Stuart Little 2

Stuart Little 2
Theatrical release poster Directed by Rob Minkoff Produced by Douglas Wick Lucy Fisher Written by Bruce Joel Rubin Music by Alan Silvestri Studio Franklin / Waterman Productions Red Wagon Productions Distributed by Columbia Pictures Release date(s) July 19, 2002 (USA, English) Running time 78 minutes Preceded by Stuart Little Followed by Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild Too many parameters [Source]

Stuart Little 2 is a 2002 American live-action and CG-animated romantic comedy science-fiction adventure epic fantasy film and the sequel to Stuart Little. The whole cast from the first film reprise their roles, along with new actors Melanie Griffith and James Woods voicing Stuart's new love Margalo and the new villain Falcon. The film was directed by Rob Minkoff and was released on July 19, 2002.

Plot

3 years after the first film, Stuart (voiced by Michael J. Fox) questions his ability after a grueling soccer match alongside George (Jonathan Lipnicki), who accidentally kicked him with a soccer ball. He becomes even more downhearted after George's toy airplane gets broken in an accident because of him. However, Mr. Little (Hugh Laurie) tells him that for every Little, there is a "silver lining", a good thing that comes out of an apparently bad situation. On his way home from school, Stuart meets a female canary named Margalo (voiced by Melanie Griffith) and they quickly become friends.

After the Littles are gone, Margalo is talking with her dad who is a peregrine falcon named Falcon (voiced by James Woods) who forces her to case and steal from households. When he presses her to find and take an object of value or lose the sanctuary he promised her, she can't seem to concentrate on her assignment because she's starting to fall in love with Stuart. Falcon eventually loses patience and threatens to have Stuart for lunch if she doesn't deliver. Worried for his safety, she takes the diamond ring of Mrs. Little (Geena Davis). When the Littles see that the ring's missing, they think it fell down the sink. Stuart offers to be lowered down the drain on a string to get it, and he almost succeeds.

When the sink breaks, Margalo saves him in time, and his thanks to her only makes her feel even more guilty, so she decides to leave. When he can't find her, he assumes that she's been kidnapped and that Falcon is somehow involved in it. He leaves on a quest to rescue her with a reluctant Snowbell (voiced by Nathan Lane), but not before setting up a plan with George. Stuart and Snowbell enlist the help of Monty (voiced by Steve Zahn), who has been thrown in the dumpster by Chinese waiters. He tells them that Falcon's lair is at the disused observation deck of the nearby Pushkin Building. They use balloons to get Stuart to the top, where he finds out that Margalo is Falcon's slave and that she was forced to take the ring.

He tries to save her by firing his bow and arrow at Falcon when he grabs him, but a vengeful Falcon drops him to try and kill him, only to have him fall in a garbage truck instead. Unaware of this, Margalo (who has been trapped in a paint can by Falcon) tells Snowbell that Falcon killed Stuart when he arrives to check on Stuart. On a garbage scow where he's ended up, Stuart blames himself for everything, has almost lost all hope, and says he is "Stuart nothing". Suddenly, he finds George's broken plane, fixes it, and flies to save Margalo, who, having been freed by Snowbell, just fled from Falcon.

Having discovered Stuart's absence and whereabouts, the Littles follow him by taxi as he begins an aerial adventure through the park, with Margalo at his side. They lose Falcon, but he catches up and makes an attempt to kill Stuart, when he detaches the plane's upper wing, damaging the main one and making it enter a steep nose dive, which fails when Stuart recovers from the dive, narrowly missing his family.

Unable to outrun Falcon, Stuart lets Margalo off. He turns and flies the damaged plane in a kamikaze run while Falcon goes into an attack dive. Stuart uses his mom's ring to temporarily blind Falcon and he quickly jumps out and uses a bandana as a parachute. The kamikaze attack works and Falcon is struck head on by the plane and defeated. Even though he survives the attack, he falls out of the sky screaming and lands in a garbage can that Monty is scavenging in and he's presumably eaten by him. When his parachute is sliced apart by the shattered plane's propeller, Stuart falls, but he's soon saved by Margalo. Stuart is congratulated by his family and Margalo, who gives Mrs. Little her ring back, and Snowbell reunites with them as well. That evening, Margalo leaves with the other birds to migrate south, but not before saying goodbye to her friends. Stuart says that the "silver lining" is that Margalo will be back in the spring and his baby sister Martha (Anna and Ashley Hoelck) says her first words: "Bye-bye, birdie." Then Stuart and his family head inside to the comfort of their home.

Characters

• Stuart Little
• Snowbell
• Monty the Mouth
• Margalo
• Frederick Little
• Eleanor Little
• George Little
• Crenshaw Little (mentioned)

Characters Introduced

• Falcon
• Martha Little
• Will Powell
• Rita Powell
• Wallace
• Irwin
• Tony
• Mark
• Rob
• Soccerball Coach
• The Soccerball Catch
• Plumber
• The Taxi Driver

Goofs

• Toward the beginning of the film when Stuart flies the model plane outside and crashes it, Eleanor, Frederick, George and Will all run out the house and into the park to chase after him. This means the baby was, presumably, left alone in the house - or, the writers just forgot about her completely.
• Eleanor refers to Crenshaw as Frederick's uncle at the beginning of the film but Crenshaw is his brother.
• When Stuart calls George on the pay phone, he is speaking into the wrong end of the receiver.
• When Irwin gets hit in the stomach with the soccer ball it bounces off of him, but in the next shot of him he is holding the ball.
• When the Snowbell exits the can to get the Little's attention, he is last seen at the rear wheel of the taxi, but at the next shot, he is back at the can's opening.
• In the final shot of the movie, as the Little family leave the rooftop, Eleanor is holding out her hand as though she is carrying Stuart, but he is not there.

Cast

• Michael J. Fox as Stuart Little, the titular protagonist.
• Melanie Griffith as Margalo, the tritagonist.
• Nathan Lane as Snowbell, the deuteragonist.
• James Woods as Falcon, the sole antagonist.
• Geena Davis as Eleanor Little, a supporting character.
• Hugh Laurie as Fredrick Little, a supporting character.
• Jonathan Lipnicki as George Little, a supporting character.
• Steve Zahn as Monty the Mouth, the secondary tritagonist.
• Anna and Ashley Hoelck as Martha Little, a supporting character.
• Marc John Jefferies as Will, a supporting character.

Critical reception

Stuart Little 2 was even more well-received than the first film. Rotten Tomatoes has reported that 84% of critics gave the film a positive review.

Soundtrack

Track Listing

1. "I'm Alive" - Celine Dion
2. "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" - Mary Mary
3. "Top of the World" - Mandy Moore
4. "Another Small Adventure" - Chantal Kreviazuk
5. "One" - Nathan Lane
6. "What I Like About You" - The Romantics
7. "Hold on to the Good Things" - Shawn Colvin
8. "Count on Me" - Billy Gilman
9. "Smile" - Vitamin C
10. "Alone Again (Naturally)" - Gilbert O'Sullivan
11. "Born to Be Wild" - Steppenwolf
12. "Little Angel of Mine" - No Secrets
13. "Falcon Finito"
14. "Silver Lining"

Tracks 13 and 14 are score music by Alan Silvestri.

Video game

Main article: Stuart Little 2 (video game)

A video game for many platforms such as PS2 and GameBoy Advance was released in 2002.