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Stuart Little 2 is the sequel to 1999's Stuart Little, a children's movie about a talking mouse with human-like qualities. The mouse, named Stuart, is taken in by the Little family and treated just like another one of their children. In fact, Mr. and Mrs. Little refer to Stuart as their "son" and their real son, George, calls Stuart his "brother." Other things that distinguish Stuart from other talking animal characters in movies is the fact that everyone sees Stuart for what he is. In other words, the human beings in the movie realize they are encountering a talking mouse, but they don't even bat an eyelash.
So that's the premise that must be accepted before sitting down to view Stuart Little 2. The sequel was made because the original was very successful and grossed well over $100,000,000 in the U.S. alone. That success was enough to bring the entire original cast back to reprise their roles: Geena Davis as Mrs. Little, Hugh Laurie as Mr. Little, Jonathan Lipnicki as George, Michael J. Fox as the voice of Stuart, Steve Zahn as Monty, and Nathan Lane as the voice of Snowbell, the family cat. Also added to the cast for the sequel were Melanie Griffith as the voice of Margalo and James Woods as the voice of the Evil Falcon.

As the film opens, we get a chance to see how Stuart is adjusting to life as a member of the Little family. Things don't seem to be going as well for Stuart as he had hoped. For instance, Mrs. Little is very overprotective of him and doesn't let him do things that other kids get to do. In addition, George is starting to want to go out and do things with friends without Stuart tagging along. Basically, Stuart is very lonely and could use a good friend of his own.

Just like that, a bird literally falls out of the sky and into Stuart's car. The bird's name is Margalo and she has injured her wing as she was being pursued by the Evil Falcon. Stuart immediately brings her back to the Little residence to take care of her. He is sure the rest of the family will like Margalo and says she can stay until she is completely healed. They do, and she does.

However, it turns out that things aren't quite what they seem. Margalo is actually working in cahoots with the Evil Falcon and routinely dupes people with that injured wing bit. The motive is to gain access to a house so she can then steal jewels and pass them on to the Evil Falcon. The target this time is Mrs. Little's wedding ring.

Margalo takes the ring and disappears, but this particular job wasn't quite as simple as the others. That's because she actually started to care for Stuart and felt she had a real friend for the first time in her life. Stuart, too, refuses to believe that Margalo would just leave without saying goodbye, so he goes out to track her down. There is a final confrontation with the Evil Falcon, and I'm pretty sure you can guess who wins!

Stuart Little 2 wasn't as successful as its predecessor, and I think the main reason for that is the fact that the sequel pretty much focused on the animals alone rather than on the way the animals interacted with the humans. Whereas in the first movie, we got to see how Stuart's relationship with George and the rest of the Little's developed, in this movie we were watching Stuart get along with other animals. That just wasn't as interesting or entertaining.

This movie doesn't have very much to offer adults who are watching with their children, but it should be able to hold your kids' attention. At just an hour and ten minutes long, it's short enough that they won't get too tired of sitting there and there are enough action sequences to prevent them from being bored.

Overall, Stuart Little 2 is a decent movie to rent. It's not one that you'll treasure as part of your own collection, but you'll definitely get your money's worth for Family Movie Night if you have young children.