1999 / 84 Minutes / PG
Reviewed by Dale Nauertz

I am glad that I don’t have kids. I can imagine how hard it would be to find a movie that would entertain the kids and keep myself from going insane at the same time. Hollywood doesn’t seem to worry itself overly about it. Every so often, they throw parents a bone, but most of the time a parent has to make do with pap like “Pokemon: The First Movie” or even “Barney’s Great Adventure”. Ugh! It sends chills up one’s spine just to think about it.

So Thank God for stuff like “Stuart Little”. I have no kids. I don’t have to worry about things like that yet. (You have to have dates before you can have kids, but enough about that for the moment). But sometimes, you wish you had a little person to share a movie with because it is so magical. “Stuart Little” is a movie like that.

“Stuart Little” starts with a family that has so much love to give that they are going to adopt another child. Besides, they need a playmate for the child they already have: a little tyke named George (Jonathan Lipnicki, who was such a delight in “Jerry Maguire”). They go to the orphanage and are quickly won over by Stuart, a sweet and rambunctious little mouse. Stuart, like the Littles (played winningly by Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie) has loads of love to give and he wins the hearts of Mr. and Mrs. Little at once. George, however, is a little harder to win over. George had his heart set on a little brother and while Stuart is most definitely little, he is not the sort of brother George had in mind.

Another member of the Little household who does not warm immediately to Stuart is Snowbell (voiced by Nathan Lane) the family housecat. Soon, Snowbell is devising a plot to get rid of Stuart. After all, he’s embarrassed that a mouse ranks higher than him, and all the other cats are making fun of him.

This movie works because Stuart is, indeed, a sweet character. He’s wonderful. And the special effects which bring him to life are spectacular. You find yourself believing that this mouse exists. It’s pretty amazing. And voiced by Michael J. Fox, he is a delightful little character. So are the other characters that are aided by the animation of the film: the cats. I love the cats. They plot, they scheme, they try to eat Stuart and they are hilarious.

There is a lot of humor that appeals to adults as well as children. For example, how can you not laugh when Snowbell’s friend suggests that they enlist the aid of the local alley cats and Snowbell says: “Alley cats? They fight, they prowl, they’re hopped up on catnip!” This is many steps above the average, fart and crotch injury humor of most kids films (and even of “Episode One”. Yuck!)

It’s not a perfect movie. I did not believe that it would be hard for a walking, talking mouse to win the heart of a little boy, for example. What kid wouldn’t love to have a talking mouse for a brother? Anyone can have a regular little brother, after all. And the movie does seem to move a little too quickly at first. After while, it becomes comfortable with itself and hits its own stride. It has so many charms, it does not need to rush itself. “Stuart Little” wraps itself up within 85 minutes, but you might find yourself enjoying yourself so much that you want more.

So it’s your choice. This, or the “Pokemon” movie. You make the call.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 17th, 1999 at 3:39 pm and is filed under Dale's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.