Scott's World -- UPI Arts & Entertainment

HOLLYWOOD, July 18 (UPI) -- Is Mickey Mouse, Disney's beloved animated icon, in

danger of being replaced in the hearts of American children?

Possibly.

The interloper is named Stuart. Stuart Little to be exact.

Stuart, like Mickey, is a mouse, a small rodent with a hairless tail and prominent bright eyes.

For 75 years Mickey has been everybody's favorite Mus musculus in this country and abroad. Mickey, in fact, may have the most familiar movie face in history.

He has survived in the face of competition at Disney from Donald Duck, Pinocchio, Bambi, Goofy and the seven dwarfs and uncounted challengers from

other animators.

But with his oversized round ears, big bright eyes, white gloves and big yellow brogans, Mickey resembles a real mouse as much as a Rolls Royce resembles an oxcart.

Truth to tell, Mickey has become an outsized clown, a fanciful creation far removed from tiny, furry real-life mice who scurry around the world in anonymity.

That is until the arrival of Stuart in 1999 starring in "Stuart Little," the tale of an adorable white mouse who is adopted by a human family to

become the brother of a lonesome only child.

"Stuart Little" was an enormous ($300 million) box-office hit in which its diminutive title star became an overnight sensation.

In typical Hollywood fashion, a sequel has been made to capitalize on Stuart's money-making charms.

Ergo, "Stuart Little 2" is being released this week, with Michael J. Fox returning as Stuart's voice and co-starring the mouse's flesh-and-blood adoptive parents Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie, along with Jonathan Lipnicki as their son George.

Returning too is the comic villain Snowbell, a snarling, snide pussycat voiced by Nathan Lane.

This time Stuart, still a school-mouse accepted by his fellow students, is smitten by a flirty, sensual vagrant young bird named Margalo (with Melanie

Griffith's voice) with an agenda of her own.

The plot is complicated by the arrival of a scary scoundrel named Falcon (James Wood) with a diabolical scheme to exploit dear little Stuart -- make

that dear Stuart Little.

Clearly, "Stuart Little 2" was made for children, especially small kids, who share Stuart's highs and lows with heartfelt synergy.

The good news is that parents, and even older siblings, will enjoy sitting through "Stuart Little 2" for its sweetness, suspense and innocent wonder.

This film, produced by Lucia Fisher, Douglas Wick and Franklin Weatherman, contains the same aura of fun and naivete of the original under the direction

of Rob Minkoff from a screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin.

The whole shooting match is taken from the characters in E.B. White's children's book.

Magically the filmmakers have applied modern digitized technology with old-fashioned storytelling and an underlying sense of family values that makes this sequel unique among such movies today, including overweening animated Goliaths like "Shrek."

It is, moreover, as clean as a whistle. Parents won't have to cover their offspring's ears; nor is there gratuitous and graphic violence to terrify

them.

Of course thre is "good versus evil" and inevitably virtue wins out and our loving little mouse emerges victorious.

In the interest of promoting suspense it will do no good here to unveil what happens to the mysterious and engaging Margalo who won't have to worry about feathering her own nest.

Film buffs of every age will appreciate the smooth technical sophistication of blending animated characters with real-life performers in seamless scenes that create a verisimilitude seldom found in other films combining animation with human performers.

In lesser hands the movie might well have become hokey with doses of chunky home goodness oozing from every frame.

But sturdy performances by Davis, Laurie and Lipnicki staunch the treacle, amplifying author White's essential story of faith and love overcoming greed and larceny.

The real star of the film is certainly Stuart, whose joy at being accepted by schoolmates and family alike provide him with a sense of security and fulfilling relationships with which every child can associate.

Unlike the squeaky-voiced Mickey and his simplistic personality, Stuart is vulnerable to the vicissitudes and frailties of complex relationships.

He is a tiny mite holding his own in a universe of giant human beings, forever imperiled by his towering family and school chums.

He does, however, zip around in his own little automobile constantly at risk of being squashed by the immense humans he encounters everywhere he goes.

This time around, Stuart has made a somewhat testy ally of the cranky, not altogether trustworthy Snowbell in his confrontations with Falcon, who has

Margalo in his clutches along with other feathered critters.

It's quite possible "Stuart Little 2" could be the sleeper box-office movie of the summer and something of a nightmare to Mickey, who has become a full-time greeter at Disneyland.