Day 111 - 4/21/09 - Movie #110
BEFORE: Gonna stick with animated films for a while, and clear some films about animated mice off this list this week.
THE PLOT: The Little family adopts a charming young mouse named Stuart, but the family cat wants rid of him.
AFTER: Did you know that the screenplay for this film was written by M. Night Shyamalan? It's a little like Stephen King writing greeting cards... I know this was based on a classic children's story, but I have so many story-related questions - even if I buy into the premise of the film. If parents come home from the adoption agency with a mouse instead of a baby brother, isn't that the point when a kid should call some kind of social services? And if the adoption agency was so concerned about a mouse fitting into the household, how come they didn't ask the important question - "Do you have a cat?" And how come the humans in the film can converse with mice, but not with their pet cat? Yet the cats can talk to the mouse - it's all very confusing. I'm sorry, I just can't sweep all these plot-holes under the rug and enjoy the film.
Yes, the voices were well cast - Michael J. Fox as Stuart and Nathan Lane as Snowbell. Chazz Palminteri and Steve Zahn (who also did a voice in "Chicken Little") are well-cast as the voices of the alley cats. But the main draw for me was the number of "Hey, it's THAT guy" moments, with cameos by a whole mess of character actors + actresses - Jeffrey Jones, Brian Doyle-Murray, Harold Gould, Allyce Beasley, Kimmy Robertson, Estelle Getty, Julia Sweeney, Dabney Coleman, and the incomparable Taylor Negron. They were more interesting to me than watching Hugh Laurie and Geena Davis phoning it in.
RATING: 5 out of 10 crazy uncles.
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I loved this book as a child, though I cannot recall the plot at all. I went into it that way watching the movie. Half decent kids fare, but not enough entertainment for adults.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if the commuication problems were plot holes as much as choices. It's like that show Family Guy where the dog can talk to humans as well as date them, but no one seems to understand the baby, who talks well above his age level. The writers haven't attempeted to justify it, and it can irk you, but that's the way it is.
Anyhow, I thought maybe the mouse could understand animals as well as speak English, so he would be bilingual.