christian movie review the amazing maurice

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• DVD & Streaming

The Amazing Maurice

• Animation , Kids

Content Caution

In Theaters

• February 3, 2023
• Hugh Laurie as Maurice; Emilia Clarke as Malicia; David Thewlis as Boss Man; Himesh Patel as Keith; Gemma Arterton as Peaches; Hugh Bonneville as The Mayor; David Tennant as Dangerous Beans; Rob Brydon as The Pied Piper; Julie Atherton as Nourishing; Joe Sugg as Sardines

Home Release Date

• April 4, 2023
• Toby Genkel

Distributor

• Sky Original/Viva Pictures

Movie Review

Don’t call him Morris. It’s Maurice , thanks ever so. He’ll tell you as much himself.

What? You ask how can Mor—er, Maurice tell you his name? You say that felines don’t talk? Well, this one can. Cat got his tongue, you might say.

But Maurice’s gift of tabby gab may be only the second-most remarkable thing about him. The first might be the fact that he hangs out with an equally loquacious company of rats.

Blame the denizens of Unseen University, who tossed out all manner of potions and spellbooks that the rats devoured (as rats do). Soon, this pack of rodents became sentient—not only able to talk, but to read and think and (in one notable case) wear top hats and dance. As for Maurice—well, he hung out in the same magical junkpile. Perhaps (he’ll tell you, with just a hint of evasiveness) that just being in proximity to all these smart rats made him smarter, too.

But naturally, a heap of rubbish is no place for smart, sentient animals, no matter how magical it might be. So they left the Unseen University and now travel the land—swindling people out of their money.

The scheme is simple. The rats invade a town. The townspeople panic. Maurice introduces said townspeople to a mystical Pied Piper-like character named Keith (a decent-but-not-particularly-creative human), who promptly brandishes his pipe and leads these apparently charmed rats out of town. Deliriously happy townspeople shower Maurice and Keith with money. And then, off they go to the next town.

It’s a good gig, as far as it goes. Or at least it had been.

But there’s something a little odd about the newest township they’ve come to swindle. First, it seems completely bereft of food. The townspeople assume there’s already a massive rat problem, because how else to explain where all the pumpernickel goes?

But in investigating the city’s sewers, Maurice and company discover odd thing number two: It would seem there aren’t any rats, either. Not that Maurice and his sharp-toothed friends can sniff out, at any rate. And the town is already hosting a pair of swarthy-looking rat-catchers and their mysterious, big-hatted boss.

Could it be that these folks have their own swindle going on?

No, something doesn’t smell right about this situation. In fact, it smells downright … ratten .

Positive Elements

Rats rarely get to be the heroes in stories, be they magic or no. But these rats aren’t just smart: They’re reasonably moral, too. Perhaps we can thank Dangerous Beans for that.

Dangerous Beans is the rats’ de facto spiritual leader, and he questions the morality of tricking humans out of their hard-earned coin. (Maurice, naturally, disagrees. “Trickery is what humans are all about!” the cat insists.) Dangerous Beans would like to live in harmony with humankind, and he has a deep affection for the rodents in his care. He is, indeed, willing to risk his life for them.

This sort of sacrificial aplomb is wildly unusual for rats in general, but not for this group of intelligent rodents. They are, in many respects, an extended family—with each working in his or her own way for the betterment of others in the community.

Maurice, being a cat, has no such altruistic notions. Except that, maybe deep down under his orange fur coat, he does . And when Maurice’s own sacrificial tendencies well up, he’s just as surprised as anyone. He sacrifices a great deal for what would be, for most cats, simply a talkative meal.

Pipe-player Keith is fairly instrumental (get it?) in the good turns this story takes, too. He and a newfound friend, Malicia, dive into the mystery of the missing food/rats with enthusiasm, eventually braving a deep, dark forest to retrieve a magical item that they hope will save the day.

Spiritual Elements

Let’s go back to Dangerous Beans. He is, as mentioned, the spiritual leader of the rats, and The Amazing Maurice stresses his religious nature. Indeed, he walks about with a shepherd’s crook (a symbol of Christian spiritual leadership) and teaches his flock out of a “sacred book”—in this case, Mr. Bunnsy Has an Adventure . It’s a Peter Cottontail sort of story, but what Dangerous Beans takes from it is the concept of an “ideal land where animals talk and live side by side with people in peace,” and where “nothing truly bad ever happens.”

Maurice claims (for his own malicious ends) to have known people who’ve been to the land of Mr. Bunnsy. But when the proverbial cat gets out of the bag that the land is fictional, some rats react as if their faith has been obliterated. Dangerous Beans tries to rally them behind a new vision—that if they stick together, they can work to build such a world—but it’s a more difficult sell.

While Mr. Bunnsy’s land is suggested to be fictional, The Amazing Maurice does give a nod to a potential afterlife of sorts—or, at least, some sort of blank netherworld between life and death. A character meets with both the Grim Reaper and his more diminutive rat companion (the Grim Squeaker, also decked out in black and carrying a tiny scythe) there. In one case, death is mystically reversed.

Sexual Content

Keith is smitten with Malicia almost immediately. Malicia, meanwhile, is more enamored with the building blocks of stories, and initially dismisses Keith because of the sort of story she feels like she’s in. “You’re not handsome enough to be a love interest, and you’re not funny enough to be comic relief,” she tells him. “Maybe you’re a sympathetic friend to serve as a sounding board.”

Later, Malicia seems to warm up to Keith. But she laments that he doesn’t seem to have another love interest anywhere. If he did, there might be hope for their relationship yet. “Love complications,” she says. “Every story needs them. [But] since there isn’t anyone else, I’m not that girl.”

Turns out, she is that girl. The two end up kissing, both on the cheeks and on the lips.

Violent Content

The Amazing Maurice can be surprisingly intense for a PG movie. While we don’t see a lot of violence, we hear about it—and young imaginations might fill in the gaps.

We see, for example, a scene involving (the real-life activity of) rat-baiting: Rats are dropped in a small, circular pen and chased by a dog while spectators bet on how long the dog takes to kill them. Audiences will see a ravenous dog and some terrified rats before the camera swings away. We see, instead, some sentient rat characters watch the atrocity with horror. A couple of sentient rats do wind up in the rat pit with a dog, and one fights with it—eventually knocking the pooch senseless. (The rumble sparks a wider fight among the human gamblers, and we see several strewn the ground, bloodied and unconscious.)

Keith and Malicia meet the real Pied Piper, who “plays” a living turkey straight into an oven to cook it. When they ask if he really stole away a town full of children, the Piper’s deeply disturbing laugh tells them all they need to know. The movie suggests that he cooked those children, too—because he tries to do the same with Keith and Malicia. (They’re not cooked, but the Piper singes his own behind before falling down into a well.)

We see cartoony skeletons of rats, at least one of which was poisoned. An evil entity envelops rats into itself, and it’s insinuated that those not strong enough to join with the entity are killed. A character or two lose their lives, and several non-sentient rats are struck down. We see plenty of slapstick violence. Keith pretends to lure rats to their death via his “magic” pipe. Maurice, despite being on friendly terms with rats, still has a hankering to eat them, and we see that frightening desire a couple of times.

Crude or Profane Language

Drug and alcohol content, other negative elements.

A character tricks a couple of people into eating food laced with laxatives. She tells the two victims that she poisoned them, then gives them more laxatives as an “antidote.” We hear some flatulent noises in the aftermath.

Food is stolen. Rats and cats alike work to trick humankind. And Maurice has his own somewhat malicious schemes going on, too. We see some congealed milk slide, like gelatin, out of a bottle.

On the most superficial level, The Amazing Maurice is a cute, clever, somewhat darkish cartoon that gives us a nice twist on your standard fairy tale. We’re introduced to a pack of charismatic rats and their underhanded feline friend. Together (with a couple of humans thrown in for good measure), they free a town from a creepily evil force. Characters (both human and animal) dig deep within themselves to find the strength and sacrifice needed to save the day. And while the story might definitely disturb some young ‘uns, there’s not a lot of problematic content that might sully the party otherwise.

But dig just a wee bit deeper, and you uncover some other elements that might be worth a pause.

The Amazing Maurice is based on the book The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents , written by the famed author Terry Pratchett. It’s part of his sprawling Discworld series (the 28 th book in that series, in fact), and the first one he wrote for kids. Before his death, Pratchett described himself as an atheist and a humanist, and his humanistic philosophy stands front-and-center in The Amazing Maurice .

The story pokes a bit of fun at the Bible with Mr. Bunnsy Has an Adventure and ridicules the idea of heaven. When the Mr. Bunnsy book is revealed as fiction, Dangerous Beans insists that there’s still validity in its ethical teachings. “The book is not what matters!” He shouts. “It’s what we make of it!”

Christians, of course, would say the book matters very much indeed.

Perhaps we should be gratified. Dangerous Beans— Mr. Bunnsy’ s principled prophet—is the most virtuous, ethical character we meet. The Amazing Maurice may not cotton to religion, but this is no angry anti-religious scree. And certainly, one could potentially sidestep the movie’s humanist message and treat the thing as, again, a rather clever fairy tale.

Still, the echo is there. And certainly, there’s a potential that the movie might inspire discussion and questions from its young viewers. So for some parents, Beans might not be the only thing dangerous here.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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THE AMAZING MAURICE

"fantastical, unique reimagining of classic fairytales".

What You Need To Know:

Miscellaneous Immorality: For most the movie, Maurice justifies his selfish action because he’s a cat, even stealing and abandoning his friends, but he’s ultimately redeemed by the end of the story.

More Detail:

Based on a children’s book by Terry Pratchett, THE AMAZING MAURICE follows a con-artist cat and his band of loyal, talking rats. The movie pokes fun at many classic fairytale tropes. It begins with narration about a harmonious group of animals who talk, wear clothes and interact with humans.

The story then cuts to Maurice, the band of rats, and a boy named Keith posing as the Pied Piper, who are scamming villages and towns out of money. Maurice, the band’s spokesperson, claims he can solve the town’s rat problem by calling the Pied Piper. After the townsfolk pay up, Maurice, the rats and Keith take off with the money.

Although the wiser of the rats has some reservation about stealing money, Maurice convinces them to do one more con before they search for the paradise from the book which is read by the narrator from the start of the movie. However, they quickly realize that something is off about the next town. There’s no food anywhere to be seen, and there are bounties on captured rats.

While searching for food, Maurice, Keith and one of the talking rats run into the narrator, Malicia, who’s the town mayor’s daughter. Together, they discover there’s an evil mystery behind the land’s famine.

When several of the talking rats are captured, Maurice runs away to save himself. However, when the evil shows itself to the town and Maurice, he knows that if he does not work together with Keith, Malicia and the rats, the whole kingdom could be in danger.

THE AMAZING MAURICE is a unique animated adventure with tons of fun nods to classic fairytale stories like the Pied Piper, Hansel and Gretel, and more. The voice acting and excellent animation make for an entertaining animated movie.

While there is a strong message about sacrifice, the moral themes are marred by some intense sequences of peril and violence, as well as some fantasy magic. For young children, the main villain character will be frightening, and there are some jump scares that could frighten younger audiences. Ultimately, THE AMAZING MAURICE is an entertaining animated movie, but parents should use discernment before watching with their children.

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, chaz's journal, great movies, contributors, the amazing maurice.

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Terry Rossio , one of the writers of “ Shrek ,” brings some of that fractured fairy tale energy to this week’s odd duck of an animated movie, a CGI fantasy that blends the familiar with the literary work of the legendary fantasy writer Terry Pratchett . The writer of the Discworld series took a detour for the 28 th book in that series, 2001’s The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents , winning the Carnegie Medal (a prize given by British librarians for the year’s best children’s book) for his efforts. The book sounds delightful, but Toby Genkel ’s film isn’t quite so. It could be because of deviations from the source, the bland visual style of the film that’s just unambitious enough to be annoying, or the unengaging story, but “The Amazing Maurice” is, well, less-than-amazing. Only a game voice cast keeps it from total disaster.

Hugh Laurie voices the title character, a charming, talking cat in a world where not all animals talk. (Why he and his rat buddies can speak is one of the plot's mysteries.) Anyway, Maurice goes to small villages and sings about their rat problem, revealing that only he and his buddy Keith ( Himesh Patel ) can “pied piper” the rats out of town and save the day. For a price, of course. It’s all a scam. Keith, Maurice, and even the rats (including ones voiced by Gemma Arterton and David Tennant , among others) are just trying to make a little coin on their way across the country.

Maurice and the gang cross paths with the precocious Malicia ( Emilia Clarke ), who also narrates the film in a way that pushes the boundaries of meta-quirkiness. She’s a narrator who knows all of the tropes and clichés of a fantasy adventure story and so regularly calls attention to them with lines like “That’s the beauty of a framing device—I can tell you things about this story you wouldn’t otherwise know.” Clarke has some fun with the character device of someone who seems to know the genre of film they’re in, but it’s a bit that grows tired before it stops, one of several choices by Rossio that feels like it thinks it’s smarter than it is. It’s often a problem with meta-, self-aware screenwriting because it can easily verge into pretentious condescension.

The kids probably won’t notice. They’ll go along for the ride as Malicia, Keith, and Maurice investigate why all the food has gone missing in a new village. Is there an actual famine or plague on the horizon? Or could it be the fault of the masked villain ( David Thewlis ) who seems to be pulling some very bizarre strings? Thewlis is the king of the malevolent voice work (his choices on “Big Mouth” are inspired) and he digs into the villain role here with gusto. To be fair, Clarke has just the right playful spirit, and Laurie nails the sly wit in a way that makes you want to see him actually voice the Cheshire Cat of Alice in Wonderland fame.

It's an A-list voice cast saddled with a screenplay that’s just not up to their skill set. “The Amazing Maurice” is also another computer-animated film that never gets visually ambitious enough. Oh, it threatens to do so, with village streets that promise adventure down every alley, but the world-building here is surprisingly weak given the source material and the potential of the story to get weird. It’s almost as if the producers knew they had a bizarre book to adapt but never really embraced the quirkiness of this riff on the Pied Piper. Some of the rats are delightfully bizarre, but the character design is never as adventurous as it should be.

I generally avoid direct comparisons but there’s another fable-based story about a cat in theaters right now that makes it hard. “ Puss in Boots: The Last Wish ” was arguably the most surprising animated film of 2022, a family film that avoided sequelitis with daring visuals and a story in which parents and children could get invested. It didn’t rely on the familiar, giving its universe a rich visual language and unexpected twists. “The Amazing Maurice” almost feels more like a dull “Shrek” sequel than that Oscar nominee. Malicia may know everything about the clichés of the fable genre, but that doesn’t make it any more tolerable when her film falls into so many of them.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film credits.

The Amazing Maurice (2023)

Rated PG for action/peril and some rude material.

Hugh Laurie as Maurice (voice)

Emilia Clarke as Malicia (voice)

David Thewlis as Boss Man / Rat King (voice)

Himesh Patel as Keith (voice)

Gemma Arterton as Peaches (voice)

Hugh Bonneville as The Mayor (voice)

Ariyon Bakare as Darktan (voice)

Julie Atherton as Nourishing (voice)

David Tennant as Dangerous Beans (voice)

Joe Sugg as Sardines (voice)

Peter Serafinowicz as Death (voice)

• Toby Genkel

Writer (based on the book "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" by)

• Terry Pratchett
• Terry Rossio
• Robert Chandler
• Adam Dolniak
• Friedolin Dreesen

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The Amazing Maurice

Where to watch.

Watch The Amazing Maurice with a subscription on Hulu, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

You may not necessarily need to rush out and see it right meow, but The Amazing Maurice is a solid book adaptation that makes for fun family viewing.

Although it's probably a little intense for really young viewers, The Amazing Maurice should entertain anyone who enjoyed the book.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Toby Genkel

Florian Westermann

Hugh Laurie

Emilia Clarke

Himesh Patel

Gemma Arterton

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Eye For Film >> Movies >> The Amazing Maurice (2022) Film Review

The amazing maurice.

Reviewed by: Amber Wilkinson

Terry Pratchett was a man who knew the rules of traditional storytelling and characters and that knowledge allowed him to bend them in interesting ways that retained a whiff of the original while being original in themselves. So it is with this family tale that's scampering on to Sky TV this Christmas in the UK and then heading Stateside to Sundance .

Very loosely based around the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, it's full of knowing nods to that story. It also comes complete with a framing device in which our young heroine Malicia (voiced by Emilia Clarke) goes so far as to note that she's part of a framing device. Whether things need to be quite this meta is debatable, but the fourth wall breaking is kept reasonably sprightly and mostly in its place by Shrek writing veteran Terry Rossio. At one point Malicia declares: "In many ways, I don't think the plot of this adventure has been properly structured" - but it has arguably been structured to within an inch of its life.

The main focus of the tale is Maurice, a large ginger moggie with a mouthful of teeth that would put the Cheshire Cat in the shade and who is forced to remind people at regular intervals that it's pronounced "Maureeees". He's a sarky sort, he is a cat after all, and Hugh Laurie's vocals suit him perfectly. Maurice's mates - who have lost top billing in the transition from source book The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents to the film - are a band of rats. They are far more chatty than most after dining on the wizardry dump near the Unseen University and they've also got a young human called Keith (Himesh Patel) in tow. Keith has an important part to play in the little band's ruse, which sees them travel from town to town creating a 'plague of rats' until Keith pipes the rodents away for a suitable sum. The mice think that Maurice is saving the cash so they can go to live on an island they have read about in a book and believe is a paradise, where men and rats live side by side. Maurice? Well, as previously noted, Maurice is a cat, so has other ideas.

Often cats are portrayed as simplistic bad guys but Maurice is more of a flawed feline than anything more sinister, which is just as well because soon he and his chums will be teaming up with Malicia in order to take on dangerous villain Boss Man (David Thewlis, having a lot of vocal fun) in order to save a town from famine. Throw in the actual Pied Piper (Rob Brydon), who has more than a screw loose, and the stage is set for a fair bit of adventurous family fun and a decent dose of mild peril. The animation from Toby Genkel and Florian Westermann's team has a cosy feel and warm colour palette and there's a decent amount of visual gags as well as scripted one-liners.

The rats - which are all named after things they found in the dump, including Dangerous Beans (David Tennant), Darktan (Ariyon Daktari) and Peaches (Gemma Arterton) - are all lovingly rendered with distinctive clothing and characterisation. The plot is straightforward enough to follow even for young audiences, while older ones will doubtless enjoy the riffs on the classics that are aimed at them. Like the Cheshire cat, the last thing to fade will be your grin.

Director: Toby Genkel

Writer: Terry Rossio

Starring: Voiced by, Hugh Laurie, Emilia Clarke, Himesh Patel, Gemma Arterton

Runtime: 93 minutes

Country: Germany, UK

Streaming on: Sky Cinema

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The amazing maurice.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 9 Reviews
• Kids Say 2 Reviews

Parents Say

Based on 9 parent reviews

Parent Reviews

Hard to follow, report this review.

This title has:

• Too much violence

Fun action animated movie with silliness and Terry Patchett

• Great messages

Completely chaotic and cluttered storyline - Exhausting on the senses

Good, not great, the antogonist is a really mean guy, they go overboard, dark... will promote fear, gets worse and worse, what to watch next.

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THE AMAZING MAURICE

(The  2023 Sundance Film Festival takes place January 19-29 in and around Park City, UT and virtually. As always, Hammer to Nail has you covered with tons of movie reviews like Chris Reed’s review of the film The Amazing Maurice. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page .)

Fans of Terry Pratchett, rejoice!  The Amazing Maurice  is here, filled with all the wild world-building that is the late science-fiction and fantasy author’s preserve. Based on his  The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents  (part of the Discworld series), the movie is a delightful, peculiar take on fairy tales (including its direct riff on  The Pied Piper of Hamelin ), with a fussy feline and a merry band of rats front and center. There are some humans, too, and director Toby Genkel ( Smelliville ) and screenwriter Terry Rossio ( Godzilla vs. Kong ) make sure they’re equally as bizarre. All in all, expect a twisted tale of courage and cowardice intertwined, served up with bright colors and sparkling animation (to match the wit, of course).

The cast is equally fine, headlined by Hugh Laurie ( The Personal History of David Copperfield ) as the titular character, with Emilia Clarke ( Solo: A Star Wars Story ), Himesh Patel ( Yesterday ), Gemma Arterton ( Summerland ), and the ever-engaging David Thewlis ( Guest of Honour ) playing often-equal parts in the drama. Clarke voices Malicia, a plucky young woman who both narrates and is part of the narrative (“Who says you can’t do both?” she asks), driving the story forward with her relentless energy. She starts off with a selection from  Mr Bunnsy Has an Adventure , a parody of Beatrix Potter that is not only in her library but also serves as inspiration to the rats keeping Maurice company.

About those rodents (and Maurice). It seems they all gained intelligence, consciousness, and the power of speech after eating trash from some sort of institute of magic. That’s what happened to the rats, anyway. Maurice, it turns out, ate one of those rats and then was himself similarly affected. Horrors, no! Let’s not dwell on the sordid past, however; for by now, Maurice and his little pals are collaborators, swindling unsuspecting villagers out of precious coin with the help of Keith (Patel), a human with a musical pipe, by pretending to infest and then clear an area of rats. All works well until they arrive in a town where there are neither rats nor food. Or so they think.

Before long, they discover that something horrifically nefarious is at work, testing their skills and brains. This is where Malicia enters the actual plot (she’s the daughter of the mayor), and soon she and Keith are working together while the rats are off doing their own thing and Maurice is, well, occasionally helpful. Shenanigans are afoot, and I am more than here for them.

No matter the eventual high stakes for our protagonists, the movie remains family friendly at all times (it is in the “Kids” section of Sundance, after all). But this being a Pratchett adaptation, you know that his unique brand of idiosyncrasies will keep the sentiment at bay. A good time is had, most deviantly.

– Christopher Llewellyn Reed ( @ChrisReedFilm )

2023 Sundance Film Festival; Terry Pratchett, Toby Genkel; The Amazing Maurice movie review

Christopher Reed

Christopher Llewellyn Reed is a film critic, filmmaker, and educator. A member of both the Online Film Critics Society ( OFCS ) and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association ( WAFCA ) and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic , he is: lead film critic at Hammer to Nail ; editor at Film Festival Today ; formerly the host of the award-winning Reel Talk with Christopher Llewellyn Reed , from Dragon Digital Media; and the author of Film Editing: Theory and Practice . In addition, he is one of the founders and former cohosts of The Fog of Truth , a podcast devoted to documentary cinema.

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‘The Amazing Maurice’ Review: A Cool Cat and His Band of Merry Rodents

Hugh Laurie voices a quippy, self-referential cat in this animated adaptation of a popular Terry Pratchett book.

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By Calum Marsh

“You know, in many ways, I don’t think the plot of this adventure has been properly structured,” observes the droll Malicia Grim (voiced by Emilia Clarke) during a brief lull in the middle of “The Amazing Maurice.”

An animated comedy based on Terry Pratchett’s semi-parodic children’s novel “The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents,” the film abounds with this style of flamboyant, self-congratulatory humor, as Malicia and the talking feline hero Maurice (voiced by Hugh Laurie) routinely break the fourth wall with satirical commentary and glib meta wisecracking.

The effect is a kind of self-important distance, as if the director Toby Genkel and his co-creators considered the material beneath them. What should be a cute story about a mischievous orange tabby cat instead becomes an ironic, even vaguely smug movie in the vein of something like “Deadpool.”

The foundation of the story derives from the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin — in particular the version made famous by the Brothers Grimm: Maurice and his band of friendly, intelligent rats (among them the voices of David Tennant and Gemma Arterton) travel from town to town feigning an infestation, then providing the helpful services of an ersatz pied piper, Keith (Himesh Patel), to clear it up.

The modern, coolly sarcastic big-kid riff on a familiar fairy tale has been done before, most notably in “Shrek.” And while it might still have seemed somewhat fresh when Pratchett’s book was first published, in 2001, it now feels like a poor imitation — doubly so when one considers that the script for “The Amazing Maurice” was penned by the “Shrek” screenwriter Terry Rossio, who, with his constant gags about fairy tale clichés, does little to elevate the copy above the original.

The Amazing Maurice Rated PG. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters.

Culture | Film

The Amazing Maurice movie review - a breezy film that will please Terry Pratchett devotees

Some authors are cosy. Some have coziness thrust upon them. For reasons too convoluted to explain, mordant British writer Terry Pratchett, who died in 2015, has become synonymous with the festive season.

So it’s apt this 3D cartoon adaptation of his 2001 Discworld novel (which isn’t Christmassy, per se) has received a December release. Currently, we need all the cheer we can get and, given an extra push by two Davids (Tennant and Thewlis), Toby Genkel’s visually quirky kids movie delivers.

It’s a self-conscious riff on fairytale The Pied Piper, with arch heroine/narrator Malicia (Emilia Clarke) , the gothically-inclined Mayor’s daughter, guiding us through what amounts to an existential whodunnit. Rats (as well as food) are disappearing from all the towns in Discworld, to the horror of duplicitous ginger tom, Maurice (Hugh Laurie), who for years has been exploiting musophobia via a “Pied-Piper” scam.

Maurice works with a sweet musician called Keith (Himesh Patel) and a bunch of clever, if naive, talking rats, including the adorably zen Dangerous Beans (Tennant). Maurice realises they’ll all be out of a job if they don’t solve the mystery. So he and his gang, and Malicia, start looking for clues.

The baddie of the piece, Boss Man (Thewlis, channelling all his dark and whimsical intensity) is the most nebulous of puppet-masters, as hard to pin down as a blob of mercury.

If you have a problem with undulating fur and slinky-shiny tails, prepare to squeal. As someone whose second favourite character in Charlotte’s Web was brainy rat Templeton, I loved it. And it toys with our expectations about rats in an especially smart way.

The other highlight is getting to hang out with the ‘real’ Pied Piper (Rob Brydon). This lone-wolf musician lives in the forest, wears folk-horror garb and has a casually vicious mien. Tender-hearted infants may need assistance during these night-time scenes. It really feels as if we’ve stumbled into a thicket of malice.

Meanwhile, Pratchett devotees will appreciate a nice in-joke. In the Mayor’s house, a picture on the wall shows a turtle that looks just like Discworld’s Great A’Tuin. The way Pratchett blends myths and eco-concerns has had a huge influence on younger artists (Disney’s Strange World owes him a huge debt). But Genkel and scriptwriter Terry Rossio don’t over-do the deference.

They’ve made a breezy little film, about how it’s cool to be a rat. Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals!

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‘The Amazing Maurice’ Review: Animated Comedy Shows Terry Pratchett’s Work Still Defies Adaptation

This tale of a talking cat, religious rats and Death certainly isn’t the usual family cartoon, but it doesn’t quite fulfill its lofty ambitions

This review originally ran January 23, 2023, in conjunction with the film’s US premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

The collected “Discworld” novels by Terry Pratchett are so weird and so imaginative and so wry that very few filmmakers have ever seriously tried to adapt them. We’ve had one short-lived live-action series, one short film, a few animated mini-series and three ambitious live-action mini-series. (“The Hogfather” is a perennial yuletide viewing experience for all of us, or at least it should be.)

But feature films have eluded the dwellers of “Discworld” until just about — actually wait, let me check my watch here — now.

“The Amazing Maurice,” based on the 2001 children’s book “The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents,” features the voice of Hugh Laurie as the title character. He’s a cat who can talk in a world where cats don’t usually do that, even though magic is real, the living personification of Death walks among us and fairy-tale characters abound as well.

Then again, rats can’t talk either, but there sure are a lot of talking rats in “The Amazing Maurice.” It turns out they were living in the trash pile full of discarded wizard’s potions, they ate a bunch of weird glowing goo, and now here they are, like the rats of NIMH but more easily swayed by religious zeitgeist.

Because you see, Maurice has tricked these talking rats into believing that a children’s storybook, the Beatrix Potter–esque “Mr. Bunny Has an Adventure,” is actually a promise of a faraway utopia where animals wear clothes and live among humans as equals. But in order to get there, they’ll have to raise a lot of money, naturally. So Maurice and a human being with all the personality of a paper bag named Keith (Himesh Patel, “Enola Holmes 2”) pull a Pied-Piper scam, filling cities with rats and then musically removing them, cutting the rats in on the deal.

Unfortunately, the rats are now developing a complex and powerful sense of morality, thanks in large part to their spiritual leader Dangerous Beans (David Tennant). They don’t want to trick their way into paradise. But they embark on another job anyway in a town where, wouldn’t you know it, there are plot points afoot. A couple of rat-catchers have already removed the rats, but the food keeps disappearing anyway, and now it’s up to Maurice, Keith, the rats and the mayor’s daughter Malicia (Emilie Clarke) to solve the mystery and save the day.

Malicia is rather a lot. She narrates “The Amazing Maurice” via a framing device in which she explains the concept of a framing device, and then reduces every other aspect of the story to a familiar cliché as well. She does this within the story too, with practically every line of dialogue, and the film isn’t quite charming or funny enough to get away with that. You can only wink so many times before people think you’re not doing it on purpose and just have something in your eye.

It’s unfortunately rather endemic to “The Amazing Maurice” as a whole. It’s a film that’s extraordinarily clever and proud of itself, even though it rarely manages to make that cleverness fun for the rest of us. The film expects applause for its encyclopedic knowledge of tvtropes.com but rarely earns applause for using that self-awareness to make funny jokes, tell a satisfying story or impress us with genuine satirical insight.

Of course, animated movies about fairy-tale scenarios have been self-aware for quite a while now, and it’s not like the “Shrek” movies were so mind-bogglingly brilliant that nobody else can horn in on their territory. But “The Amazing Maurice” just has a frustrating way of making smart ideas seem uninspired and funny jokes not funny. It’s all in the execution, and the executioner has their hood on backwards and keeps swinging the axe anyway.

There are moments in “The Amazing Maurice” where director Toby Genkel, co-director Florian Westermann and screenwriter Terry Rossio (“The Lone Ranger”) lean heavily into the religious allegory and try to make serious points about faith, but the film sets up that conflict in such a halfhearted, clunky way that it doesn’t amount to much. Dangerous Beans seems to be a metaphor for Christian saviors but doesn’t have very much to expound other than hope is good, and not to take the Bible — I mean, “Mr. Bunny Has an Adventure” — too literally. A whole can of worms gets opened, and they only used one. It’s a bit of a waste.

As far as the characters go, Malicia is very amusing, but she sucks all the air out of the room, leaving poor Keith suffocating for screen time, character development or a sliver of personality. Maurice is ostensibly the lead, but it feels like the movie forgets about him most of the time, shoveling his path to redemption into the final act where it plays well but probably could have been set up more effectively and to bigger impact.

The animation in “The Amazing Maurice” is all perfectly competent, and occasionally rather playful, but it never quite matches the whirlwind energy of the story or (some of) the characters. Only the villainous Boss Man, voiced by David Thewlis, comes across like an interesting creation. The secret origins of his bizarre figure, swathed in baggy clothes, are rather obvious from the outset but nevertheless yield creepy, interesting physicality.

Families confusing “The Amazing Maurice” with a conventional American animated studio film may be somewhat surprised, however, to discover that the film goes to some deeply unpleasant places with its animal characters. Death is a literal figure here and so is, not coincidentally, Death of Rats, his rodential counterpart, and they’re on the job today. The sudden onset of violence in the film is technically off camera but nevertheless harsh, and families should probably be prepared for it, even if it’s arguably necessary for the heaviness of the thematic material to sink in.

It’s tempting to sign off by arguing that “The Amazing Maurice” isn’t amazing, but it’s not an everyday film either. It’s a seemingly honest attempt to translate Terry Pratchett’s bizarre, overstuffed, heady world of wonder into an animated film that’s relatively family-friendly, and everybody here deserves bonus points for even trying. They came pretty close to getting the mixture right; it would just be an exaggeration to say they got close enough.

“The Amazing Maurice” opens in US theaters Feb. 3.

The Amazing Maurice Review: A Sinister Villain Elevates This Humdrum Kid's Flick [Sundance]

Based on Terry Pratchett's first children's novel, "The Amazing Maurice" follows a talking cat named — you guessed it — Maurice (Hugh Laurie). Maurice leads his merry band of rats, who also talk, to various towns. They have a successful money-making scheme, as the rats take over the town like a plague, and their friend, the Pied Piper (Himesh Patel) lures them away with his music, which spurns the townsfolk to shower him with riches. They're all in on the scheme, and they share the money, unbeknownst to those ponying up the cash. 

There's something mysterious afoot in the next town the gang plans to scheme. All the food seems to have gone missing. It's here that Piper and Maurice meet Malicia (Emilia Clarke), who sets up the story as our narrator. Malicia breaks the fourth wall and informs the audience that the narrator can be part of the story too. She's pretty insufferable, but credit where it's due: there's a very funny scene where she tries to be mysterious and sneaky, but everyone just stares at her like she's out of her mind. 

There's not much to Malicia besides teaching kids about things like framing devices and foreshadowing, which are fun overly-meta moments that help "The Amazing Maurice" feel fresh. With the exception of these neat little snippets, there's very little to the film, and its plot is generally threadbare. It's pretty much summed up entirely by rats being chased by a bad guy, and Maurice and some human companions have to help save them. It's barely enough for a short film, let alone a feature.

"The Amazing Maurice" doesn't look awful, but if you're a parent scrolling through animated offerings to watch with your kids, this film doesn't offer anything that visually stands out. The animals are cute and have interesting personalities (even if it's absolutely nothing you haven't seen before), our main kitty Maurice looks vibrant, and his rat companions are charming. But there's a stiffness to the human characters. Behind their staggeringly large eyes — that barely leave room for any other facial features — lies an uncomfortable lifelessness. The voice actors do admirable work, but there's very little to define these characters. Frankly, I'd be impressed if any kids watching can remember any names besides the titular feline. 

A great villain isn't enough

When it comes to villains though, "The Amazing Maurice" delivers above and beyond expectations. There's been a weird dearth of villains in animated films lately, especially in both Disney and Pixar movies, which have taken a more metaphorical approach to villains. That's nice and all, but rooting against (or for) a villain is one of the most delightful aspects of wholesome family fun. And boy, does "The Amazing Maurice" deliver! The Boss Man (a perfectly cast David Thewlis) is a mysterious and menacing cloaked figure, who has two very ugly (the film's words, not mine, though it's accurate) henchmen to help him imprison every rat they can get their hands on. Why exactly this man is so hellbent on taking all the rats is a mystery, but it's one of the few sources of intrigue "The Amazing Maurice" sustains itself with.

Thewlis is no stranger to voice acting, having played the Shame Wizard in Netflix's "Big Mouth." He's an incredibly charming actor, but you'd never know that from his vocal performance. Thewlis is able to chip away his warmth to get to the core of this sinister character, and does an awful lot of great work, bringing nasty, flourishing life to his generically titled character. His design is impressive as well, using a myriad of clothing textures to piece his shadow-drenched figure together. When the Boss Man's true intentions are revealed and his identity is made clear, it's an unexpected, satisfying, and legitimately creepy twist.

Unfortunately, I couldn't shake the feeling that the moment is a reminder that "The Amazing Maurice" could have been so much more than what it is. That's also true of the film's framing device, which uses a lovely hand-drawn animation that looks like a children's storybook come to life (in fairness, that's exactly what it is). That animation is beautifully rendered, and it's a shame the whole movie didn't adopt a hand-drawn approach. It really would have made "The Amazing Maurice" stand out in the world of animation. I understand that hand-drawn and CG animation are two very different breeds, and one is a great deal more time intensive than the other, but it's a shame that the film ends up looking pretty lifeless and generic, especially since it gives a taste of something so much more whimsical and far more exciting.

Despite a villain that does everything possible to elevate "The Amazing Maurice," this is a forgettable movie. I think kids will have a decent time with it. Adults won't be as fortunate, and it'll take a lot of restraint to not stare at their watches. There are some efforts to try and spice things up, but there's simply not enough in these characters or story to sustain a feature-length film. It starts with a clever opening and a cute musical number. But that spark dims quickly, leaving me wondering about what could have been.

/Film Rating: 4 out of 10

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Amazing Maurice, The

Short takes

Not suitable under 6; parental guidance to 7 (violence, scary scenes)

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details of classification and consumer advice lines for Amazing Maurice, The
• a review of Amazing Maurice, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 24 January 2023 .

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare or disturb children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie’s message

A synopsis of the story

Maurice (Voice of Hugh Laurie) is a street-smart cat, who together with his human pal, Keith (Himesh Patel), and their band of talking rats, manage to convince local townsfolk that their town has a rat problem. They are then paid to remove the rats, which Keith does by playing his pipe while the rats follow him out. That’s the story according to Malicia (Emilia Clarke) the Narrator, but when she decides to enter the story herself, things get more complicated.

The trio and the band of rats come across a town where all of the rats have disappeared and the food has all been stolen. It transpires that the rat king is luring all of the rats to himself to make his powers stronger and that he uses two henchmen to steal all of the food. Malicia, who is all for a good adventure, sets out to solve the mystery, dragging the reluctant Keith and the cowardly Maurice along with her. The three face many perils, as do the rats themselves, but in the end it is Maurice who saves the day.

Themes info

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Fantasy; Fairy Stories; Adventure; Animals in peril.

Use of violence info

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some slapstick violence in this movie, done for laughs, including:

• Characters trip over.
• One of the rats pulls a clockwork rat by the tail.
• Keith falls through a trapdoor and lands on his head.
• The henchmen hit each other and fall down the trapdoor.
• Keith walks into a tree in the woods and his eye is poked by a branch.

Other violence includes:

• An explosion occurs in a barn, smoke is seen coming out of the roof and a man falls out of a window.
• The henchmen attack the rats and Maurice with sticks – they go flying. Maurice attacks the men back, clawing at their faces.
• Malicia and Keith poison the henchmen with ‘kill a lot’ rat poison, although it turns out to be a laxative instead.
• A pit is shown where dogs chase rats around and kill them. One of the band of rats gets thrown into the pit and is fighting with a vicious dog. The rat throws darts at the dog and a fight is shown in slow motion. The dog lands on his head. A fight then breaks out amongst the spectators. The other rats then drop a heavy object on the dog, knocking him out.
• The rat king squeezes one of the rats in his hand. Maurice attacks him and is sent flying, landing heavily on the ground.
• The Pied Piper knocks Keith out. Malicia threatens him. He gets kicked into the oven and jumps out with his pants on fire.
• The rat king picks up Keith and Malicia and throws them both a long way.
• The rat king starts to disintegrate. A huge sonic boom occurs, freezing all of the characters. One of the rats, Dangerous Beans, appears dead. Maurice gets really angry, green energy comes out of his paws, and he attacks the rat king.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under five info.

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

• Several scary characters, including the rat king who is tall, mysterious and intimidating, cloaked in robes, with a scarf around his face and wearing a sombrero. One of the henchmen is tall with a long face and beady eyes, while the other is fat with a huge mouth and teeth.
• A farmer is seen with a cleaver in his hand, about to chop off a chicken’s head.
• A lot of the imagery is dark and in the towns there is rubbish everywhere.
• Malicia and Keith go into a dark wood. Scary music is played.
• The dogs in the pit are quite vicious and scary, barking loudly.

Aged five to eight info

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

• Malicia is about to hit a rat with a saucepan when he starts talking to her.
• Skeletons are seen in a basement.
• A rat is trapped inside a cage with sharp teeth around the edges.
• Malicia and Keith search inside a dark basement with a torch.
• Malicia and Keith are captured by the henchmen and are seen tied up in ropes.
• One of the rats is visibly upset when she finds out Maurice is a cheat and not a hero. She cries and shivers in fear and is then grabbed by multiple hands.
• Malicia and Keith find the real Pied Piper in the woods, living in a gingerbread house. The house is very colourful compared to the dark wood and the Piper uses it to lure children in. He has an oven where he cooks children.
• The rat king calls to the band of rats in a loud voice, luring them into a tunnel.
• The rat king has many bright lights in the dark space where his eyes should be.
• The Pied Piper plays a tune on his pipe which hypnotises Malicia and Keith. They walk in a trance towards the oven where flames are burning.
• A circle of rats joined by their tails has a powerful glowing object in their midst. The sonic boom kills Dangerous Beans. Maurice is shown carrying him in his mouth. Maurice has a blackened face and sees himself as dead next to Beans. He is then confronted by the Grim Reaper, or ‘White Squeaker’, wearing black robes, with pale blue eyes and carrying a scythe.

Aged eight to thirteen info

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

• Nothing further of concern.

Product placement

• None noted.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

• Keith says he thinks he loves Malicia. They kiss.

Nudity and sexual activity

Use of substances.

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

• Use of poison.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

In a nutshell

The Amazing Maurice , based on the book by Terry Pratchett, is an animated fantasy/fairy story, and fast moving adventure. The story is quite complex and rather dark in places. The film is therefore not suitable for children under 6 and parental guidance is recommended for 6 – 7-year-olds.

The main messages from this movie are to make your own story and to find your own abilities.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

• Admitting one’s faults
• Selflessness

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

• Maurice and Keith con people out of their money but Maurice admits to being a cheat. He does change around, however, offering up one of his lives in exchange for Dangerous Beans’ life. Parents could discuss the importance of owning up to making mistakes and the ability to change around to try better.

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‘The Amazing Maurice’ Review: Spry British Animated Romp Shows a Cat (or Even a Rat) May Look at a King

'Shrek' screenwriter Terry Rossio returns to wink-wink fairytale territory in this very meta Terry Pratchett adaptation, with Hugh Laurie and Emilia Clarke heading up the voice cast.

By Guy Lodge

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As the mastermind behind this scheme, Maurice is very nearly as pleased with himself as the film’s precocious narrator Malicia ( Emilia Clarke ), a sparky bookworm well-versed in the traditions and tropes of classic storytelling, and liable to point them out every time her own tale subverts them. “That’s the beauty of a framing device,” she tells us upfront. “I can tell you things about this story you wouldn’t otherwise know.” Young viewers may be tickled by such heavily explained metatextuality, though it wears a little thin with frequent repetition: It’s a relief when Malicia, in a nifty merging of dimensions, shows up as a character in the story at hand, and gets something else to do.

She turns out to be Maurice and co.’s one human ally in the next target they set their sights on: a grand-looking market town that appears, upon closer inspection, to have already been hit by a genuine plague of some variety, since there’s not a scrap of food to be found in the place. The truth behind this famine, and the sinister faceless despot (David Thewlis) who has the town under his thumb, serve as the basis for a mystery that in turn is merely a framework for a succession of knockabout setpieces, egged on by Tom Howe’s appropriately hyperactive score.

As assorted scrapes and mishaps wind up separating our motley crew into three factions — cat, rats and humans — the rodents emerge a clear winner, gifted all the film’s best lines, sight gags, tap-dance routines and most lovable individual characters. Chief among them is their valiant, onesie-wearing spiritual leader of sorts, named Dangerous Beans — a convoluted explanation is given, typical of Pratchett’s taste for rambling shaggy-dog asides — and winningly voiced by David Tennant.

Keith and Malicia are comparatively drippy company on their own; Maurice, if not quite as amazing a hero as his moniker promises, is a pleasingly sardonic presence who occasionally cuts through the film’s cuteness with his own above-it-all commentary. (What else should we expect from a cat?) A secondary framing device, charting this madcap narrative against the more genteel storytelling of a Beatrix Potter-style picture-book, is both elastically clever in concept and slightly cluttering in execution — though its yellowed, old-school, seemingly handcrafted illustration style is more inviting than the bulbous digital imagery of the main storyline. In terms of character design, it’s again the plucky vermin, with their scrap-material outfits and sweetly mournful bucktoothed features, who come out on top: Don’t tell the smooth feline operator in the title role, but in this case, it’s very much the rats who get the cream.

Reviewed online, Jan. 16, 2023. (In Sundance Film Festival — Kids.) Running time: 92 MIN.

• Production: (Animated — U.K.-Germany) A Viva Kids (U.S.)/Sky (U.K.) release of a Ulysses Film, Cantilever Media production. (World sales: Global Screen, Munich.) Producers: Emely Christians, Andrew Baker, Robert Chandler, Robert Wilkins. Executive producers: Julia Stuart, Sarah Wright, Terry Pratchett, Mark Walker, Louis Paltnoi, Roddy McManus.
• Crew: Director: Toby Genkel. Co-director: Florian Westermann. Screenplay: Terry Rossio, adapted from the book "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" by Terry Pratchett. Editor: Friedolin Dreesen. Music: Tom Howe.
• With: Hugh Laurie, Emilia Clarke, Himesh Patel, David Tennant, David Thewlis, Gemma Arterton, Ariyon Bakare, Joe Sugg, Hugh Bonneville, Rob Brydon, Peter Serafinowicz, Florian Westermann, Toby Genkel.

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The Amazing Maurice Review: A Clever & Funny CGI Twist on Fairy Tales

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A smooth-talking con artist cat and his merry band of equally sentient rodents find big trouble while attempting to scam a desperate medieval town. The Amazing Maurice will have you in stitches as a clever take on fairy tales, anthropomorphized animals, and predictable plot structures. The film serves as a slick CGI twist on the classic Pied Piper of Hamelin. There's a darker tone that hearkens back to the original wary intent of fables and folklore. I especially got a kick out of the characters' goofy names.

Based on the novel "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" by Terry Pratchett, the film opens with a hilarious swindle in progress. Maurice (Hugh Laurie), a loquacious orange tabby, stirs up the deepest fears of gullible villagers. Rats will bring the deadly plague and kill them all. On cue, a swarm of rodents invades to scare the bejesus and savings out of the hapless frightened. Maurice calls in the cavalry. Keith (Himesh Patel), a clumsy orphan with serious flute skills, charms the mesmerized vermin into the river.

Soggy rats emerge from the water griping at Maurice. Dangerous Beans (David Tennant), Peaches (Gemma Arterton), and Sardines (Joe Sugg), yup you read that right, wonder why they're the ones who have to feign drowning. Maurice slyly opens the kids book, "Mr. Bunnsy has an Adventure." Reaching the utopian island where humans and animals respect each other requires lots of money. Stop complaining and let's get a move on to the next suckers.

The Town of Bad Blintz

They arrive at the strangely silent town of Bad Blintz. There isn't a crumb of food anywhere. The desperate mayor (Hugh Bonneville) is willing to pay fifty cents for every dead rat. They must stop them from stealing food or Bad Blintz will starve. Maurice is elated. They've struck gold. Excitement quickly turns to dread when everyone realizes they've stumbled into a sinister conspiracy.

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The Amazing Maurice uses a unique plot device to great effect. Malicia (Emilia Clarke), the mayor's overly intellectual and arrogant daughter, narrates from the beginning. She compares Maurice's tale to the silly naïveté of Mr. Bunnsy, which is seen along the primary story in traditional 2D animation. She and Maurice take turns breaking the fourth wall to speak directly to the audience. They offer different points of view when Malicia becomes part of the gang. Mocking what traditionally happens when their adventure takes unexpected turns. This is well-written and adds imaginative distinction to the film.

A Valuable Lesson

Maurice and the rats are the only critters who can speak. Their intelligence is explained in a hilarious "Secret of NIMH" styled subplot. This is how they got their ridiculous names. But understanding and self-awareness comes with another burden. The rats, who are just trying to survive, see their dreadful treatment from mankind. They're trapped, poisoned, and killed for sport in heinous rat coursing. These scenes have a serious tinge that teach a valuable lesson. Animals also feel pain and fear.

The Amazing Maurice entertains until falling into the silliness trap it had brilliantly satirized. An overblown climax looks impressive but becomes exhausting. That said, the film had me pleasantly surprised most of the runtime. It succeeds in brashly poking fun of "Disneyfication" while still appealing to youngsters.

The Amazing Maurice is a production of Ulysses Filmproduktion, Cantilever Media, Narrativia, and Moonshot Films. It will have a theatrical release on February 3rd from Viva Pictures .

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The Amazing Maurice Parent Guide

With surprisingly gruesome violence and an amoral protagonist, there is nothing amazing about this movie for families..

Theaters: A wise-talking ginger cat named Maurice has come up with the perfect money-making scam along with a horde of rats. That is until a local bookworm starts getting in their way. (Not playing in Canada.)

Release date February 3, 2023

Run Time: 93 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by heather daybell.

The Amazing Maurice is an adaptation of a much beloved and celebrated book, “The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents”. However, I will be very much surprised if this film is ever beloved, or much celebrated. Having not read the source material, I cannot comment on its faithfulness to its canon. But as a general consumer of children’s movies, I can safely say this is one of the worst I’ve seen in a long time, and I would not take your kids to it, nor would I recommend you see it on your own. I have no idea for whom this movie was intended. The themes were far too dark for children; the medium far too tedious for adults; teenagers would cringe throughout. I thought often throughout the film: who is supposed to be enjoying this?

In addition to its uncertainty about its intended audience, I struggled to find a likable protagonist. The title, and main character, assure you (while playing fast and loose with the fourth wall) that the movie is about Maurice (voiced by Hugh Laurie). Maurice is a magical, talking cat with a pretty terrible code of ethics as evidenced by his scamming of strangers, his friends, and his penchant to abandon anyone as soon as he deems necessary. He travels around the country with his “friends”, an orphan boy (Himash Patel) and a group of magically enhanced rats that can also speak, as they scam village after village, convincing them of a (fake) rat infestation, and then “pied pipering” them away for a fee. A musical number tries to convince you that the whole story is actually about rats – and it does a pretty decent job. Upon reflection, it definitely feels more like a rat movie than a cat movie.

Along the way they find allies like Malicia, the Mayor’s talkative daughter (Emilia Clarke), who insists she’s the main character of the story, and is presented as the narrator before she shows up in the action, while she quips about framing devices and foreshadowing. Quite meta for a children’s film. And we also meet fairy tale characters, like the Pied Piper, the Grim Reaper, and in attempt at humor, the Grim Squeaker – you know, like the Grim Reaper except for rats.

What really brings this whole movie down is the violence. There is an allusion to the horrors of and a description of rat coursing, but if that weren’t bad enough, there is an actual scene of it. And while we don’t see dogs eat rats, we can certainly hear it, and see the horror on the faces of the rats who witness the carnage. The pied piper also casually jokes about his cannibalistic tendencies, and one of the most tense scenes shows him luring two characters towards an oven, after he has lured and cooked a turkey in the same oven. Most graphic is when the rat king’s core (disgusting enough) with its pulsing brain like knot of tails, turns to a rat and snaps its neck/back/body? Something snaps, and they collapse to the ground dead. Spoiler alert: the death isn’t permanent, but it is quite violent, and not what I would expect in a children’s film.

I do not envy the task of making rats likeable, endearing protagonists. Especially while putting the idea of a rat king in the audience’s mind. I understand why you would try to present Maurice as the hero. But he is not likable or admirable, and his selflessness comes too late for a satisfying redemptive arc. Overall, this movie’s a miss. Or at least, one I would encourage you to miss.

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Heather daybell, watch the trailer for the amazing maurice.

The Amazing Maurice Rating & Content Info

Why is The Amazing Maurice rated PG? The Amazing Maurice is rated PG by the MPAA for action/peril and some rude material.

Violence: A character lures rats into a river, seemingly to their death, but it is part of a scam and played for comedic effect. A rat falls into a trap that is actually a cage; the struggle next to the trap beforehand is intense because you expect death. There is a guillotine of a stuffed rat and many dead rat signs and posters. A character explains what rat coursing is, and when questioned why no one’s heard of it he ominously says because there wouldn’t be any rats who could tell you about, implying a complete wipeout of anyone who had seen it. A character is kidnapped, and all you see is many hands reach out of the darkness to pull her out of sight. There is a rat coursing scene where you hear rats being eaten by a dog. Another rat is thrown into the rat coursing pit and fights with the dog. As part of the escape many people try to step on and squash the rat, the violence and destruction feels eminent. There is a brawl that ends with people all knocked out on the floor. A character violently grabs a bird it lures to its home and then it is seen in a roasting pan as a turkey dinner before it is put into an oven. A character hits another character in the head with a tea pot and they black out. A character implies that he ate an entire town full of children. A character lures two children towards an oven. A rat climbs up a character’s trousers and it is implied there is some biting in some sensitive areas that cause them react intensely. A character flies into an open fire, and then runs and jumps down a very long well. A character admits they ate a friend, and that they feel bad about it. A giant character throws two humans high and far into the forest, and we see them land, hurt but alive. A group of characters magically snap another character’s neck, causing them to drop dead. A character is so severely beat up (black eye, injured) that they die and go to some sort of afterlife. Sexual Content:   The back of a rat is seen as he urinates on a plate. A character kisses another character on the cheek. A character dips another character for a long kiss. A mechanical tinker rat is implied to have created a family with a clock. Profanity:   No profanity. Alcohol / Drug Use: A character is seen drinking wine.

Page last updated January 22, 2024

The Amazing Maurice Parents' Guide

Who do you think is the real hero of the movie? Which character did you like the most? Which character did you think you were the most like?

We saw several different types of mind control in this movie. Even though that’s not possible, what would you do if you felt you weren’t in control of what was happening to you? How would you protect yourself against someone else controlling you? What does that make you think about autonomy, and having control over your own self?

Maurice seems to struggle with what friendship means throughout the movie, until the end. What does it mean to you to be a good friend? What does it mean to be a bad friend?

Loved this movie? Try these books…

If you hope the book is better you can read The Amazing Maurice and His Amazing Rodents by Terry Pratchett.

For more ratty figures, you can read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O’Brien and illustrated by Zena Bernstein.

Related home video titles:

If rats are your thing and you want to see more rodents in film, you can watch Pixar’s Ratatouille , which stars a little rat with big dreams of becoming a chef in a Parisian restaurant. Rats also come to the fore in Flushed Away , the story of a pet rat who gets flushed down the toilet and winds up working with sewer rats to find his way home.

If it’s fractured fairy tales you’re after, you can go back to Shrek , Shrek II, Puss in Boots , or Puss in Boots: The Last Wish . Outside the franchise you can try Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs , Ella Enchanted , Hoodwinked , or Enchanted .

Screen Rant

The amazing maurice review: emilia clarke & himesh patel shine in fun animation.

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The Amazing Maurice has more bite than its feline star might indicate. Terry Rossio adapted the animation from Terry Pratchett’s book, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents , with Toby Genkel and Florian Westermann directing this children's tale that is quite the romp. Many films from this current era of animation look the same and the animation in The Amazing Maurice is no different. However, what it lacks in technical imagination it makes up for with an all-star cast and a fun story. With a witty take on a classic tale, The Amazing Maurice has a little something for everyone.

Maurice (Hugh Laurie) is a talking, hustling cat and his partner in crime is a piper by the name of Keith (Himesh Patel). Together with their band of rats, they go from town to town scamming the residents into thinking they have a rat infestation and the only solution is Keith and Maurice. When the gang arrives at a town devoid of both rats and food, they are pulled into discovering what happened by the rambunctious Malicia ( Game of Thrones' Emilia Clarke ). To everyone's dismay, the dreaded Rat King (David Thewlis) has made the town his home, and it's up to them to stop him.

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The comedy in The Amazing Maurice works for all ages. Some lines are raunchier than others, but there is a broad spectrum of jokes told throughout the film. Evildoers are given poison and then told where the antidote is, but the poison and the antidote are simply laxatives. Even the poop jokes in The Amazing Maurice have another layer to them. Death plays a huge role in the film. Both human and rat lives are at risk in the film's climax, and the camera pans back from the battle to reveal the grim reaper asking his much smaller counterpart, the rat-grim reaper, “Busy day?” However, the most outrageous joke in the film is when Clarke recounts the tale of the real pied piper, who is an outright psychopath. From leather suits to inebriated rats, The Amazing Maurice pulls no punches.

The cast is the energy that keeps the story entertaining. There is a case that Hollywood has become obsessed with using celebrities instead of voice actors and, as a result, there have been bigger animated movies, not better ones. In the case of The Amazing Maurice, the actors are just famous enough that audiences won’t be distracted by them, but also good enough at the job that they can bring life to this animated story. Patel is very charming and has good chemistry with Clarke. Laurie (best known for the TV series House ) gets the most screen time and uses it to prance about and deliver exposition as only he can. Thewlis is as convincing as ever and brings a true sense of terror to the villainous Rat King. Everyone in The Amazing Maurice is sinking their teeth into the material without it ever feeling forced or cartoonish.

The Amazing Maurice has a lot to offer audiences. If one can sympathize with the rats in Ratatouille , it's easy to be on board with the premise of the film; everything else will follow. The humor is capable of making just about anyone laugh and no joke is too far in either direction to make it confusing in terms of tone. The cast is spectacular and having a great time in the world of animation. Genkel and Rossio have done enough justice to the work of Terry Pratchett, and The Amazing Maurice works on its own and as an adaptation.

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The Amazing Maurice is in theaters and on demand February 3rd. The film is rated PG for action/peril and some rude material.

The Amazing Maurice

The Amazing Maurice is an animated fantasy film that follows Maurice, a streetwise talking cat, and his band of self-aware rats. Together with a human accomplice named Keith, they devise a money-making scheme by pretending to rid towns of their rat infestations. Chaos ensues when they arrive in a town with a real rat problem, challenging Maurice and the gang to confront their ethical dilemmas and uncover a mystery that changes their lives.

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‘The Amazing Maurice’ Movie Review [Sundance 2023]: Rodent Fairytale Adventure Catches a Snag

Shrek co-writer Terry Rossio once struck gold with the animated fairytale cultural phenomenon. He once again returns with another fantastical story filled with jokes and talking animals in The Amazing Maurice . However, co-directors Toby Genkel and Florian Westermann can’t quite create their own magic, leaving a well-intentioned adventure that leaves the animal and human characters unsympathetic. Its biggest crime is that it simply isn’t very charming, which is a far cry from the universe that Shrek built .

‘The Amazing Maurice’ is a cat-and-rats story

Maurice (voiced by House actor Hugh Laurie ) is a streetsmart cat with a mind for manipulation. He uses an easily-manipulated kid named Keith (voiced by Himesh Patel), who plays the pipe. However, Maurice also takes advantage of a plague of rats with their own agenda to live peacefully amongst humans in a supposed paradise. The cat plans to make as much money off Keith and the rats as possible to achieve his own goals.

The Amazing Maurice finds the title character and his crew as they reach a town called Bad Blintz, where nothing is as it seems. They won’t be able to pull off their well-practiced heist because of the mysterious events already unfolding there. Maurice, Keith, and the rats are in serious trouble if they aren’t able to get to the bottom of the situation in this oddly empty town.

A fairytale about friendship and fate

The Amazing Maurice wraps multiple narratives into one, all of which involve the art of trickery. The rats’ “sacred book,” Mr. Bunnsy Has an Adventure , is the guiding light to their salvation. They dream of an island paradise where nothing bad can ever happen, which Maurice exploits at every turn to make a quick buck. However, the rats begin to question the cat’s leadership, making this dangerous adventure even more perilous.

The food chain is in full effect in more ways than one, with survival being the most obvious example. Maurice’s intelligence keeps him from eating the rats, but that isn’t to say that he isn’t using this superior size, strength, and influence with other cats in other ways. Maurice explains away any wrongdoing because deceit and trickery are what humans excel at. Meanwhile, the humans in the town with no food look at any form of cat or rodent with blame. Keith and fairytale aficionado Malicia (voiced by Game of Thrones actor Emilia Clarke) are exceptions to the rule, although they exist as outsiders in human society.

Malicia acts as more than a side character in The Amazing Maurice . She’s initially introduced as the narrator of The Amazing Maurice , but she’s met with surprises of her own along this journey. Each of the characters forms unlikely friendships that change existing dynamics, as they all work toward individual goals that become more collective. They all share the experience of being cast aside by society, discovering a new kind of family in the process.

‘The Amazing Maurice’ lacks humor and originality

Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Pinocchio’ Composer Used Only Wooden Instruments to Score the Film

The Amazing Maurice assumes that you’ve never been told a story before. Malicia explains the basics of narrative techniques, such as framing devices, foreshadowing, and flashbacks through breaking the fourth wall. It’s likely for the younger viewers, but it’s needless exposition that plenty of animated motion pictures never found the need to include.

Genkel and Westermann’s worldbuilding is indistinct largely due to the animation meant to bring it to life. It lacks personality, which is a shame, given that the environments of Bad Blintz and beyond have the potential to transport the viewer into its fantastical world.

The Amazing Maurice is a compilation of better fairytales smashed together, devoid of a compelling flair of its own. Despite a cast of impressive acting talents, this animated adventure falls flat with an underwhelming sense of humor. It isn’t entertaining enough for younger audiences, but it isn’t enchanting enough for adults.

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Maurice (voice of Hugh Laurie) is a street-smart cat. Maurice and his human friend, Keith (voice of Himesh Patel), together with their band of talking rats, convince the townsfolk that their town has a rat problem. They’re then paid to remove the rats, which Keith does by playing his pipe while the rats follow him out. That’s the story according to Malicia (voice of Emilia Clarke) the Narrator. But when Malicia decides to enter the story herself, things get more complicated.

Maurice, Keith, Malicia and the rats come across a town where all the rats have disappeared, and the food has all been stolen. It transpires that the rat king is luring rats to make his powers stronger. He uses henchmen to steal all of the food.

Malicia loves a good adventure. She sets out to solve the mystery, dragging the reluctant Keith and the cowardly Maurice along with her.

The trio faces many perils, as do the rats themselves. In the end, it’s Maurice who saves the day.

Fantasy; fairy stories; adventure; animals in peril

The Amazing Maurice has some slapstick violence, which is presented as funny. For example:

• Characters trip over.
• A rat pulls a clockwork rat by the tail.
• Keith falls through a trapdoor and lands on his head.
• The henchmen hit each other and fall down a trapdoor.
• Keith walks into a tree in the woods, and a branch pokes his eye.

There’s also other violence. For example:

• There’s an explosion in a barn. Smoke comes out of the roof, and a man falls out of a window.
• The henchmen attack the rats and Maurice with sticks. Maurice attacks the men back, clawing at their faces.
• Malicia and Keith poison the henchmen with ‘kill a lot’ rat poison, although it turns out to be a laxative instead.
• There’s a pit in which dogs chase rats and kill them. One of Maurice’s rats is thrown into the pit and fights with a vicious dog. The fight is shown in slow motion. The rat throws darts at the dog. The dog lands on his head. A fight breaks out among the spectators. The other rats the drop a heavy object on the dog, knocking him out.
• The rat king squeezes a rat in his hand. Maurice attacks him and is sent flying, landing heavily on the ground.
• The Pied Piper knocks out Keith. Malicia threatens him. He gets kicked into the oven and jumps out with his pants on fire.
• The rat king picks up Keith and Malicia and throws them both a long way.
• The rat king starts to disintegrate. A huge sonic boom occurs, freezing all the characters. One of the rats, Dangerous Beans, appears dead. Maurice gets very angry. A green energy comes out of his paws, and he attacks the rat king.

Sexual references

The Amazing Maurice has some sexual references. For example, Keith says that he thinks he loves Malicia, and they kiss.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

The Amazing Maurice shows the use of poison.

Nudity and sexual activity

There’s no nudity and sexual activity in The Amazing Maurice .

Product placement

There’s no product placement in The Amazing Maurice .

Coarse language

The Amazing Maurice some name-calling and insults, including ‘useless’ and ‘stupid’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Based on the book by Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice is an animated fantasy with a fast-moving adventure plot. The story is quite complex and dark in places, so the movie isn’t suitable for children under 6 years. We also recommend parental guidance children aged 6-7 years.

The main messages from The Amazing Maurice are to make your own story and find your own abilities.

Values in The Amazing Maurice that you could reinforce with your children include friendship, loyalty, responsibility, selflessness, courage and bravery.

The Amazing Maurice could also give you the chance to talk with your children about the real-life consequences of things like cheating. Maurice and Keith con people out of their money, but Maurice admits to being a cheat. He also changes during the story, offering one of his lives in exchange for Dangerous Beans’ life. You could talk with your children about owning up to your mistakes and trying to do better.