The Tale of Despereaux

Post by **wendy** » March 28th, 2008, 5:49 pm

I didn't find a topic about The Tale of Despereaux so I made one. Hope I'm not mistaken.

Here are some pictures of this promising animated feature from Framestore:

http://animatie.blog.nl/tekenfilms/2008 ... despereaux

Post by **Ben** » March 28th, 2008, 6:44 pm

Yep, good to make up a new thread!

At one point, The Triplets Of Belleville's Sylvain Chomet was behind this, until it was taken over by Universal, who clashed with him on the project and ultimately moved it elsewhere.

This is the first of a planned series of animated features from Universal...thanks for the link!

Post by **eddievalient** » March 28th, 2008, 7:52 pm

I love the character designs. It reminds me very much of Redwall (which is a series I still have yet to see. It was promised to air on US television numerous times but as far as I can tell, it never did). If the story is as good as the visuals, we'll be in for a real treat.

Post by **Foxtale** » March 28th, 2008, 10:50 pm

eddievalient wrote:I love the character designs. It reminds me very much of Redwall

That's what I thought when I saw the images as well. I was like, omg they're doing a cgi redwall. I haven't heard much about this, but it seems promising.

Post by **Riv** » April 1st, 2008, 4:14 pm

Wow, nice pics! It does look look like a cgi Redwall! sigh... if only

The book's not bad, though it touches on a lot of themes (light and darkness, child abuse) that are never really developed. Hopefully the film will be nicely padded out. I still want Sylvain Chomet to direct:(:(

Post by **droosan** » April 1st, 2008, 8:28 pm

I've always been a 'sucker' for stories featuring Mice Doing Decidedly Un-Mouse-like Things ..

Along with the aforementioned Redwall book/TV series, fans of this 'genre' (?) should check out the graphic-novel series Mouse Guard, as well.

Though (IMO), MG has a lot more 'going' for it in its artwork, than it has in storytelling. Still .. an animated adaptation could be pretty awesome, if that ever happens.

-------------

Meanwhile, The Tale of Despereaux definitely looks interesting!

Post by **Whippet Angel** » June 26th, 2008, 5:48 pm

Anyone see this trailer yet?
Looks interesting, and I have been meaning to check out Kate Dicamillo's book for a while (I work in the children's dept of a bookstore

)

Here it is

Dunno about the character designs though. Maybe it's just me, but they seem sort of.... lifeless.... o___O

Post by **Macaluso** » June 26th, 2008, 6:17 pm

I think that's my problem with this too. The animation seems really good, and the story doesn't sound too bad, but the character designs aren't very good, and the humans look just awful.

Now, if they would just make Mouse Gaurd into a movie, we'd be SET

Post by **eddievalient** » June 26th, 2008, 8:29 pm

Looks pretty good to me. As always, story is king. If it's well written, that's all that matters. Now if only they'd make a movie of Redwall (any of the books would do since there's only a vague continuity between them)...

Post by **Ben** » June 27th, 2008, 5:14 am

About what I was expecting. Pretty nice design (One Man Band?) and while I think the lack of over-acting is actually refreshing, it still looks a bit forced.

I'm certainly not going for Despereaux's voice either (Broderick?) and the "hey, this is a bit like Ratatouille" marketing.

If only Sylvain Chomet had been allowed to do this hand-drawn as he wanted...

Post by **Daniel** » June 27th, 2008, 6:37 pm

The Tale of Despereaux created by "Whippet Angel" June, 26 2008

The Tale of Despereaux created by "wendy" March, 28 2008

If that wasn't enough, look at the times.

Anywho, thanks for the link, Whippet! I admit it doesn't look half bad, but yeah, those character designs... I'm now more interested, though. (Despite Broderick, ugh.

)

Post by **Ben** » June 27th, 2008, 7:30 pm

I think I've merged all the Despereaux threads together...Dan - you confused me by including the link to this thread in your above message and I spent four days trying to merge it into itself!

We should, now, only have one Despereaux thread...all mixed into this one! Phew!

Post by **Daniel** » June 27th, 2008, 7:54 pm

4 days!? I think you meant to write 4 minutes.

Sorry about that though, I tried to avoid confusion by adding the dates... guess it didn't help much. Goes without saying, but I won't try that again.

Post by **Whippet Angel** » June 28th, 2008, 12:09 am

My bad!

I didn't think we had a thread. Guess I didn't look hard enough...

Post by **Ben** » June 28th, 2008, 10:06 am

No probs guys!

Dan...only joking...I clocked the dates but it just didn't twig that the thread I was reading was the one I was trying to merge to!