2002 film directed by Rob Minkoff
Stuart Little 2 is a 2002 American live action/computer-animated comedy film directed by Rob Minkoff and starring Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie, and Jonathan Lipnicki, and the voices of Michael J. Fox as Stuart Little and Nathan Lane as Snowbell the cat. Although a sequel to the 1999 film Stuart Little, the plot bears more resemblance to the original novel by E.B. White, in which Stuart and Snowbell meet a canary named Margalo (voiced by Melanie Griffith).
The film was released in theaters on July 19, 2002, by Columbia Pictures, and grossed $170 million against a $120 million budget.[3] It was followed by a third film, a direct-to-video sequel titled Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild in 2005.
Plot
Three years after his adoption, Stuart Little questions his abilities following a disastrous soccer match alongside his adoptive older brother George. Stuart's relationship with George is strained further after Stuart accidentally crashes a model airplane he and George were creating in the house. Stuart's adoptive father, Frederick, tries to encourage him, telling him that "every cloud has a silver lining."
Later, Margalo, an apparently injured canary, falls into Stuart's roadster as he is driving home from school. Stuart invites Margalo to stay with his family for a while. However, Margalo is secretly assisting her master, a greedy falcon, to steal valuables from households. Orphaned as a fledgling, Margalo grows reluctant to steal from the Littles and becomes close friends with Stuart. The Falcon threatens to kill Stuart unless Margalo steals Eleanor's wedding ring. Terrified for Stuart's safety, Margalo reluctantly complies.
When the Littles discover that Eleanor's ring is missing, they think it has fallen down their kitchen sink. Stuart offers to be lowered down the drain on a string to get it, but the string breaks, causing him to fall. Margalo saves Stuart using Eleanor's necklace, and leaves the Littles' house that night in order to protect him. The next day, Stuart assumes Margalo has been kidnapped by the Falcon and decides to rescue her with the help of the Littles' cat Snowbell. Before he leaves, Stuart asks George to lie about his whereabouts to his parents.
Following advice from Snowbell's alley cat friend Monty, Stuart and Snowbell discover that the Falcon resides in the Pishkin Building. There, Stuart confronts the Falcon. Margalo assures Stuart that although she was following the Falcon's orders, she is still his friend. Stuart begs Margalo to come home with him, but the Falcon refuses to let Margalo quit her job. Despite Stuart's attempt to attack the Falcon, he drops Stuart off the building, although Stuart narrowly survives the fall by landing in a passing garbage truck. The Falcon captures Margalo and imprisons her in a paint can as punishment. However, Snowbell, who has become concerned about Stuart, makes his way to the building and finds Margalo while the Falcon is absent. Margalo sadly tells a shocked Snowbell that she believes Stuart has died.
At the same time, Stuart awakens on a garbage barge that was leaving New York and considers giving up until he finds his and George's broken yet still-functioning model airplane on the barge. Cobbling it together using various pieces of trash, Stuart repairs the plane and escapes back to New York City to rescue Margalo. Meanwhile, the Littles confront George about Stuart's true whereabouts after discovering he has lied (he had told them Stuart was sleeping at his friend Will's house to rehearse for a school play). A saddened George eventually comes clean and confesses that Stuart was last seen at the Pishkin Building, prompting the Littles to start tracking him down.
Meanwhile, Snowbell frees Margalo from the paint can, but the Falcon arrives and attacks him. As he tries to push Snowbell off of the building, Falcon is stopped by Margalo, who threatens to toss the ring off of the roof if he kills Snowbell. Before the Falcon can reclaim the ring from Margalo, Stuart swoops in on his plane and rescues her from Falcon, who chases them through Central Park, while the Littles and Snowbell follow them. Eventually, Stuart succeeds in blinding the Falcon by reflecting sunlight off of his mother's ring before jumping from the plane, which crashes into Falcon and causes him to die by falling into a trash can that Monty is searching through. Margalo safely brings Stuart back to the Littles and returns Eleanor's ring while Snowbell also reunites with them. Sometime later, Margalo says goodbye to the Littles and leaves to migrate south for the winter, with Stuart's infant sister, Martha, finally saying her first words, "Bye, bye, birdie".
Production
Filming began in New York City and Culver City, California on March 5, 2001, and lasted until June of that year.[citation needed] After the September 11 attacks, scenes of the Twin Towers were digitally removed and certain scenes were re-shot.[4]
Reception
Critical reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 81% based on 124 reviews, with an average score of 6.90/10. The critical consensus reads, "Stuart Little 2 is a sweet, visually impressive sequel that provides wholesome entertainment for kids."[5] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100 based on 29 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[6] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[7]
Ann Hornaday wrote a positive review in The Washington Post, noting how the film's idealized setting makes it family-friendly. Hornaday praised the vocal performances of Fox, Griffith, and Woods in their roles as Stuart, Margalo, and Falcon, respectively, as well as the characters' computer animation: "The animated characters engage in such natural movements and, more important, exude such subtle emotional expression that they mesh seamlessly with their live-action counterparts."[8] Tom Shen of the Chicago Reader, described the film as "fairly formulaic", but praised its jokes as "hilarious", especially those coming from the character of Snowbell, the Littles' cat.[9]
Box office
The film had an opening weekend gross of $15.1 million. The domestic total was $65 million and the worldwide total was $170 million against an estimated production budget of $120 million.[10]
