We took all of Max’s pacifiers away this week. The inhumanity of this week I will share with you all later, but in the meantime I’m desperate to keep him occupied. As long as his mind is engaged he doesn’t seem to notice that he’s missing his little blue friend. As a result, we took the whole family to see “The Tale of Despereaux”. I was very eager to see this movie since it is based on a book and that appeals to my desires as a bibliophile.

The movie was unimpressive. It was beautiful to look at – stunning. The artistry of the animation was rich and luscious and at times I wanted to just curl up next to the screen and snuggle. The screenplay, however, was disjointed. It felt like there were too many characters and at times the story felt crowded. The voice work was uninspiring since I could never reconcile the voice of Dustin Hoffman with the visual of the rat. The two things never seemed to fit together. Despereaux himself was charming and I wish more of the story had focused on him. I did like the moral and over-arching message of the movie which was to live by a moral code, be honorable, be brave, do for others. A much better message than say that of “Shrek” which is that farts are funny.

Your kids will love this — even kids a bit older (like 8 or 9). There is a fair bit of swashbuckling and a wonderful villain rat. I would stick to matinee prices since I would have been quite upset if I had paid full price.