Talk about yer all-star casts. Universal has spared no expense to hire the tonsils for its latest animated project, The Tale Of Despereaux.
Even a quick run down of the credits is an exhausting experience, but here goes: Justin Long is playing the title character, a mouse with comically oversized ears who teams up with a rat who thinks he’s human (Dustin Hoffman) and a serving girl (Tracey Ullman), to save a princess. Kevin Kline is the king’s cook, who gets himself banished, Robbie Coltrane’s a dodgy palace jailer, William H Macy is Despereaux’s nervy father, Ciaran Hinds the leader of a pack of sewer rats, Christopher Lloyd is an old, blind rodent, Stanley Tucci will crop up as a genie and Sigourney Weaver ties it all together as the narrator. Phew…
Mike Johnson is the man charged with marshalling all this talent into one film, which is adapted from Kate DiCamillo’s award-winning kiddie novel. Expect the film in cinemas in late 2008.