cat."
Filmed by Guillermo Navarro in the brightly saturated colors of an old 1950's movie and filled with warmly nostalgic music, the film is a treat for the eyes and ears. The Littles live in an inviting old New York City brownstone, set right on Central Park and between two skyscrapers -- talk about expensive real estate.
The movie is loaded with handsome visuals of Stuart: cuddled up snug in his human-sized bed, being partially swallowed by Snowbell, living temporarily in a castle turret in an abandoned miniature golf course and being chased in a scary, nighttime Central Park.
The delightful movie is directed by Rob Minkoff (THE LION KING) and written by Gregory J. Brooker and M. Night Shyamalan (THE SIXTH SENSE). One might say the script was based on the classic E. B. White books, but that would be stretching the truth. As my son and I discussed in the car afterwards, the movie has the characters but little more. Don't take this as necessarily negative. My son said he thought the story was much better than the book. I would not go that far.
References to other movies are featured prominently in the storyline. As in ANNIE, some obviously fake, working-class parents show up to claim Stuart. And, as in LADY AND THE TRAMP, there are pampered indoor animals that interact with battle-hardened outdoor ones. The film's best sequence is a takeoff on the chariot race from BEN HUR with Stuart piloting a small sailboat in the big Central Park race as an evil, rich kid uses his remote control to have his boat destroy the competition by ramming them.
Sad, poignant and funny, the movie makes you care about the brave, little rodent with human clothes. Well, actually doll clothes.
STUART LITTLE runs a fast 1:25. It is rated PG for brief language (a single use of the word "damn" I think) and would be fine for all ages. The only possible reservation is that the dark chase scenes in the park might briefly scare those under 5.
By : Steve Rhodes
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