This Hit M. Night Shyamalan Kids Movie Has A Shockingly Low Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

M. Night Shyamalan made his directorial debut in 1992 with the semi-autobiographical "Playing with Anger," a film that — despite the director's eventual fame and success — remains obscure. He made it by borrowing money from his family and his friends, so it was a very personal affair. Shyamalan asked his parents to serve as associate producers on his next film, "Wide Awake," which ended up getting a sweet distribution deal from Miramax Films. In 1999, Shyamalan wrote and directed "The Sixth Sense," a $40 million film that earned an unexpected $672 million at the box office. It was also animated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. 

And that was only part of Shyamalan's 1999 success story. He had also managed to land a few high-profile writing gigs for major Hollywood studios; he did a brush-up on the teen comedy "She's All That," and, more pertinently for this article, co-wrote the screenplay for Rob Minkoff's "Stuart Little," a family film inspired by the celebrated E.B. White novel. 

White's 1945 novel "Stuart Little" was about a small, inches-high human boy named Stuart who just happened to nearly exactly resemble a mouse. In the book, Stuart is born to a human family, and displays extraordinary intelligence, being as smart as a teenager by the age of seven. Because he is so small, he can help with chores around the house, although he runs afoul of the family cat. In the film, Stuart (voiced by Michael J. Fox) is adopted by a human family (Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie, Jonathan Lipnicki).

The film was a hit, making over $300 million on a $133 million budget, but it was slammed by audiences online. On Rotten Tomatoes, audiences only gave it a 41% approval rating. 

It should be noted that "Stuart Little" was given warm-enough praise from critics. It holds a 67% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 95 reviews) with critics being split between thinking it's harmless and thinking it's bland. A film like "Stuart Little" is right-up-the-middle Hollywood product, with slick production values, a few big stars, a few amusing jokes, and just enough charm to keep the kids interested. There doesn't seem to be any of Shyamalan's trademark plot twists or whimsical humor embedded in the film.

Audiences loved "Stuart Little" enough to make it a modest hit, but not enough to give it good reviews. The 41% audience approval (based on over 250,000 ratings) seem to feel, overall, that "Stuart Little" is frustratingly insubstantial. Audience reviews are, of course, haphazard and usually contain only a few words, but the overall sentiment seems to be that "Stuart Little" is sweet and cute, but also a little annoying. Stuart, it should be noted, was achieved via then-advanced CGI, and his design was to make him more mouse-like than in the book. There was also less in the film about Stuart's ingenuity, making him more like a love little moppet than a clever aberration. 

As such, audiences seem to feel, "Stuart Little" didn't have a lot going for it. It was enough of a hit to warrant a sequel, "Stuart Little 2" (2002), which was also directed by Minkoff, but not penned by Shyamalan. The "Sixth Sense" director also had no hand in the straight-to-video animated sequel "Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild" (2006). Michael J. Fox played Stuart in all three, and Davis, Laurie, and Lipnicki also took part. 

In 2002 and 2006, Shyamalan was busy with "Signs" and "Lady in the Water" respectively.