Stuart Little 2

A significant improvement over its plot-less, meandering predecessor, Stuart Little 2 is a fun-loving, big-city adventure starring E.B. White's (seamlessly computer-animated) talking mouse, effervescently voiced by Michael J. Fox. In this sequel, the fuzzy, Lilliputian-sized adopted son of the Little clan--which includes Stuart's human brother (Jonathan Lipnicki) and his silly, storybook-perfect parents (Hugh Laurie and Geena Davis)--sets out to rescue a spirited canary (voiced by Melanie Griffith) he's befriended from a villainous falcon (a perfectly voice-cast James Woods). Director Rob Minkoff wastes some time on a couple soft-sell pop music montage sequences and sticks us with a transparent plot and a farfetched finale. But he makes up for these elementary problems by fixing nearly everything that went wrong with the 1999 original, including nurturing a real story arc (instead of unrelated episodes slapped together) and much funnier dialogue, especially for the Littles' prissy, petulant, pampered house cat with the vaudevillian voice by Nathan Lane. All in all, a fun family flick. Recommended, especially at the sell-through price. [Note: DVD extras include full and widescreen versions, audio commentary by director Rob Minkoff and visual effects supervisor Jerome Chen, a "Show and Tell" option that activates brief pop-up featurettes during the film, “A Touch of Evil” seven-minute featurette on James Woods' villainous falcon character, a two-minute “Life in the Fast Lane” hurried but detailed satirical outline of the filmmaking process, the four-minute read-along “Stuart Little's Big Adventures” with optional narration, “I'm Alive” music video by Celine Dion, “Stuart's Circle of Friends” riddle game, a promo for the video game, filmographies, and DVD-ROM features that include weblinks and the option to act out scenes in the ReVoice Studio. Bottom line: a fun extras package for a fun little film.] (R. Blackwelder)