Stuart Little 2

While less isn't always more, the makers of "Stuart Little 2" resisted the temptation to pad it out from its shorthand running time, meaning it goes by quickly and painlessly. Not that the actual plot of this followup to the original charmer is hard to take in itself (Stuart is starting to feel a bit left out, and when Margalo the wren literally drops into his life he gets a new dimension).

In terms of technical levels it's only slightly easier to fault (Margalo looks a bit too cartoonish to be real, unlike Stuart Little himself and the falcon that's the movie's villain - but then again, Melanie Griffith [the voice of Margalo] always seems like a cartoon anyway), but the story by screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin and the movie's producer Douglas Wick is what makes this ultimately inferior to its predecessor; what helped drive "Stuart Little" was our hero's wish to be accepted by his human brother and by the cat - sneer all you want, but the family message was hard to ignore. For the sequel it's more standard - the friend who's acting out of ulterior motives at first but then turns out to be a real friend, etc. Stuart isn't so much the protagonist this time, and it hurts a little.

So the freshness is reduced, but this still isn't stale - the charm and humour of the first movie remains, Michael J. Fox and Nathan Lane are as adept as ever as Stuart and Snowbell ("This better be important." "Margalo is missing." "I'd better be more specific - I meant important to ME."), and the human Littles remain just right - loving but not without making you want to slit your own throats. HBO Family has recently aired an animated version with all the principals except Hugh Laurie absent - it'll have to go a long way to live up to the two movies. (In-joke for score fans: Alan Silvestri slips in a quote from his "Back to the Future" theme in the climax.)

But I can see why this didn't do as well at the box-office as it should have - having a soccer match plus including Gilbert O'Sullivan AND Celine Dion on the soundtrack was asking for trouble...

Dear Sirs,

I have a 3 years old son who's watching all the time "Stuart Little 2". He really loves to wealth it. At the beginning of the movie,there's a scene in which George wakes up by a clock in a shape of a train. We live nearly a railway station and he also loves trains. I would like to know if there's a way of buying such a clock in order to offer him.

I hope you continues to give people all that Stuart Little that Stuart Little Magic.

Best regards

Sílvia Martins

Sure, this is a kid's movie, but it's sufficiently engaging to hold mom and dad's attention, even through repeated viewings. Little touches like having tiny Stuart wear a NY (football) Giants t-shirt and clever, and the highly stylized look of the film is just fun. The costume designer should get an award for making the costumes look sort of contemporary and "Miracle on 34th Street" at the same time. And while the plot is predictable and telegraphs its punches, it's also gentle and doesn't drag out the scary stuff too long, which makes this a good movie for kids. A lot better than a lot of the kids movies you will run across at Blockbuster.

'Stuart Little 2' is a nice and sweet sequel with the same charms as the first movie. The mouse Stuart (voice by Michael J. Fox) has an adventure in the big city together with the house cat Snowbell (voice by Nathan Lane) because the bird he loves (voice by Melanie Griffiths) is taken by Falcon (James Woods). Of course the family Little (with Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie and son George played by Jonathan Lipnicki) is looking for Stuart.

A movie like this is allowed to be predictable. You know it will end happy and that is the way it should end. A movie like this needs some charming, sweet and funny moments and 'Stuart Little 2' has those moments. Every moment between Margalo the bird and Stuart is sweet and charming and especially the moments with the real characters are sometimes very funny. Another nice thing is the creation of the mouse and bird itself. Since Stuart or Margalo is in almost every scene in the movie there is always something nice to look at. This is a perfect movie for the whole family.

I liked this better than the original, and that''s a high compliment because I thought highly of the original film: Stuart Little. As good as that was, I just thought this was even better.

All the voice-overs are excellent with Nathan Lane having the best lines as "Snowball," the cat. He was simply hilarious, line after line.

The film once again features great colors, a virtual rainbow of them, especially with some of the inventive rooms in the Little house. The parents, once again, are super nice. It's a treat to watch Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie play an old- fashioned "Leave It To Beaver"-type couple. The film has no objectionable material and leaves you with a nice feeling. There are animated films or animated/real life combinations like this, that advertise "family-friendly viewing" but don't really deliver, instead sneaking in sexual innuendos and the like.

Not here. This one is pure, morals-wise, except for one scene near the end when the mom (Geena Davis) tells Stuart and their son she's still proud of them even though they just got caught in a big lie. (Inferring that the lie was okay since everything turned out okay.) Other than that, nothing but good messages were heard and seen all around and this is a funny movie, to boot. Highly recommended for the family, and that's no cliché.