Unstable Fables: Tortoise vs. Hare (G, 2008)

Fifteen years after their first match-up, Murray Hare (voiced by Danny Glover) and Walter Tortoise (Jay Leno) are next-door neighbors and dads who can't stop replaying their famous race in their minds. When the Mt. Impossible Adventure Race looms, both Tortoise and Hare see it as a way of proving superiority, pushing their less-than-enthusiastic offspring into the race. As the stakes rise to comic heights, Crystal Tortoise (Keke Palmer) and Butch Hare (Drake Bell ) turn their perceived weaknesses into strengths and teach their fathers a lesson or two along the way.

Once again the Jim Henson Company takes on a familiar fable in UNSTABLE FABLES: TORTOISE VS. HARE and turns it into an entertaining, laugh-out-loud story that teaches lessons that will reverberate long after the movie ends. The movie pulls off the trick of presenting excessive parental pride and ambition without making the parents unlikable, and thereby provides a gentle reminder without a lecturing tone. Tortoise's insistence that "slow and steady" is the right course of action in every situation drives his daughter crazy, but it's enabled Grace a comfortable lifestyle. And Murray's excitement in having Team Hare win the race comes at least partly from a deep-seated desire to make his son proud of him. Mothers aren't let off the hook either; snarky comments between the stay-at-home Mrs. Tortoise and her working-mom neighbor Mrs. Hare will register true with members of both contingents.

The action lags in parts as the race wears on. Most kids, however, will be too busy laughing to complain. The production company has a flair for making tiny details hilarious, from the glories and defeats of fellow competitors in the Mt. Impossible race to the antics of the film crew assigned to cover the action as it unfolds. The Fable Cable Sports Network broadcast team is aware of the dramatic bonanza that a race tragedy could provide, and are all-too-eager to call one that hasn't even happened yet. And while the lesson learned by the ultimate victors in the race may make Aesop cringe, you can't argue with its veracity.

Studio: Weinstein Co.
Director: Howard E. Baker
Cast: Danny Glover, Jay Leno, Vivica A. Fox
Genre: Family and Kids
Run time: 80 minutes
Theatrical release: September 8, 2008
DVD release: September 8, 2008
MPAA Rating: G