Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Tale of Dexpereaux (not a review)

"The Tale of Despereaux" is set in the the faraway kingdom of Dor. It's the story of an unlikely hero-- a tiny mouse with exceptionally large ears. That mouse, Despereaux, falls in love with a princess. His fate becomes intertwined with a rat trapped in a dungeon and a servant girl who dreams of becoming a princess.

Kate DiCamillo won the 2005 Newberry Medal for her book, "The Tale of Despereaux." DiCamillo talked with Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer about the film adaptation. She had just returned from the movie's premiere in L.A.

If you ever wonder (i.e., you're anyone I know other than STUF&GBTW or Cinda) about the process of going from written word to visual story on the silver screen ... you'll find this interesting. It popped up on the local public radio station because DiCamillo is a local girl. Opening Friday. I guess, unlike Will Smith popping into Edina, we don't rate a 'premier' here. Yeah, no kidding - the Will Smith. No relation.

(Although on a totally unrelated note, about 'not related', the Security chief at my last regular job was also named Smith, was shorter than I am, and was certainly much blacker than I am - not that this is much of a challenge. Clyde would constantly introduce me as his sister, which always, always made the person do a complete double-take. I could always see curiosity struggling with what they perceived as good taste. After personally being shocked the first time he did it, I encouraged the social confusion by pointing out that he was always considered the black sheep of the family. At which point, the person was never really sure if he should laugh. Which, in effect, gave Clyde & I a good chuckle.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The mouse is so SWEET! So CUTE! And Matthew Broderick is his voice! It looks like it might be a fun movie to see, and I love stories where characters break out of the conventional behavior box and show it's OK to be different....

I love the commercial that shows Desperaux's teacher holding up a drawing of a cat. The teacher says, "He drew a cat...named it 'Fluffy.'" First time, I was on the floor laughing....