Despereaux? Delightful!

Yes, I said delightful.
That's not a word I use often, probably because not many things in life really are. It's not the same as fun or funny or cool or neat. It's a word that means something lifted your soul, something left you smiling for no apparent reason, something just filled you with that rare, but wonderful emotion of delight.

The Tale of Despereaux was just a treat. The animation had some floaty spots, but no more than your typical CG film. More than a few scenes were inspiringly well animated. One scene in particular, where the blind mouse pictured above searches for a thread- it was just amazing. It was a quick scene but it just grabbed me as sublime. As a professional I could see where they cut a technical corner or two to meet the budget, but trust me- it wasn't any egregious sin on their part. The important things during the important moments were perfect. The unimportant things for shoe-leather shots were dealt with in proper proportion. The production design was rich and detailed, but it fit perfectly. The color palette was subdued (a refreshing departure from the high saturation approach of US animated films). The desaturated approach somehow let the characters stage better against their world. Some scenes were just flat out beautiful.

The voices, while celebrity, weren't over the top like Jim Carrey, nor were they flat and bland like Brad Pitt. Each had a subtle texture and were very well acted- they fit their characters. This voice casting was really very good. Like Craig T. Nelson as Mr. Incredible or Jack Black as Po the Panda or Jeff Bridges as The Big Z good. The story was simple, but charming. There were characters that would have been written out of a US film during development, but that were left in this one. A few characters in particular had no significant narrative purpose, but that didn't matter. These "loose ends" just added to the tapestry of the story. The film is better for it. Mystery was embraced as a positive, not seen as a negative that needed to be explained away. Many things were left to the mists of imagination, or dismissed as irrelevant. US animated films tend to be a bit too... "on the nose". Everything needs a reason, everything needs to be filled in, everything needs to be explained. TTOD doesn't concern itself with such requirements nearly as much. That's a great part of its charm. Gags? There really weren't any gags. But there didn't need to be. Even Wall-E, at times a serious little film, had a lot of gags. TTOD, they let the charm and the characters bring the smiles. The motivations seemed sincere. I found myself smiling not because I was amused by a joke, but because I was enjoying what was going on. That's the difference between fun and delightful. Don't get me wrong. I like me some fun animation- lots of it, actually. But when something like The Tale of Despereaux comes along, well.. I'm just that much happier with life.
Go see it.