Stuart Little started off as a character of a well-known novel by the same name, which became its own film in 2000. Despite this, fans have only just realised Stuart actually isn’t a mouse
While it’s been over 25 years since the first film about Stuart Little was first released in the UK, fans have only just realised the main character isn’t actually a mouse.
Stuart Little is a 1999 American live-action animated film that’s loosely based on E. B. White’s 1945 novel of the same name. The movie follows the Little family, who are looking to adopt a boy to give their son, George, a brother. At the orphanage, the parents meet Stuart, a small, but charming mouse, who apparently, is human-civilised. However, as the parents brings Stuart home with them, George refuses to acknowledge him as his brother and the family cat, Snowbell, is disgusted to be a new pet to a mouse.
The film continues to follow the little mouse-like character as he tries to find his place in the family in a comedy film that the whole family will love. However, fans might be baffled to learn that Stuart Little actually isn’t a mouse.
Taking to Reddit’s ‘Today I learned’ subreddit, one user went on to share an illustration of Stuart Little from E.B White’s novel, as they went on to share that the well-known character actually isn’t a mouse at all. At least not in the original novel.
The wrote in the caption of their post: “Today I Learned that Stuart Little isn’t a mouse, but is actually a very small human boy who just happens to look like a mouse ‘in every way’.”
This description is mentioned by White in the first chapter of the novel, where Stuart isn’t adopted by the Little family, but rather the biological child of Mr and Mrs Little.
While the family was worried at first about how Stuart would survive in a human-sized world, they soon realised he could do anything a child of a similar age could do – despite Stuart being just five centimetres tall.
In a letter White wrote in response to inquiries from readers, he described how he came to conceive of Stuart Little: “Many years ago, I went to bed one night in a railway sleeping car, and during the night I dreamed about a tiny boy who acted rather like a rat. That’s how the story of Stuart Little got started”
Several people soon took to the comment section to share their thoughts, as many were baffled by the news.
“His mum has some explaining to do,” one person jokingly said. While another user wrote: “Ok. I didn’t know that either. Makes you wonder about his parents.”
A third person chimed in: “Well, yeah. Why would an orphanage have a mouse up for adoption?” To this, someone else explained: “In the original book he wasn’t adopted. He was the biological son of Mr. and Mrs. Little (or at the very least Mrs. Little). They went to the hospital and Mrs. Little gave birth to Stuart.
They then added: “They took Stuart to a doctor who told them that he’s physiologically a mouse in every way despite being birthed by a human woman and having the ability to speak.”
