cast : geena davis , hugh laurie , jonathan lipnicki , jeffrey jones , brian doyle-murray , estelle getty , julia sweeney , dabney coleman , allyce beasley , harold gould , jon polito , jim doughan featuring the voices of : michael j . fox , nathan lane , chazz palminteri , steve zahn , jim doughan , david alan grier , bruno kirby , jennifer tilly written by : m . night shyamalan and greg brooker directed by : rob minkoff running time : 85 minutes george little ( jonathan lipnicki ) wants a little brother . after mr . and mrs . little ( hugh laurie and geena davis ) visit the orphange , they decide to adopt stuart , a talking mouse ( voiced by michael j . fox ) . george isn't so fond of his new brother when stuart arrives at the little house , and neither is snowbell the family cat ( voiced by nathan lane ) . george and stuart eventually bond while preparing for a remote control boat race , but snowbell wants stuart out of the house ( he's unable to live with the taunts of other neighborhood felines saying it's ridiculous that a mouse has a pet cat ) . stuart little is a mix of live action and computer generated imagery ( cgi ) . the character of stuart , while obviously a computer generated image , grows on you as the film progresses and you'll soon see him as much more than a mere special effect . there is also a great deal of animal training involved with this film , as many of the " supporting cast " are actual cats ( with computer animated mouths so they can speak ) . it's fascinating to watch these cats give performances without an actual mouse to interact with . stuart little is a charming family film . there are some great laughs in the movie ( with a script co-written by the sixth sense's m . night shyamalan no less ! ) , some moments that can only be described as " too cute " ( the boat race sequence is what won me over ) and even the majority of the one-liners ( common nowadays in children's films or films featuring nathan lane ) are tolerable . kids and parents will love this one . stuart little is available on dvd from columbia tristar home video . there are two different dvds on sale : one contains the film in full frame , and the other presents the film in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1 . 66 : 1 . both versions feature choices of either dolby surround or dolby digital 5 . 1 audio . both versions also contain the following extras ( and hang in there with me here . . . there's a lot of them ) : a full length audio commentary track by director rob minkoff and animation supervisor henry anderson , a full length audio commentary track by the visual effects supervisors , an isolated score track , an interactive trivia game , an interactive featurette that goes step by step through eight of the effects in the film , a making of documentary that originally aried on hbo , and a stuart little read-along story ( which you can read yourself or have stuart read for you ) . there are also three music videos , and six theatrical trailers ( called thecatrical trailers . . . get it ? it's funny ! ) for stuart little and five other columbia tristar releases : the adventures of elmo in grouchland , madeline , the nuttiest nutcracker , muppets from space , and baby geniuses ( the only bad thing about this entire dvd . . . i did not want to be reminded of the awfulness that is baby geniuses ) . dvd-rom features are also on the disc , including web links and a demo of the stuart little cd-rom game . but wait . . . there's still more ! there's a section called " basement treasures " where you will find the auditions of the film's animators , six deleted scenes which you can select to view with or without commentary from the director , a visual effects gag reel , a production gag reel , and an incredible eight minute storyboard sequence detailing the original concept for the boat race scene ( with commentary from the director ) . the first commentary track features director rob minkoff and animation supervisor henry anderson . they give insightful and detailed thoughts about the film's production . minkoff likes to point out scenes where other screenwriters came in and polished up the script , namely writers like scott alexander and larry karaszewski ( who wrote the people vs . larry flynt and ed wood ) and lowell ganz and babaloo mandel ( who wrote splash and multiplicity , among others ) . anderson is very appreciative of the animators who worked with him and often points out which animator worked on each scene as they occur . the second commentary track features visual effects supervisors john dykstra and jerome chen who discuss more specific details of the effects in the film . movie fans will enjoy the informative first commentary track , serious animation buffs will love the second one . now i know this is slightly off topic , but it is related specifically to this dvd so i must voice this now . one of the music videos on the disc is for a song called " i need to know " by a group called r angels . this video features four mid-teenage girls ( the singers obviously ) having a slumber party . the girls ask a ouija board " i need to know . . . who to do , who to do , who to do " as the song begins . they then sneak out of their house , and along the way they strike a pose and their slumber party pajamas are magically transformed into middle class streetwalker outfits . then they head to a party and dance suggestively with the guys while singing lyrics like " i'll be your pleasure all the time . . . just say the words that you'll be mine " . um . . . what the hell ? what does this have to do with stuart little ? how is this in any way a song suitable for a kids movie , let alone a video suitable for a kids movie on dvd ? when the video concludes , the words " to be continued " appear . oh i can't wait to see who they've slept with when the toy story 2 dvd comes out . kids won't care about most of the special features on this dvd , but those of us who can sometimes be turned into a " kid at heart " thanks to a winning family film sure appreciate them . this is the way to do dvd , a good movie loaded with great features at a reasonable cost . the di$ney people could learn a lot from columbia tristar . reviewed by chuck dowling - <a href= " mailto : chuckd21@fdn . com " >chuckd21@fdn . com</a> the jacksonville film journal - <a href= " http : //www . jaxfilmjournal . com/ " >http : //www . jaxfilmjournal . com/</a> 
