The Amazing Maurice

Mummies was rather so-so, but The Amazing Maurice lives up to his title. This animated adaptation of Terry Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, an installment of his Discworld novels, also premiered in the States earlier this year to scarce distribution. It's available on Hulu and other streamers in case you're interested.

The Amazing Maurice (Hugh Laurie) is a talking cat who runs a Pied Piper scam with his human Keith (Himesh Patel) and a colony of talking rats. The rats invade towns, Maurice sells Keith’s services and Keith leads them away. It’s a simple scam until they target Bad Blintz. There’s no food or rats in town, which genuinely perplexes our heroes. They come across Malicia (Emilia Clarke), the mayor's genre savvy daughter and this film's narrator. They decide to investigate the mystery. Their investigation sees them cross paths with the town ratcatchers and their eerie Boss Man (David Thewlis). Meanwhile, Maurice, much to his horror, becomes a nicer cat in the process. That's basically the gist.

The film was written by Terry Rossio, an appropriate choice considering he co-wrote Shrek. It wastes little time setting up its irreverent tone. There's a framing device, the book Mr. Bunnsy has an Adventure, which Malicia frequently reads from to juxtapose with the plot. The Rats, who come with names like Dangerous Beans (David Tennant), Peaches (Gemma Arterton), Nourishing (Julie Atherton) and Darktan (Ariyon Bakare), learned morality from this book. There's even a living windup mouse, Mr. Clicky, who is more than a joke. How they and Maurice gained sentience involves Discworld mainstays Unseen University and Rincewind the Wizard. You needn't know who they are to understand that story.

Now for the cast. Maurice is a delightfully smug kitty who considers himself the smartest thing in the room. He's still compelling when his self-assuredness starts to crack, and he gradually grows selfless. You'll definitely feel it when he meets "The Grim Squeaker." The Boss Man is easily one of the most unnerving animated villains in years. You can clearly tell that this trenchcoated man is inhuman long before the reveal. Thewlis's vocal performance is wonderfully sinister. The Rats are a likable and sympathetic assortment of rodents. Keith and Malicia are likable human protagonists; her meta commentary has a few zingers. The real Pied Piper (Rob Brydon) shows up as a memorable side antagonist.

There's some great animation and character designs by Studio Rakete and Real Star 3D. Pretty much everyone except the Boss Man (obviously) are all appealing, and that includes the Ratcatchers. Its most appealing visuals come from the 2D animation in the Mr. Bunnsy scenes. It really sells us on the Peter Rabbit parody that the book is. The final battle with the Boss Man is a spectacular climax in every way. Tom Howe's score is quite splendid to listen to with and without the film. Maurice's musical number wherein he sells a town of suckers the scam is quite catchy. 

The Amazing Maurice is a wonderfully fractured fairy tale. Its voice cast is clearly having a ball with their roles, while Laurie, as Maurice himself, has the biggest one of all. I think it proudly represents its author's creativity. It's sure to entertain everyone for a nice and quick 93 minutes. It's surly worth whatever price you find it for on streaming. So, hurry up and press play.