Snowball: "Hey, Schumacher is cheap!" Slow down! Slow down! I'm going to have a heart attack. Or, and so on and so forth. And I’m not going to find out what it is! Many might think that the creative fate of director-director Rob Minkoff is predetermined after the grand success of the animated film “The Lion King”, which Minkoff created in collaboration with Roger Allers. And many predicted his future in accordance with the well-known saying that good is not sought, that is, expected that Minkoff will continue to work successfully in the field of cartoons. And his subsequent work - the selection of "The Best of Roger Rabbit" - was a powerful argument for that. But Minkoff set out to try his hand at art cinema, however, at the same time combined a complex concept from the standard approach and the inclusion of animation, which was brilliantly embodied in the life of Robert Zemeckis in the famous film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (as you can see, Roger Rabbit gave impetus to innovations in Minkoff’s career). And thus, the free adaptation of the book by Alvin Brooks White “Stuart Little” was released on the screens.
Who is this character? And this is a mouse that lives freely in peace with people, while being distinguished by kindness, friendliness and a desire to help. But the first part still did not please some part of the audience, whether it was considered too sweet, or too childish, but in any case it is impossible not to note that “Stuart Little” is quite an acceptable manual for the youngest viewers, which can really teach what kindness and noble mouse in the world could go hand in hand with our famous Funtic. And Rob Minkoff, and with him Columbia Pictures, did the right thing by not paying attention to the somewhat average criticism and releasing a sequel three years later. At the same time, even the cast has not changed: without taking into account the drawn characters, the viewer can again watch Gina Davis and Hugh Laurie in the images of older Littles, and Jonathan Lipnicki again played their own son.
But it should be noted that there are some changes compared to the first part: so to speak, the human composition of the film is almost reduced to the level of guest stars and has little influence on the plot of the film. Thus, the Stuart Little himself comes to the fore, that is, the mouse, as well as his new unexpected friend - a canary named Margalo (stress put on the first syllable), the main antagonist is the Falcon, and in frequent cases the indispensable cat Snowball comes to the rescue of Stuart and Margalo, who, contrary to his animal reflex, still takes the mouse for a member of the Little family, in which, in fact, Snowball himself lives. And no matter how it sounds, but subjectively my sympathies were on the side of Snowball, after all, Stuart Little is an epic hero, and a film for children, so you know perfectly well in advance that everything will come a happy ending and at the same time changes in the character and actions of Snowball become the most interesting on the screen.
This will end the stage of Rob Minkoff’s work with the film, which accommodates classical cinema and 3D animation, Stewart Little and the director will try to work in the mainstream when he shoots the mystical comedy “Ghost Mansion”, then tries his hand with the operational Chinese cinema “Forbidden Kingdom”, and then shoots his best movie (in my personal humble view) “Velcro”. And “Stuart Little” will receive a very deplorable sequel, which will already be shot completely in the standard animated style. The potential viewer will once again emphasize that the tape “Stuart Little”, as well as its sequel, is even a recommended movie for children, it is beautifully drawn, there is a good 3D animation, but the main thing is that here in this reigns kindness, friendship, precious family ties and joy that Little is waiting for success, because Little is the best!
7 out of 10