Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild

By Mayna Bergmann -- Video Business, 1/9/2006

Color, G (nothing offensive), 78 min., DVD $24.96, VHS $24.96

DVD: music video, games

Street: Feb. 21, Prebook: Jan. 19

First Run: DVD premiere

Voices: Michael J. Fox (Stuart Little 2), Geena Davis (Stuart Little 2), Hugh Laurie (Flight of the Phoenix), Wayne Brady (TV's The Wayne Brady Show), Virginia Madsen (Sideways), Peter MacNicol (Breakin' All the Rules)

Director: Audu Paden

SONY

Story Line: Mr. and Mrs. Little (Davis, Laurie) along with their adopted family member Stuart the mouse (Fox), son George and cat Snowbell head off for a vacation in the woods, only to be confronted by a mysterious Beast who kidnaps Snowbell. Together, Stuart and his new friend Reeko the skunk must beat the Beast, rescue Snowbell and ensure a happy ending.

Bottom Line: The first two live-action Stuart Little films (based on the classic children's book by E.B. White) featured the voice of Fox as the adorable titular mouse Stuart, who is adopted into the Little family by live-action performers Davis and Laurie. For this third entry in the series, Sony has turned to Mainframe Entertainment to animate the proceedings, and the results are glossy and fluid. Happily, performers Davis, Laurie and Fox all return to do voiceovers for their characters, although Snowbell is no longer voiced by Nathan Lane but by someone doing his best Lane impression. Stuart Little 3 has all the elements that will appeal to younger children: adorable forest creatures, animation that's a hybrid between anime and Saturday morning cartoons and a simple plot with well-defined good guys and bad buys. Yes, anyone over the age of 6 will probably get impatient, but little ones will enjoy all well-paced 78 minutes of it.