[Northkeep] "You're a strange little mouse." "Thank you."

Montega montega at gmail.com
Sat Feb 7 04:56:36 PST 2009


YAY!! I love it when a movie like that inspires someone. I can't wait to see it!

On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 1:09 AM, Peter Schorn <peterschorn at pdq.net> wrote:
> If you haven't seen "The Tale of Despereaux," you're missing something you
> really shouldn't.
>
> Not just because it's got a cute mouse who thinks he's Errol Flynn
> ("Reepicheep Unbound?").  Not just because it's a rousing tribute to the old
> three-reel swashbucklers of yore.  Not because it's got a fine script, based
> on a fine book, or because it contains gem-like performances by the likes of
> Tracy Ullman, Emma Watson, Frank Langella and Dustin Hoffman.  Though these
> would be reasons enough.
>
> But because it is a movie about Truth, Honor and Courage.  About absorbing
> these ideals from old and fantastical legends in old and fantastical books
> that no one else seems to value. About those who remain true to these ideals
> through exile and peril.  About those who betray their ideals, and how they
> may be redeemed.
>
> Because although it is a children's movie, it is anything but a childish
> movie. Because it deals with true and weighty things in mature and graceful
> fashion.
>
> Because it is a cultured work that honors its theme with ornaments of
> stunning craftsmanship, research and detail, just as Medieval monks would
> illuminate the lives of saints.  Because its visual aesthetic is not Ye Olde
> Genyric Medieval Tymes but inspired by fine works of Medieval and
> Renaissance art which you may see referenced either directly, as in the
> Chief Cook's rather surprising assistant, or indirectly, in the Heironymous
> Bosch panorama of the rats' benighted metropolis.
>
> Because it is the first film I've seen to correctly depict the gold-leaf
> glow of an illuminated manuscript initial, seen from an inch away, by
> candle-light.  You and I may have seen that, how the gold seems to catch the
> fire and gleam like a live coal. We know it from a glimpse of someone's
> peerage scroll when they were elevated by torchlight at War Court.  But how
> did the people who made this movie come by that knowledge?  I doubt they
> were all SCA folk!
>
> Well then, they came to it the way anyone comes to any worthy thing, no
> matter how small. By scholarship, which is a form of Truth.  By hard work,
> which is a form of Courage.  And by uncompromising artistry, which is a form
> of Honor.
>
> It seems they've heard the same trumpets as we have, and like us, followed
> them.  How well they have, may readily be seen.
>
> And should, before it leaves town.
>
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