Fans of Kate DiCamillo’s Newberry Medal-winning children’s book The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread can finally get their first look at Universal’s upcoming CG-animated, big-screen adaptation. A trailer and teaser site have emerged for the film, which will feature the voices of Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Watson, Tracey Ullman, William H. Macy, Robbie Coltrane, Kevin Kline, Christopher Lloyd, Stanley Tucci, Sigourney Weaver, Frank Langella and Ciaran Hinds. Animation was handled by Framestore CFC, which makes its animated feature debut.
A modern fairy tale, The Tale of Despereaux tells the story of four unlikely heroes: Despereaux (Broderick), a brave mouse banished to the dungeon for speaking with a human; Roscuro (Hoffman), a good-hearted rat who loves light and soup, but is exiled to darkness; Pea (Watson), a Princess in a gloomy castle who is prisoner to her father’s grief; and Mig (Ullman), a servant girl who longs to be a Princess, but is forced to serve the jailer. Refusing to live his life cowering, Despereaux befriends Pea and learns to read (rather than eat) books, reveling in stories of knights, dragons and fair maidens. He soon finds himself at the center of his own harrowing adventure when the Princess is kidnapped and he is the only one who can rescue her.
Directed by Sam Fell (Flushed Away) and accomplished animator Rob Stevenhagen, the movie is slated to arrive in theaters on Dec. 19. To view the trailer in Flash and HD formats, go to http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809420569/video/8528812. For additional information on the production, visit the teaser site at www.thetaleofdepereauxmovie.com
