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. Roscuro sneaks into the royal banquet hall 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 and the guards pursue Roscuro. He attempts to flee the castle but sees Pietro's ship has already sailed away. He narrowly escapes being killed by falling down a sewer drain, which leads to the castle dungeons. There, he is found and taken in by Botticelli, the leader of the large rat population. Distraught over his wife's death, the King forbids all things related to soup and makes rats illegal. Without its soup, Dor becomes impoverished and dreary. Andre is banned from making 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 both her and the world out in his grief.

In a mouse village in an abandoned kitchen storage room, a baby named Despereaux is born to the Tilling family. As he grows up, it is clear he is not like other mice: he is not pathetic and timid, but brave and curious, unnerving other mice around him. In an effort to teach him to be a "proper mouse", his brother Furlough takes him to the royal library to show him how to chew books, but Despereaux is more interested in reading them. He becomes fascinated by books about daring knights and trapped princesses. One day, he encounters and converses with Pea. He promises to finish 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 over to the mouse council to avoid being blamed.

The council banishes Despereaux to the dungeons, where he meets and tells the princess story to the jailor, Gregory, but he stops listening 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. Wishing to make amends for all the trouble he's caused, Roscuro sneaks into Pea's room and tries to apologize, only to be lashed out at and pursued by guards. Hurt by this, Roscuro vows revenge. He enlists the help of Miggery "Mig" Sow, 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 to the dungeons, Roscuro double-crosses her and locks her in a cell.

Meanwhile, Despereaux discovers the princess is in danger and he tries to tell the King but he is too despondent to hear him. Despereaux tries to get help elsewhere; he tries to enlist his family, but they are afraid by his presence (thinking he is a ghost); he rings the town's bell to prove his survival. Andre, having had enough of the law, gets back to making 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 Boldo agrees and takes him back to the dungeons. En route, they are attacked by rats; Boldo sacrifices himself to allow Desperaux to reach the arena.

In the arena, Roscuro sees the apologetic sincerity in Pea's eyes and regrets his actions, but an enraged Botticelli signals the rats to eat Pea. Despereaux lets loose the cat to chase some of the rats away, and fights the others off as sunlight flows into the rat town. Despereaux is captured by Boticelli, but Roscuro saves him by reflecting the light at Boticelli, sending him falling into the arena. With the combined effort from Desperaux, Roscuro and Pea, Boticelli is trapped in a cage with the cat and devoured.

In the aftermath, Roscuro apologises to Pea once again and she apologises too; Mig is reunited with Gregory, her long-lost father, and they go back to their farm together; the King overcomes his grief and allows soup and rats back in the kingdom; the mice finally stop cowering (much to the mouse council's disdain); Roscuro returns to his life at sea with the light and 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.
• 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 Miggeri "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
• Christopher Lloyd as Hovis, the threadmaster in the mouse world
• Charles Shaughnessy as Pietro, the sailor who Roscuro accompanied to Dor
• Keith Szarabajka as King Philip
• Sam Fell as Ned, Mig's uncle and Smudge, a rat
• Patricia Cullen as Queen Rosemary
• 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) 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 the film.[3] Mike Johnson was hired to replace Chomet as director,[4] before the role eventually went to Sam Fell and Rob Stevenhagen.

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.[5]

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

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