Stuart Little (1999)

Stuart Little is a 1999 American live-action animated comedy film loosely based on E. B. White's novel of the same name. The film was directed by Rob Minkoff (in his live-action directorial debut) and produced by Douglas Wick, from a screenplay by M. Night Shyamalan and Greg Brooker. It features an ensemble cast consisting of Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie and Jonathan Lipnicki, with the voices of Michael J. Fox as the titular character, Nathan Lane, Chazz Palminteri, Steve Zahn, Bruno Kirby and Jennifer Tilly. It was Estelle Getty's final film role before her retirement in 2001 and death in 2008.

Stuart Little premiered at the Mann Village Theatre in Westwood on December 5, 1999, and was released in the United States on December 17, by Sony Pictures Releasing through its Columbia Pictures label. The film received generally positive reviews and became a box office success, grossing over $300 million worldwide. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but lost to The Matrix. After its success, it also started a franchise with the sequel Stuart Little 2 in 2002, the short-lived television series Stuart Little in 2003, and the direct-to-video sequel Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild in 2006.

Plot

In Manhattan, Frederick and Eleanor Little visit an orphanage to adopt a new brother for their son, George. Instead, they adopt an anthropomorphic mouse named Stuart. George refuses to acknowledge him as his brother and the family cat, Snowbell, is disgusted to be a new pet to a mouse. The next day, Stuart's life in the house goes off to a bad start when he falls ill after being trapped in the washing machine, but he soon recovers from the incident.

The Littles invite their extended family to meet Stuart where George confesses he does not regard Stuart as a brother but simply a mouse. Stuart asks Eleanor and Frederick to enquire about his biological parents, feeling an empty space. The next day, after accidentally falling into George's basement playroom, Stuart encourages George to finish his model boat for an upcoming race as a bond starts to build. Meanwhile, Snowbell and his alley cat friend Monty meet with Monty's superior, Smokey, and formulate a plan to dispose of Stuart. On the day of the race, while Stuart is carrying George's remote control he accidentally drops it and it gets accidentally stepped on by a passerby, rendering the boat useless. He jumps into the boat and takes control himself, narrowly avoiding a crash and winning the race, finally enabling George to accept Stuart as his brother.

As the Littles host a celebration with the family, a mouse couple, Reggie and Camille Stout, arrive and claim to be Stuart's biological parents who were forced by poverty to give him up. The Littles reluctantly allow Stuart to leave with the Stouts. Three days later, the orphanage head Mrs. Keeper comes to visit the Littles to check up on things and when they explain that Stuart's real parents came and took him away, she informs them that Stuart's real parents had died several years earlier from a grocery store incident. Realizing Stuart has been kidnapped, the family organizes a search party with missing person posters, using his photograph from the family photo. Fearing his involvement will be exposed and that he will be thrown out of the Little house, Snowbell informs Smokey about the news and Smokey settles on assassinating Stuart instead.

Remorseful about Stuart's sadness, the Stouts, now revealed to be reluctant pawns of Smokey, reveal their deception; he is delighted and makes his way back to the Little house. On the way, he is ambushed by Smokey and his gang but evades them by going into a sewer. He makes it home, but finds the Littles absent as they had left to go put up his missing posters. A jealous Snowbell lies that the family is out celebrating his absence, using the fact that Stuart's face has been removed from the family photo as evidence. Thoroughly crestfallen, Stuart leaves, but Snowbell soon regrets his actions after the Littles return home. Smokey and his gang manage to pinpoint Stuart's location at Central Park and bring Snowbell along for the hunt. However, Snowbell finds Stuart first and admits his lie, encouraging Stuart to come home. When the cats find them, Snowbell refuses to hand Stuart over to the cats and Smokey tells his gang to assassinate both Stuart and Snowbell. They give chase, cornering Stuart hanging from a branch over the park's pond. Snowbell breaks the branch beneath the cats, sending them plummeting into the pond. Smokey sneaks up on Snowbell, enraged by his betrayal but Stuart releases a thin branch at Smokey, knocking him into the water. He emerges, but is immediately chased away by dogs.

Stuart is taken home by Snowbell and they arrive just as the Littles are going to bed. He taps on the window and is reunited with the Littles after George happily notices him. When they ask him how he managed to get home, he tells them that every Little can find the Little house and he owes his life to Snowbell, who has realized Stuart truly is family.

Cast

Voice cast

Michael J. Fox as Stuart Little, a young white anthropomorphic mouse who is adopted as the middle child of the Little family.

Nathan Lane as Snowbell, the family's Persian cat who initially dislikes Stuart, but later becomes his best friend.

Chazz Palminteri as Smokey, a Chartreux who is the leader of a gang of alley cats and comes up with a plot to eliminate Stuart when summoned by Snowbell and Monty.

Steve Zahn as Monty, a gray tabby cat, Snowbell's best friend and a former member of Smokey's gang.

Jim Doughan as Lucky, a Siamese cat who is a member of Smokey's gang. Doughan also portrays Detective Allen in the film.

David Alan Grier as Red, a ginger American Shorthair tomcat who is a member of Smokey's gang.

Bruno Kirby as Reginald Stout, Camille's husband.

Jennifer Tilly as Camille Stout, Reginald's wife.

Stan Freberg as the boat race announcer

Live-action cast

Production

Development and pre-production

Development began at Columbia Pictures in 1997 when production stalled on a film adaptation of the musical Into the Woods, which Rob Minkoff was originally set to make his live action directorial debut with. Looking for an alternative route, the studio heads informed him that they had picked up the film rights to E. B. White's novel with Douglas Wick set to produce under his Red Wagon Entertainment banner. It was after reading M. Night Shyamalan's script that he then agreed to direct. In early 1998, Columbia officially announced Minkoff as director, with the budget originally set to be under $90 million.

While his first full-length live action film, Minkoff directed various short films combining live-action and animation earlier in his career, all of which helped him earn the job, alongside the overwhelming success of his co-directoral work on Disney's The Lion King (1994). All the cats featured in the film were real and were trained by Boone's Animals for Hollywood. News outlets originally claimed the film would be G-rated, but the darker tone of the third act would result in the MPAA giving it a PG rating.

Filming

Principal photography began on August 3, 1998, both on location in New York City and Central Park, and on soundstages at the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California, where Stage 30 was converted into the set for the boat race scene and Stage 15 became the exterior of the 5th Avenue street on which the Little family lives. After twelve weeks, filming wrapped on November 11. The entire shoot was described as "smooth" and "enjoyable" by the crew members.

Lost painting unknowingly used on set

One of the paintings used as set dressing for the Littles' home was Hungarian avant-garde painter Róbert Berény's 1920s painting Sleeping Lady with Black Vase, which had long been considered lost. A set designer for the film had purchased the painting at an antiques store in Pasadena, California, for $500 for use in the film, unaware of its significance. In 2009, art historian Gergely Barki, while watching Stuart Little on television with his daughter, noticed the painting, and after contacting the studios was able to track down its whereabouts. In 2014, its owner sold the painting at an auction for €229,500.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album Stuart Little: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture was released by Motown and Universal Records on November 30, 1999, on audio CD and audio cassette. It contains songs from and inspired by the film, including the end credits song "You're Where I Belong," written by Diane Warren and performed by Trisha Yearwood, which was submitted for Best Original Song consideration at the 72nd Academy Awards, but didn't make the initial shortlist. Also included are two tracks from the orchestral score by Alan Silvestri. Tracks in bold do not appear in the film.

Reception

Box office

Stuart Little was released theatrically on December 17, 1999. On its opening weekend, Stuart Little grossed $15 million, placing it at #1 dethroning Toy Story 2. It dropped to #2 over its second weekend, but went back to #1 on its third weekend with $16 million. According to Box Office Mojo, its final gross in the United States and Canada was $140 million and it grossed $160.1 million at the international box office, for an estimated total of $300 million worldwide.

Critical reception

Stuart Little received positive reviews from critics upon release. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 67% of 97 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "Critics say Stuart Little is charming with kids and adults for its humor and visual effects." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 61 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

Jesus Freak Hideout said that "from start to finish, Stuart Little is a near flawless family film" while Stephen Holden of The New York Times had said "the only element that doesn't completely harmonize with the rest of the film is the visually unremarkable digital figure of Stuart." In addition, Nell Minow of Common Sense Media praised the film as a "terrific movie for families" due to its themes of being accepted and belonging to one another.

However, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two stars out of four, stating that the plot of a human family adopting a mouse strained logic and undermined the film's emotional stakes, despite praising its technical polish. In addition, Lael Lowenstein of Variety criticized the film's "slick, commercial approach" that transformed E. B. White's subtle magic of the source material into a "labored feel-good movie," with the uneven humor and underdeveloped human characters overshadowing the animated ones.

Home media

Stuart Little was released on VHS and DVD in the United States on April 18, 2000, by Columbia TriStar Home Video, and in the United Kingdom on November 27, 2000. It was later re-released on a Deluxe Edition on May 21, 2002, by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment. In 2008, the film was released as part of a double feature with Stuart Little 2. Stuart Little and Stuart Little 2 were released in a combo on Sony PSP's UMD format on January 3, 2006, and Blu-ray on June 28, 2011, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

References

External links

Stuart Little at IMDb

Stuart Little at Rotten Tomatoes