This
new family film incorporates aspects of such talking animal films as Babe, and
Dr. Doolittle (1998). Actually, I liked Stuart Little more than those pictures.
It's certainly funnier than Dr. Doolittle and more charming than the Babe pictures.
Although this film gets quite hokey at times, it manages a brisk pace, seamless
effects, and great family fun.
The
Littles' desperately want to adopt a brother for their young son (played by wide-eyed
Jonathan Lipnicki). They find him in the form of a cute talking mouse (voiced
beautifully by Michael J. Fox). Trouble arises when The Littles' house cat tries
to rid the home of it's new addition.
Stuart
Little offers nothing new in the way of story telling. It's pretty straight forward,
but that's part of its charm. It also helps that the final act of this film is
very impressive in terms of its technical aspects.
The
film makers have also gone out of their way to not cheat the audience. The computer
generated mouse is obviously the star of the show and he's in nearly every frame
of this picture.
Human
actors Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie and Lipnicki hold up nicely against the barrage
of special effects this film has to offer. Jennifer Tilly, Bruno Kirby, Chazz
Palminteri, and Nathan Lane fair well as the voices of several animals in this
tale based on the books by E.B. White.
Stuart
Little isn't the best family film in the past few months, but it's certainly better
than most.
