The movie takes place probably about two or three years after the original 1999 movie. Stuart (voiced by Michael J. Fox) has become accepted fully into the Little household (which has since added a little baby daughter), but almost a little too much. His mother, Eleanor (Geena Davis), has become very overprotective of Stuart, which both he and his dad, Fredrick (Hugh Laurie), think she is going overboard (I didn’t think so, because he is three inches tall and he wanted to play soccer with a ball that could squish him!) Nevertheless, besides the domineering of his mom, there is the acceptance of his peers, especially amongst his older brother (Jonathan Lipnicki) and his friends. He is just a little too different to hang with them, so he begins to desire a friend he can relate to. One day a friend literally drops in, in the form of Margalo (voiced by Melanie Griffith.) Margalo is a canary who drops from the sky into Stuart’s car after being chased by Falcon (voiced by James! Woods.) They get away and Stuart nurses Margalo back to health. They become friends (or more, since Fredrick thinks Stuart has a crush on her.) One day, Margalo disappears and Stuart suspects that Falcon got her. With the help of the Little’s cat Snowbell (voiced by Nathan Lane), they set out to try and find her. Snowbell’s alley cat friend Monty (voiced by Steve Zahn) makes a few brief appearances in order to help Stuart and Snowbell find Margalo (and showcase Zahn’s goofy and funny vocal talents.)

Although the movie takes place in the present, it certainly has a retro style in terms of clothes and demeanor. It’s very "Brady Bunch" family style. Costumes-wise, it felt like it was out of the fifties. Eleanor wore a string of pearls, for God’s sake! I can’t remember, but I even think Fredrick was smoking a pipe (or maybe that was in the last movie…or maybe I’m thinking of a dad in a fifties Disney movie who looks just like his character…whatever.) The point is, this movie was not looking to go after the latest fads in anything, which was rather refreshing. It set its own tone.

The effects in this movie were impressive for every character with the exception of Stuart himself. I’m trying to figure out of this was on purpose or not. One of the cool things about the first movie was that the graphics were so good that it actually looked like a real mouse who just happened to talk and do other human-like things. In this one, he seemed less mouse-like, but I don’t know if that was a bout of laziness on the effects team, or because they wanted to make the audience realize that he had been living with humans so long that he just picked up more of their traits. I would guess it’s the latter, because all the other animals were graphically awesome. I was especially impressed with Margalo, because they kept the jerky movements of a canary while still allowing her to interact well with the humans and other characters.

Will anyone other than kids like this movie? Well, honestly, this movie is a lot less hip than the first movie, so I don’t think it will appeal to teens and young adults. It isn’t so sappy that parents are going to feel tortured throughout the movie. The kids, of course will love it! I will add, for the sake of finding something that will appeal to the parents, that Nathan Lane once again steals the show. He has some of the best lines in the movie and delivers them well.