Sometimes (too rarely if you ask me) movie studios send screeners of films heading to DVD. Recently, the entertainment desk (which is where I sit and also pile papers and notes from the sports and special section desks) received “The Tale of Desperaux” and “The Velveteen Rabbit.”

Here are my thoughts.

“The Tale of Desperaux” was released into theaters around the holidays in 2008 and received a bit of praise from critics and fans of the award-winning book. One of the criticisms leveled at the film was that it was a bit complex. That is certainly true. There is a lot going on in this movie. A kingdom famous for soup stops making soup when a lost rat falls in the Queen’s bowl and she dies. The rat is taken in by an evil rat and the mice in the kingdom live separate from them Desperaux is a mouse who is unafraid of anything, rats, cats or humans. A peasant girl yearns to be a princess. A guard yearns to be reunited with his daughter. The king suffers his grief in silence.

There’s also a creature made entirely out of vegetables.

You get the idea. This isn’t Tom and Jerry.

It is an engaging film with excellent visuals and animation. It isn’t standard kiddie fare that aims for the lowest common denominator and fills space with fart jokes and pop music.

It is definitely worth a rental, if not adding it to your DVD library.

“The Velveteen Rabbit” had a limited release at Carmike Cinemas (none near here) and then went to DVD. Directed by Michael Landon, Jr. the film mixed live action and animation to tell the story of a stuffed toy rabbit who years to be real. Tom Skerrit and Ellen Burstyn provide voices in the film.

“The Velveteen Rabbit” strikes a chord with me, partially because of the source material. It is a classic story and one I recently enjoyed re-reading. The film feels very old-school, like a PBS program, and that is meant as a compliment. Unlike a lot of the cinema of today, which tends to feature MTV-style editing and pacing, “The Velveteen Rabbit,” and “The Tale of Desperaux” both tend to take their time and tell their stories with great care and respect for the stories they are based on.

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