Kate DiCamillo’s 2013 children’s novel, which won the Newbery Medal for 2014, has been transformed into an amiable but unexceptional Disney movie combining live action and computer animation. The heroine is ten-year-old Flora (Matilda Lawler, a little girl with a disarming smile), a self-styled cynic whose life has been upended by the separation of her parents Phyllis (Alyson Hannigan) and George (Ben Schwartz). Phyllis is a romance novelist suffering from writer's block and financial difficulties; George is a would-be comic book creator reduced to working in an electronics store under an officious young manager.
Flora’s life takes an unexpected turn when she rescues a squirrel that’s been sucked into a neighbor’s vacuum cleaner. Flora resuscitates the little critter with mouth-to-mouth and CPR and secretly adopts it. A comic book aficionado, she believes that the squirrel’s experience has given it super-powers, and events prove her right. Ulysses, as she calls her newfound friend, can communicate on her mom’s typewriter—poetically, no less—and understands what Flora says. Eventually, physical prowess will be revealed, too.
Of course, complications arise. Once Phyllis finds out about Ulysses, she wants to be rid of the animal. And when George takes his daughter and Ulysses out to a restaurant, chaos ensues after a waitress screams rabies. That brings a predictable element into the fable—a fanatical animal control officer (Danny Pudi), who is determined to catch Ulysses; his repeated attempts lead to much slapstick violence in which he suffers indignity after indignity, not only from the cute evasions of the squirrel but the nastier assaults of a mean-spirited feline.
Another supporting character is William (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), the nephew of the vacuum cleaner lady, who suffers from hysterical blindness (its cause revealed in a sentimental turn toward the close); he becomes Flora’s best buddy, and his pratfalls add to the movie’s slapstick quota. There is also Meescham (Anna Deavere Smith), an oddball doctor who helps our titular heroes. Lawler and Ainsworth make a likable team, and John Kassir provides the squirrely chatter of Ulysses, who does not talk except via the typewriter.
The adults tend to italicize everything, as though they were acting for an audience unable to understand non-cartoonish behavior: Pudi, in particular, offers a cascade of mugging. The animation is fine, especially for Ulysses, and is well integrated into the live-action footage. There is nothing offensive about Flora & Ulysses unless you find the blindness business tasteless—or are a cat person. But while it will amuse very young viewers, anyone of age over double digits will probably find it pretty tedious. Still, a strong optional purchase for the family trade. (F. Swietek)