14th December 2008

Tale of Despereaux Is A Delightful Treat

Vancouver The Tale of Despereaux starred in an special advance premiere yesterday afternoon at the VanCity Theatre. Hosted by our ACM SIGGRAPH Vancouver chapter with support from Universal Studios, Framestore and the Vancouver International Film Centre, the premiere was also a fundraiser for the Metro Vancouver Food Banks – and only the second public showing of Despereaux in the world.

The Tale of Despereaux is the story of a seafaring rat and a non-conformist young mouse. While Roscuro the rat (Dustin Hoffman) learns lessons about cause, effect, actions and consequences, our young hero, Despereaux (Matthew Broderick) lives his life in a Quixotic way, basing his actions on chivalry, courage, and honour is a constant source of concern among the other mice. He doesn’t even let his banishment into the dark dungeons below Mouseworld divert him from quest to save the Princess Pea (Emma Watson), who is living in a prison of her own. This tiny mouse with the heart of a knight sets out to right wrongs and save the Kingdom of Dor from an eternity of gloom, reuniting family and changing lives forever.

Based on a book by Kate DiCamillo with the screenplay by Gary Ross, directors Sam Fell and Rob Stevenhagen have brought to the big screen an animated tale which is destined to become a classic. The work of the artists – visual and audio – to produce The Tale of Despereaux is nothing short of amazing. An inaugural project for FrameStore Animation from London, their incredible attention to every little detail – right down to the damp nose of a mouse – makes this story come alive with believable and lovable characters. I highly recommend this movie to everyone – families and students of animation alike – adding The Tale of Despereaux to your holiday season schedule is a must. The Tale of Despereaux opens in theatres everywhere on December 19th.

Tale of Despereaux - DS CoverThe Tale of Despereaux video game was released in the USA on December 2 for the Nintendo DS and Wii, and PlayStation 2, with a worldwide release scheduled to coincide with the film’s release date. Rated E for Everyone, game play follows the story from the film, with additional new adventures. Players can play as Despereaux through 15 unique levels, experiencing a combo system which adds complexity and strategy to combat, along with upgradeable weapons and skills. Tale of Despereaux Game Play

Our thanks to Universal Studios and FrameStore Animation for allowing this special screening of The Tale of Despereaux to take place here in Vancouver – and to our SIGGRAPH chapter volunteers for making it all possible.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 14th, 2008 at 11:25 am and is filed under Animation, Events, New Releases. 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.
  1. Another year over and a new ones just begun (Well, almost) – NightStorm's Corner
    10:14 pm on May 22nd, 2014

    […] it was actually shown in theatres. Now, how cool is that? You can read Tami’s review of it atVillage Gamer (yeah, that’s right, I’m lazy… she’s so good at writing, that I could never […]

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