Stuart Little 3 - Un topolino nella foresta

Stuart Little 3 features a richly layered performance from Tara Strong, but that may be this dour threequel's sole distinctive feature.

Stuart Little is back in an all awful sequel and this time he's a boy scout. It's funny how nature is seen in this movie as a playground meant to be tame and fun for city people with no idea of how to distinguish a pine tree from a mushroom. The cougar portrays of course the forces of evil who must be tracked down and vanquished by a goody-goody lab rat and a cat who acts more like an overgrown guinea-pig than a cat. The parents are as usual a goofy, happy pair with the father who sees vicious, vampire skunks and rabid chipmunks behind every single slimy toadstool and the mother who smiles and cleans up the mess without complaining.

Stuart Little and his family are out vacationing at a lake in a rented cabin. Unlike the combination of live action and animation of the first two movies, the whole thing is entirely animated.

Basically the story is about Stuart and friends finding and having an adventure with the local animals, with the villain this time known as The Beast. What to do about him, since he wants to eat the animal cast? In the end Stuart finds the way to get rid of his threat.

This story is still good for the kids. Nothing special but good enough not to bore or dismay them, and there is no potty humor to worry about. Certainly better than, say, Barney the Dinosaur.

I must admit that this film was very well animated compared to other animated films of the same time frame. It looks more realistic, which compared to the first two films is excellent. And the voice-over work in this film is by far excellent. Most of the cast from the first two returned, with the exception of Jonathan Lipnicki. But Wayne Brady's voice appears in the film as Reeko the skunk. Thats a plus.

Some of the scenes though, very much reminded me of scenes from earlier Disney films. For instance, the lioness on the rock is reminiscent of Pride Rock from "The Lion King." And the name of the skunk is Reeko, very similar to Meeko from "Pocahontas." Even the forest animals are very similar to those in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Bambi." The animation. although well done, seems to be a rip off of Disney films.

After careful consideration, I gave this film a 6.

After the first two films, with their lavish sets, excellent acting, and state-of-the-art CGI, this comes as a massive disappointment. It's an ultra-low budget animation, so poorly drawn that it looks like a rough draft rather than a finished animation. The cast who played the Little family in the previous films return to voice their characters here, but the dubbing is so haphazard that you'll swear that different actors were used. The plot is paper-thin, the jokes are mostly lame, and even the very young are likely to get bored well before the end. A great shame, as the first Stuart Little in particular was a great hit with my daughter, and one of the best children's films of recent years. Stuart Little 3 is, however, best avoided.