Film

Despereaux (Broderick) is a mouse with Dumbo-size ears who, like Mumble in Happy Feet and the buzzing protagonist of Bee Movie, doesn’t fit in with his kinfolk. Instead of being frightened by humans, he’s all up in their business. A sucker for a princess (Watson) in distress, Despereaux sets out to rescue her when the king lets their sovereignty fall into gloomy disrepair.

The miniature realm of The Tale of Despereaux is crammed full of detail. Villainous rats inhabit a sleazy city port that’s ripe for animated trips down pits and up never-ending staircases; the action takes place on the vertical as much as it does the horizontal. The characters are imaginatively rendered, too: The mice are reassuringly cute, and in a CGI homage to a ye olde Englishe mythological figure, the Green Man makes an appearance in the royal household as a magically summoned harvest of cherry eyes, apple cheeks and pea pod mouth. The humans, though, are a case study in stereotyping; it’s hard to care what happens to Princess Pea when she’s just a whiny British toff, waiting for a prince with a phallic-looking noggin to save her.