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NZEW Awards
NZEW NominationsNZEW WinnersReviews
Anna and the KingThree KingsGirl InterruptedBowfingerTwo HandsThe InsiderElectionThe Debt CollectorMystery AlaskaAmerican BeautyThe Talented Mr RipleyCrazy in AlabamaThe HurricaneThe BeachThe End Of The AffairSleepy HollowHouse on haunted hillThe Cider House RulesThe Green MileScream 3Mission to MarsGalaxy QuestStuart LittleThe Iron Giant|
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| Stuart Little |
| Starring Geena Davis, Hugh Lawrie, Jonathan Lipnicki, and the voices of Michael J. Fox, Nathan Lane, Jennifer Tilly. |
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| A litmus test of whether a kids' movie succeeds is how long they talk about it afterwards. The Smurfs Movie never made it back to the car as I recall, Mouse Hunt we still laugh about. Stuart Little - an adaptation of E.B. White's book brought to the screen by the co-director of The Lion King - had the five-to-12-year-olds chatting all the way home. And now, a month after that preview, we're ready to go again. Yes, it's that endearing - and has enough jokes going above the heads of metre-tall people to keep adults interested. It's a simple story: the Little family of New York City (Davis, Lawrie and son Lipnicki) decide to adopt a child but mum and dad come home with the cute mouse that is Stuart (voiced by Fox). For kids, this is the ideal premise full of their own fears and concerns: the feeling of being an outsider in a family, the child's-eye view of the often terrifying adult world, and the sense of being overwhelmed by forces greater than themselves. Stuart's funny, if life-threatening, adventures include sailing in Central Park and almost being eaten by the family cat Snowbell (voiced by Lane), a tough-minded, territorial feline who doesn't take kindly to the new family favourite and gets all the best lines. Stuart also roars around Central Park in a magnificent model roadster and is taken off by tough imposter parents (Tilly voicing the ditsy mum, Bruno Kirby as the unscrupulous Bronx-hardened father). It's all either fast-paced or sentimental fun with a happy ending. There is a sufficiently seamless blend between real action and digital model animation (Stuart is highly realistic and as cute as a button) to allow kids of all ages to suspend disbelief. Stuart Little is perhaps overlong at 90 minutes and sometimes too talky for the really little ones (pre-schoolers were squirming on parents' laps) but for that large demographic just below the Age of Pre-Teen Cynicism - and those who take them - this is a charmer. You'll talk about it all the way home - and then some. |
 n.e.w@journalist.com |
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