Bold camera, subtle animation, tactile world: framestore animation's CG fairy tale breaks new ground.(CGI)(computer graphics)

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Universal Pictures' first animated feature, The Tale of Despereaux, is a fairy tale, not a 'toon. A real fairy tale, with action and emotion, sweetness and horror--not a fractured, gag-filled, pop-culture satire of a fairy tale. Its a drama about forgiveness and honor, and the consequences of mistakes and mistaken intentions. And, every inch of the CG film looks the part.

"I feel lucky we were able to tell an animated story with cinematic aspirations," says writer and producer Gary Ross. "We were able to aspire to things visually that usually aren't seen in the genre because of the dramatic intentions and themes in Kate's book."

"Kate" is Kate DiCamillo, the author of the books upon which The Tale of Despereaux is based: the stories of a rat and a beautiful princess who discover the power of forgiveness, and a mouse and a maid who long for things that those with more experience know they couldn't possibly achieve. Thus, they do.

As did the crew.

Ross knitted the separate stories into one screenplay that opens with the rat Roscuro (Dustin Hoffman) making a serious mistake that causes the happy Kingdom of Dor to become monotonously gray and gloomy. Soon after, we meet Pea, a beautiful princess (Emma Watson) who longs for something else, even rain; Miggery Sow, a homely maid (Tracey Ullman) who wants to be a princess; and Despereaux (Matthew Broderick), a heroic little mouse with enormous ears who lives with his timid brother and his fearful parents. Framestore debuted its new animation division by bringing all these CG characters to life.

Evgeni Tomov, who had been production designer for the 2D animated feature The Triplets of Belleville and has received an Annie nomination for Despereaux, worked initially with Triplets director Sylvain Chomet at Studio Django on concept art for the fairy tale's environments and on character design. When Chomet left the project, the production moved to London. Tomov moved, too.