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 . 
