At first glance, “The Tale of Despereaux” feels like a rip-off of last year’s Academy Award-winning animated movie “Ratatouille.” Both involve rodents and fine foods which is now, after “Ratatouille’s” success, no longer original. What “The Tale of Despereaux” has going for it, is its fairytale theme. Because it doesn’t try to be “Ratatouille” it succeeds in some ways — animation and voice acting — and falters in others — a jumbled story — creating an uneven film that’s, at the very least, entertaining for children.

As much as I praise Pixar’s animation, the way “The Tale of Despereaux” looks is surprisingly excellent. During a few daydream sequences, the animation switches to what animated characters must see when they daydream. The separation between the two styles of animation is distinct enough that kids will be able to pick up on the differences. Directors Sam Fell and Robert Stevenhagen probably spent a lot of time making sure everything looked good. I don’t think they spent as much time on constructing the film’s plot however.

“The Tale of Despereaux” is based on the book by Kate DiCamillo, and while it is a fairytale story, writers Will McRobb, Gary Ross and Chris Viscardi seem to have lost something in its translation. There are far too many subplots that probably worked OK in the book, but will just confuse kids. It was as if the movie was initially too long so the editors had to chop it up. Now, it doesn’t make as much sense. The narration from Sigourney Weaver helps a little bit to trudge through the plot.

The voice talents are another high point of “The Tale of Despereaux.” While watching the opening credits, I was surprised by how many famous names I saw: Dustin Hoffman, William H. Macy, Stanley Tucci, Frank Langella and Christopher Lloyd, among others. Unlike other animated movies where the characters and voices don’t match, they do in “The Tale of Despereaux.” Even Matthew Broderick, who I initially thought wasn’t a suitable choice for a child mouse, worked out in the end.

“The Tale of Despereaux” begins with a description of the differences between a rat and a mouse. Rats have a reputation of being dirty and are despised by humans. In the faraway kingdom of Dor, however, rats have never bothered humans. That is until a ship rat, Roscuro (voiced by Hoffman), steps off a ship into Dor during the kingdom’s annual Soup Day. Chef Andre (voiced by Kevin Kline) has been working hard to make sure this year’s liquid concoction is perfect for Dor. With the help of soup genie Boldo (voiced by Tucci), Andre makes one of the best soups ever. But when Roscuro gets a little too close he plops into the queen’s bowl of soup frightening her to death — literally. The king of Dor banishes all soup and rats. Since then, the sun has not shined, nor has it rained in Dor and Princess Pea (voiced by Emma Watson) has become incredibly unhappy while Roscuro is ultimately banished to Rat World.

In Mouse World, Despereaux (voiced by Broderick) is considered a misfit mouse. He doesn’t cower or scurry; he’s not afraid of knives and he draws pictures of cats, naming them Fluffy. To help scare Despereaux into being a “real” mouse, his brother takes him to the library of the castle in which they live. Instead of eating the books, Despereaux reads them. He reads a story about a princess and a gentleman knight. From that moment on, Despereaux no longer considers himself to be just a mouse, but also a gentleman. When reality begins to imitate the story, Despereaux has to help save the princess.

In another subplot, a bumbling servant girl named Miggery Sow (voiced by Tracey Ullman) waits on Princess Pea, but ultimately wants to be a princess herself. Unbeknownst to her, someone already thinks of her as a princess — her father who gave her up years ago. She eventually teams up with Roscuro to capture Princess Pea, but he’s also tricked her. The only way to bring this fairytale to a happy ending is by rescuing the princess and bringing sun, rain, soup and rats back to Dor again — a challenge for the fearless Despereaux.

“The Tale of Despereaux” is cute and clever, but not really funny. The good thing is it’s entertaining enough for children, who still might get lost in the story. If nothing else, the animation is to be appreciated.

Missy Thompson: missy@tooeletranscript.com