It could have been cold, calculated crap. Instead, director Rob Minkoff teamed with writer Bruce Joel Rubin to create a movie with all the heart of its title character. Stuart Little 2 towers above the first movie, managing to break a few sequel rules and work in a few pro-social messages without hitting the audience over the head. In short, if you’ll pardon the puns, it’s a sweet little film.
Though it still has a storybook feel, Stuart Little 2 has gotten rid of a lot of the first one’s affectations. The Littles still greet each other with a silly poem, but now the Little parents (Hugh Laurie and Geena Davis) are more relaxed and human. Though everyone in the film matter-of-factly accepts the presence of talking animals (or at least of Stuart – it’s never quite clear if they can understand the cats), nobody is overly cartoony themselves.
Not that there are that many people to register. Breaking rule #1 in the sequel book (make everything bigger and louder), Minkoff and Rubin have pared down the supporting cast. Because we all know Stuart’s world already, they can just focus on the plot. Despite participating in a soccer game early on, for which he’s woefully unsuited, Stuart’s (Michael J. Fox) worldview is pretty small, and the filmmakers respect that.
There are new characters. Big brother George (Jonathan Lipnicki) has a new best friend, Will (Marc John Jeffries). The two of them still make time for Stuart, but would rather play Playstation 2. As, naturally, the big brother’s world starts to crowd him out, Stuart wants to find someone more his own size, and new baby sister Martha just doesn’t cut it.
That someone drops into his lap, almost literally, in the form of Margalot (Melanie Griffith), a small bird apparently being stalked by a falcon (a strangely perfectly cast James Woods). Through his growing friendship with Margalot, the mouse boy learns that things aren’t always what they appear, but it’s still worth it to trust your heart. If adults might question the naturalness of a relationship between a bird and a mouse, the children won’t; even though the two have a “date” in Stuart’s car watching Vertigo on an old television set, things never get mushy.
When Margalot disappears, Stuart finds out what he’s truly made of, enlisting Snowbell the cat (Nathan Lane) to join him in finding and rescuing his friend. George covers for the two as best as he can, and if Lipnicki isn’t particularly convincing in such scenes, it’s because kids are never as convincing liars as they think they are.
From a kid’s point of view, this all makes one heck of a great movie. Having Geena Davis as a mom may seem impossibly Hollywood, but every little kid thinks of his mother as that beautiful. While Hugh Laurie might seem a little dorky as a dad, remember that for a kid, that’s high praise. The New York City and Central Park of the film are clean because, to a kid, they would be.
In many ways, it’s a throwback to a simpler time (albeit using modern techniques). Though some of the set design acknowledges the modern world, almost everything within the Little household belongs in the forties, when E.B. White’s source novel was first published. The movie never plays this as a joke; it’s just noticeable when Will brings over that PS2.
Outside of the house, the movie turns bright yellow and orange to represent the warmth of family life, and echoes the commercial’s parody of Spider-Man. Stuart may not be Mighty Mouse, but this color scheme reminds us that he has the heart of that hero.
Because of its ad campaign, the movie earns a little extra praise. Every commercial and trailer I’ve seen has focused on all the obvious dumb fun things: See Stuart play soccer! See him fly a plane! See him skateboard! And though there’s a hint of danger, the actual plot remains unrevealed. Though a sharp viewer can see where it’s headed, it’s nice to not know walking into the theater.
The movie throws a few knowing glances towards adults, but is far more interested in holding children’s attention in a quiet, respectful way. And in a summer where too many kids films have tried too hard to walk in both worlds, leaving interesting messes but little more, quiet and respectful is not a bad thing. It just means that older kids will probably not be all that interested. At a certain age, small, heartfelt stories have trouble competing with loud explosions and hard-rocking soundtracks. But if, as an adult, you can let yourself go back to a time when you could believe in something like a talking mouse, Stuart Little 2 stands as one of the best films of the summer.
