Stuart Little

Stuart Little: The Little family set out to adopt a child, and choose a amiable talking mouse instead, much to the chagrin of their son and the family cat.

There are two words that describe this movie - words I swore I would never use in a review- : cute and sweet. Based on the children's story by EB White, the story is funny, cheerful, engaging and translates well to the screen.

The filmmakers obviously realized that making Stuart look real was essential to the movie's success and spared little expense (approximately half the film's $60 million budget went to Stuart). The results are phenomenal - you can see each individual hair on his face, his movement is amazingly fluid and when he talks, you forget he's animated . The same techniques are also utilized to make the film's felines talk. The voices - Michael J. Fox as Stuart and Nathan Lane as Snowbell - were ideal choices and help to enhance the experience.

Everyone left the premiere sporting a big silly grin and I think you will too. One note - you'll never look at pest control quite the same again.

The Little family are looking to adopt a boy to give their son George a brother. When they go to the orphanage they meet an adorable mouse called Stuart and decide to adopt him. Despite early resistance from George, Stuart makes himself part of the family, much to the chagrin of the house cat Snowball. To get rid of Stuart, Snowball reaches out to some local alley cats to set up a whack on Stuart.

If my plot synopsis has talked up the mafia connotations of the cats, it is because that is the part of the film that I find the funniest part of the film because it is lacking in the syrup that kind of takes away from the rest of the film. The main story is quite sweet but also has a good sense of humour that will appeal to adults as much as children. It's not perfect for, like I said it does get a bit overly sentimental at times although it just about manages to stay sweetly sentimental and not fall into being sickly sentimental.

The animation is superb and only occasionally does Stuart look out of place in the frame. For the most part it all flows well together and was deserving of the Oscar nomination. Just as deserving is the animal training - anyone with cats will know how hard it is to get the little b*stards to do anything you want, so to have them do so much work is very impressive (although I understand it is all about food).

The cast are all pretty good. Davis and Laurie play it straight and are lumbered with carrying the emotional side of the film and don't have much comedy (a shame considering Laurie's talents). Michael J. Fox does the best work - he makes his Stuart very sweet and likeable; a true prince amongst mice! Lipnicki does OK but is basically just the `cute kid' that is legally required in all American family movies. The funny stuff comes from Lane, Zahn, Kirby, Tilly and, best of all, Palminteri, who's mafia cat is hilarious and sends up his own characters by doing so.

Overall this is an enjoyable family film. It may not be hilarious for adults in the way Toy Story and it's like are but it is not dull. It has characters for adults and plenty for children and it's all a bit of fun with a slightly overly sweet centre to it.

I did not expect this movie to be this good. The commercials and previews that I saw did not do this movie justice! I took my 4 year old niece to see it, and I think I enjoyed it as much as she did.(and when we left for the theatre I had no interest in seeing it!) She was rooting for Stuart throughout the movie!

Note - This is a condensed version of my review

Pros:

To start I felt the voice and on screen actors gave great performances. Michael J. Fox as the voice of Stuart little was a great choice as he brings in my opinion allot of charm and emotion to the role, now it may seem strange to cast him as the voice of a ten year old mouse even though at the time Michael was in his late thirties. It's really hard to comment on though because I thought the voice and the character design fitted perfectly. The rest of the voice cast are great too, Nathan lane as the voice of Snowbell is again another great casting choice, and he brings so much charm to the role as this reluctant and over melodramatic feline, not to mention Steve Zhan as Monty the alley cat who brings allot of wisecracking humour to the role.

The on Screen performances are also very really great; Keep in mind that Huge Laurie, Geena Davis and Jonathan Lipnicki all had to work with thin air, literally. As Stuart was this CGI character, he'd later be brought onto the big screen through post production as all the on screen actors had to work with was maybe a replica doll of Stuart and then would have to do the actual take with just them imagining he was there on the set so it's pretty impressive considering that's what they had to work with throughout the majority of the film.

I also have to mention that the score by Alan Silvestri is incredible. I felt the score truly brought Stuart little to life and made all of these small sized adventures seem more grand and captivating than originally thought. Now some may say that the score can get some what overly whimsical at times however I thought the score was perfect for this film and really stands out during the Central Park Boat Race. Alan Silvestri has performed scores for many films including allot of Robert Zemeckis productions including the Back to the Future Trilogy, Forest Gump, Cast Away and even the first two Predator films not to mention a couple Marvel films including captain America: The First Avenger and the Avengers.

I should also mention the direction of Rob Minkoff is great too; some of the action scenes in the film including the Central Park Boat Race and a car chase that happens later on in the film are very well shot and extenuate how daring these events must be for a mouse like Stuart.

As I said at the beginning of this review Stuart little was nominated for an Oscar for best visual effects, how this wasn't for best original score, I don't know but considering the other two films nominated for best visual effects were the Matrix and Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace, I think the film got overshadowed by those two films but I do think the CGI for Stuart has held up incredibly well and considering the Film came out over 16 years ago, the Oscar nomination is well deserved and plus id rather take Stuart Little any day over, Jar ,Jar Binks.

Cons:

Some of the dialogue is also a bit odd, like there's this scene when Mr little and George are preparing their boat for the Central Park Boat Race. George is unsure about the boat race and Mr Little asks if George is okay and George says he wants to go home. Mr little asks 'why' and George says 'I forgot to bring my lucky underwear, Mr little replies'you don't have lucky underwear' but George replies with 'well maybe we should get some and then come back for another race'. What? I don't know whether that was meant to be funny but to me at least it's a very strange piece of dialogue but then again this movie was written by M. Night Shyamalan so I shouldn't really be surprised one bit.

I'm also not sure how close the movie follows the original novel and keep in mind that I haven't read the novel and I have heard that the worthy follow up Stuart Little 2 follows more closely to the original novel than the first film. I heard in the original novel that Stuart got caught in a window-blind while exercising, and then Snowbell places Stuart's hat and cane outside a rat hole, panicking the family. I believe they may have replaced this scene with the one from first film in which Stuart is accidentally thrown into the washing machine although the Central Park Boat Race is in the original novel.

I think the biggest complaint that this film gets quiet often is how unbelievable it is because well, how can a mouse walk around New York without being stepped on by the foot of a human. How can you adopt a mouse as your son and take him home on the same day, how come cars and boats are operational with inner working parts without the use of an RC steering wheel, and Batteries. You really do have to go into this film with as much suspension of disbelief as possible; otherwise you'll probably hate this Movie for how unbelievable it is.

Final Verdict:

Overall I think Stuart little is a good movie for all the family. Although the film takes some liberates with adapting the film from the novel and the dialogue is a bit odd, the excellent voice and on screen performances, Incredible score by Alan Silvestri and amazing special affects make this film stand out over other family films, the film has also in my opinion has held up surprisingly well after the film was released 16 years ago, in my opinion Stuart Little gets an Seven out of ten

This movie is really sweet, and I enjoyed it enormously. Sometimes it is a bit overly sentimental, and the human characters aren't as charming as the animal characters. Jonathan Lipnicki was sweet as George, but doesn't quite have the charm he brought to the The Little Vampire. Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie do amiably as the parents, but both seem subdued. Luckily, the human characters don't interfere too much with the animals, and still bring a certain charm to the screen. Stuart is wonderfully voiced by Michael J.Fox, and he joined by a hilarious Nathan Lane as Snowbell and a villainous Chazz Palminteri as Smoky. The script is intelligent and sweet, and there are plenty of charming scenes with Stuart and George. All in all, really sweet, fun and memorable. 8/10 Bethany Cox.