As Mickey and Minnie Mouse well proved, mice are not a movie turnoff. And, neither, in the right hands or kitchen, are rats, as we learned with "Ratatouille."

But in "The Tale of Despereaux," the mouse is mighty -- and adorable, thanks to elephantine ears and Matthew Broderick's voice -- but the rats are sort of creepy. Sure, you suspect they won't really attack a human who's been lashed down like a girlish Gulliver, but it's still ... slightly unnerving.

It's not worse than an evil queen ordering a huntsman to kill Snow White, cut out her heart and bring it back in a box, but this fairy-tale world is more realistically rendered.

"Tale," based on the Newbery Medal-winning book by Kate DiCamillo, is blessed with now-standard striking animation, but it's no "Ratatouille," "WALL-E" or "Bolt." However, it is laced with timeless messages about how mice (or children) learn fear, how a good heart can be hidden from view, how being hurt can make people hurtful and how forgiveness can be downright magical.

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'The Tale of Despereaux'

3 stars = Good
Ratings explained

• Starring: Voices of Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Watson.
• Rating: G
• Web site: 'The Tale of Despereaux'

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Oh, and how there's nothing quite like a whiff or taste of superlative soup, the kind served in the Kingdom of Dor once a year. That's where most of "Tale" is set and where a visiting rat named Roscuro (voice of Dustin Hoffman) is so tantalized by the smell that he takes a tumble into the queen's soup bowl.

She keels over and dies, setting into motion a series of events that take the light and joy out of everyone's lives. The king outlaws soup and rats and plunges into depression, leaving his princess daughter (Emma Watson) to wonder, "Do you think there's a bit of light somewhere in the world?"

That's the cue for the entrance of Despereaux, a tiny white mouse with a pink nose and oversize ears who doesn't cower or scurry like the other mice. He fancies himself a chivalrous, courageous gentleman, even as he pays the price for reaching out to the woebegone.

For a movie with such a fantastical premise, it's awfully serious for much of the time. A preview audience squirmed a bit and laughed heartily just a time or two.

The title character is lovable and, except for the one voiced by Hoffman, the rats are reprehensible, especially Botticelli (Ciaran Hinds) who rules Ratworld. "Despereaux" is helped enormously by the wise, gentle narration by Sigourney Weaver, one of a baker's dozen of well-known actors providing the voices.

Attention to detail is delightful, from a soup genie fashioned from fruits and veggies (real apples on his cheeks, for instance) to the burning matches that serve as torches in Mouseworld, but in the end, "Despereaux" suffers from comparison to "Ratatouille" and may be a victim of bad timing.

It is, inexplicably, the third movie about rodents to hit screens since November 2006, when "Flushed Away" debuted. It, too, was co-directed by Sam Fell, who works with Robert Stevenhagen here.

By the Chinese calendar, 2008 has been the Year of the Rat but by the movie calendar -- "Beverly Hills Chihuahua," "Bolt" and, soon, "Marley & Me" and "Wendy and Lucy" -- it's the Year of the Dog.