Warning: Movie Despereaux

[kcromley]

I'm posting this so other families can avoid the mistake we made. We had thought, based on the previews and "G" rating, that the Tale of Despereaux movie would be a cute, light animated family film. We were terribly wrong, We saw it today, and were horrified. I am so upset that I had taken my children; they will have nightmares for a while. It is a downbeat, dark and sinister story mostly composed of vile rats and resembles an animated version of an old horror movie, "Willard". I can't believe this movie retained a "G" rating; it should have been PG-13 for some of the scenes of rats about to attack human faces. Anyway, just thought I would advise some of the families out there; I dearly wish someone had warned me.

 

[funforfive]

Thanks for this.... we were planning on a movie tomorrow. Guess we'll try something else.

 

[LittleMissMagic]

Ah, yes. I read this book in 7th grade. It's not a great children's story.... I believe it was intended for the "junior" crowd. I do love it, though. Great message.... but a little violent and creepy. I'm sorry your children are having nightmares.

 

[MickeyMomTo2]

I agree about the movie! I wasn't too surprised because we had read the book, but I felt the movie left out the comic relief that is in the book and escalated the dungeon scenes to be more scary than in the book. I left thinking, "Wow. There are going to be a lot of people who come to see a cute movie at Christmas who are going to be really disappointed." For older children (7+), I heartily recommend the book!

 

[Anna77]

I saw it last night. Of course I'm 31 with no children. Yes, maybe it wasen't up beat but life isn't sometime all in all I give this movie two thumbs up.

Anna

 

[Mickeypooh99]

We took boys ages 6,7,8, and 9 to see the movie. They all loved it and were not scared at all. I thought it was very boring. It really could have used a little humor. I also thought there was too many story lines going on for them to really understand it. I have seen other kids movies that I felt were much worse (scarier) than this one. That was just our experience. I don't know if kids younger than that would enjoy it.

 

[ColoradoLime]

Thanks for this - I am often surprised by the ratings some "children's" movies receive. We're still boycotting Open Season for a vulgar slang term turn child friendly in the previews.

On the same topic of movie warnings, I took DD6 to see Marley & Me last night. It was an absolutely adorable story, but the end proved to be too emotional for her and she just sobbed all the way home.

 

[design_mom]

On the same topic of movie warnings, I took DD6 to see Marley & Me last night. It was an absolutely adorable story, but the end proved to be too emotional for her and she just sobbed all the way home.

I read the book and, although I loved it, I sobbed like a baby at the end, too. It was a little too close to home (we used to have a very Marley-eque dog.) I suspected that it wouldn't be quite as light-hearted throughout as the previews suggested.

 

[carj]

We went to see Despereaux on Sunday, Marley and Me yesterday and Bedtime Stories today. (I know, we are boring people with movie gift cards!)

Here are our reviews:
Despereaux- Nobody liked it. It scared our 5 year old and she asked to leave. The 7 year old didn't like it but wasn't too scared. My husband and I thought it was slow and dark. We were happy it ended.
Marley and Me- Made all of us laugh and cry. I probably wouldn't have taken the kids to see it if I had read any of the reviews.
Bedtime Stories-All 4 of us loved it! We were so thrilled to see a movie that was entertaining, not scary. After it was over my 5 year old was bouncing out of the theater and she said "It was such a good movie and nobody died!"

I am usually really good about reading movie reviews before we take the kids if they look questionable. The thing is, the rating of Despereaux, plus the fact that it was an animated movie about a mouse gave me a false sense of security that it was actually appropriate for young children. I kind of wondered about Marley and Me, but the kids had begged to see it and I just never got around to reading the review. I DID read the review for Bedtime Stories, and of course that was the one that was great!

Oh well, hopefully nobody will be scarred for life!

 

[iheartdisney]

I agree!
We took my DD6 for her birthday, and she hid her face in the chair almost the entire movie. I can't believe it got a G rating! (her brother, 5, loved it)
The previews are all about the cute little mouse and the princess...nothing about the rats. This reminded me of the Secrets of Nimh...way too dark and scary for kids.
It needed at least a PG or even PG-13 rating.

 

[mom2princessj]

Wow...we had planned to go on christmas day and time just got away from us. I'm so glad we didn't...I have two preschoolers...doesn't sound like the movie is age appropriate from them.

 

[StephMK]

Wow, thanks for sharing but sorry it was such a bad experience. The commercials do look really cute, I was thinking Ratatoille (sp?) like cute mice/rats.

 

[PrincessMama605]

Thanks for the warning! My dd (3) has being asking to see this, and the previews look cute so I was planning to take her. She doesn't scare easily, but I think I will wait until it comes out on dvd and watch it myself first. Looks like we will go see Bolt instead.

 

[eyeheartgoofy]

Thanks for the warning!

 

[ColoradoLime]

Looks like we will go see Bolt instead.

We saw Bolt over Thanksgiving - Totally cute kid's movie and way funnier than the preview let on. In some parts I think DH & I laughed louder than our DD. Your whole family will love it.

 

[buckler]

In the future you might want to check out the movie rating site Kids in Mind. http://www.kids-in-mind.com/

They give you a run down on things in a movie that fall into 3 categories sex/nudity, violence/gore and profanity. For example here is the link to the review for Despereaux.
http://www.kids-in-mind.com/t/taleofdespereaux.htm

The info in the ratings can be a bit spoilerish because it is so detailed. But it is helpful for judging if a movie is appropriate for your children.

 

[SmallWorld71]

My 7th grader read Desperaux recently for his English class, so I was aware that it is not a story for little ones, but a lot of people aren't.
This seems to be a growing trend in the movie industry. Take a book that at school would never be recommended for anyone younger than 4th grade, turn it into a movie and then market it so that it attracts people with children of all ages who aren't aware of what they are actually going to see and the ratings, as mentioned, aren't particularly helpful. Prince Caspian, Bridge to Terabithia, Spiderwick Chronicles, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and The Tale of Desperaux all come to mind as movies that parents were upset about. It's definitely necessary these days to check the reviews first.
Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Girly_Qs]

Thanks for the heads up!

I *knew* the book was too dark for my about-to-turn-6yo, but based on the marketing thus far, I'd wondered if they'd changed up the movie. They really seem to be aiming it at a market that, IMO, is just too young for it.

 

[Booknut]

In the future you might want to check out the movie rating site Kids in Mind. http://www.kids-in-mind.com/

That's a great link, thanks

 

[PollyannaMom]

My 8-year-old actually did fine with Desperaux (he and DH had been planning to see it since they saw the previews) but I do know what you mean - I kept thinking I would love to show it to a 7th grade English class, and already had 3 papers in mind to assign them!