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When I first saw the trailers for Stuart Little, I thought
the whole idea of the movie sounded far too sugary sweet and
that it would never work. Having now seen the movie, I see that
I was partly right. Despite the fact that it is mostly a load
of sickly nonsense, it is charming enough and it has some spectacular
special effects.
The movie is based on the children's stories written by E.B.
White (more famous to some people as the author of the classis
Charlotte's Web). Mr and Mrs Little (the unlikely couple of
Hugh Laurie and Geena Davis) decide, for unknown reasons, to
go to the orphanage to adopt a brother for their son George
(Jonathan Lipnicki). They come home with a little brother for
George - actually a very little brother in the form of a talking
mouse called Stuart (voiced by Michael J. Fox). Understandably
this is seen as a little strange by George and the rest of the
family, but not that strange because eventually the mild mannered
mouse wins everyone over, despite some inevitable troubles with
the neighbourhood feline population.
No matter how much you try to convince yourself that this is
a kid's film, the plot does still not stand up to much scrutiny.
It is never really clear whether or not it is supposed to be
unusual to meet a talking mouse. Mr and Mrs Little have no qualms
about adopting him, and the police don't seem too fussed by
the idea of looking for a missing mouse, while there is also
the fact that the orphanage has official procedures for sending
their mice out for adoption. Yet both George and the pet cat
Snowbell (voice by Nathan Lane) find the idea to be completely
ridiculous. Then there's the question of why can people understand
Stuart when he talks, but no humans can understand the cat?
And I won't even begin to ask how Stuart manages to open the
doors in the Little house.
The human actors are for the most part fairly two dimensional
and highly saccharine. The real stars of this film are the computer
generated cats and mice. Not only are the effects very impressive
but Stuart and Snowbell seem to be the most interesting characters
and are given the most scope and the best lines. Michael J.
Fox oozes charm as the lovable Stuart while Nathan Lane is suitably
sneaky as the cat who has his world turned upside down by the
new arrival in the family.
But after all this film is for the kids, and on that note,
it is pretty much on the money. The little ones will love this
film, but while there isn't too much substance for the adults
there is enough there to keep them sufficiently amused.
A pretty good family movie.
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