Stuart Little 2

Stuart Little 2
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Rob Minkoff
Produced by	Douglas Wick Lucy Fisher
Screenplay by	Bruce Joel Rubin
Story by	Douglas Wick Bruce Joel Rubin
Based on	Stuart Little  by E. B. White
Starring	Michael J. Fox Melanie Griffith Nathan Lane Geena Davis Hugh Laurie Jonathan Lipnicki James Woods Steve Zahn
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Cinematography	Steven Poster
Editing by	Priscilla Nedd-Friendly
Studio	Franklin/Waterman Productions Red Wagon Productions
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	July 19, 2002 (2002-07-19)
Running time	76 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$120 million[1]
Box office	$169,956,806[1]

Stuart Little 2 is a 2002 American live action and CGI animated film, directed by Rob Minkoff and starring Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie and Jonathan Lipnicki and the voices of Michael J. Fox, Nathan Lane, Melanie Griffith, James Woods (who previously starred alongside Fox in 1991's The Hard Way) and Steve Zahn. The film is a sequel to the 1999 film and includes characters from the children's book by E. B. White such as Margalo. The movie was released to theaters on July 19, 2002.

The film was followed by the third and final film, a direct-to-video sequel entitled Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild in 2006.

Plot

Three years after the first film, Stuart Little questions his ability after a grueling soccer match alongside George, who kicked him with a soccer ball. He becomes even more downhearted after George's homemade toy airplane gets broken in an accident because of him. However, Stuart's father, Frederick Little, 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 saves a canary named Margalo who is being pursued by a falcon rendered very similarly to a peregrine falcon (but sans "mustache" and hooded look), and they become friends. But Margalo is secretly working with Falcon 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, as she is beginning to fall in love with Stuart. Falcon eventually loses patience and threatens to eat Stuart if Margalo doesn't give him the ring. Worried for his safety, she takes Eleanor Little's diamond wedding ring.

When the Littles see that the ring is missing, they think it has fallen down the sink drain. Stuart offers to be lowered down the drain on a string to get it, but can't quite find it. When the string breaks Margalo saves him, and Stuart's thanks to Margalo only makes her feel even more guilty, so she decides to leave. When Stuart can't find her, he assumes she has been kidnapped - and that Falcon is somehow involved. He leaves on a quest to rescue her with the household's reluctant cat Snowbell, but not before setting up a plan with George. Stuart travels with Snowbell in his miniature car (which is somehow back in his possession after it sank in the sewers in the first movie), but his car overheats and breaks down.

Stuart and Snowbell enlist the help of Monty (Snowbell's old friend from the first movie), who tells them that Falcon's headquarters is at the disused observation deck of the nearby Pishkin Building. They use balloons to get Stuart to the top, where he finds out that Margalo is Falcon's slave, and was forced to take the ring. He tries to save her, but Falcon captures him, and drops him on to the street, but is accidentally saved by a passing garbage truck. Falcon then shuts Margalo inside a paint can as punishment for rebelling against him. Meanwhile, Snowbell makes his way to the top of the building while the Falcon is absent and frees Margalo, who tearfully tells Snowbell that Falcon killed Stuart. Distraught, Snowbell vows revenge.

On a garbage barge where he has ended up, Stuart blames himself for everything, and has almost lost all hope. Suddenly, he finds George's broken plane, fixes it up, and flies to save Margalo. Falcon returns and almost pushes Snowbell in the paint can off the building, but Margalo defies him by taking the ring and fleeing. Falcon gives chase, but Stuart catches up in the plane and saves Margalo while trying to evade the Falcon. The Littles, who have discovered his absence and whereabouts 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 causing it to enter a steep nose dive, which fails when Stuart recovers from the dive, narrowly missing the Littles. Unable to run from Falcon, he lets Margalo off. He turns and flies the damaged plane in a kamikaze run while Falcon goes into an attack dive. He uses Mrs. Little's ring to temporarily blind him, and jumps out using a bandana as a parachute. The kamikaze attack works and Falcon is struck head on and defeated. Stuart falls when his parachute is sliced apart by the propeller of the shattered plane, and then is rescued by Margalo. Although Falcon survives the attack, he is injured and falls out of the sky, and lands in a garbage can where he's eaten alive by Monty (offscreen).

Stuart is congratulated by his family, and Margalo, who gives Mrs. Little her ring back, and Snowbell reunites with them as well. Soon after, Margalo says goodbye to her friends and leaves with the other birds to migrate south for the winter. Stuart says the "silver lining" is that she'll be back in the spring, and his baby sister, Martha, says her first words: "Bye bye, birdie.", which the family then celebrates and then head inside to the comfort of their home.

Cast

Live-action

• Geena Davis as Eleanor Little
• Hugh Laurie as Frederick Little
• Jonathan Lipnicki as George Little
• Anna and Ashley Hoelck as Martha Little
• Marc John Jefferies as Will
• Jim Doughan as the football coach
• Brad Garrett as the plumber

Voices

• Michael J. Fox as Stuart Little
• Melanie Griffith as Margalo
• Nathan Lane as Snowbell
• James Woods as Falcon
• Steve Zahn as Monty

Reception

The film received positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes has reported that 81% of critics gave the film a positive review,^[2] indicating that Stuart Little 2 did surprisingly better in critical response than its predecessor.

Soundtrack

1. Main Titles / "Put a Little Love in your Heart"
2. The Soccer Ball Game
3. The Model Plane
4. Enter Margalo
5. The Family House
6. Little High, Little Low
7. You Eat like a Bird
8. Off to School
9. Enter Falcon
10. "Top of the World"
11. Vertigo
12. Down the Drain
13. Where's Margalo?
14. I'm Gonna find her
15. Monty
16. Falcon's Hideout
17. Dumped on a Garbage Barge
18. "Another Small Adventure"
19. Follow that Flying Mouse!
20. Going Up and Down
21. Face-to-Face with Falcon
22. Bye-Bye Birdie
23. End Titles

Video game

Stuart Little 2 (2002) is for the PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP and 32-bit and/or 64-bit personal computers.

Awards and Nominations

Notes

External links

• Official website
• Stuart Little 2 at the Internet Movie Database
• Stuart Little 2 at allmovie
• Stuart Little 2 at the TCM Movie Database