Stuart Little (1999)

Stuart Little (1999)

7/10

Starring

Michael J. Fox

Geena Davis

Hugh Laurie

 

Directed by Robert Minkoff

There are those rare movies that are so masterfully crafted that the moment you see them, you are magically taking into that world and you just love them. You love the characters, you love their world and most of all you love the story that combines these characters to their world. Stuart Little has that magical spark.

When you think of M. Night Shyamalan you remember movies like Sixth Sense (1999) or Split (2017), but Shyamalan also co-wrote the screenplay that became this wonderful film. With him on the helms of things, you can always expect a magical twist in the end. One of the other major thing about this movie is the voice casting of Michael J. Fox as the titular character Stuart Little. Along with Fox we also have Nathan Lane on voice of the cat Snowbell, with them in the live action role we have Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie playing Mrs and Mr Little respectively.

The movie plot introduces us to the Littles, a family composed of Father, Mother and Son named George. Now the Littles happen to live in the littlest house on the street and the couple seem like the type of family you will want to be in. In this world of the Littles anthropomorphic animals can talk to humans while non-anthropomorphic animals can’t even though they can talk with the one who can talk to humans.

The parents wanted to adopt a child so that George will have a sibling, they visited the adoption agency where they were allowed to look at all the children as they played. As they looked and discussed, an anthropomorphic mouse named Stuart who is also in the home waiting to be adopted gave them a little tour of all the children in the home. Stuart was trying to help them find the best child, but that tour led to the Littles falling for Stuart and they adopted him instead and brought him home. George was not pleased to have a mouse for a brother and the movie from here takes us through the many adventures of Stuart as he tries to win over his brother and also stay alive and not be eaten by the family cat.

This fine movie is based on a 1945 children’s book of the same name by E.B. White and it was nominated for Best Visual Effects, but that was in 1999 and that award belonged to Matrix.

The movie did well in the box office and there was a sequel done in 2002 called Stuart 2. I still find myself sitting down to enjoy this movie any time I come across it on TV.