Review: KIDS - THE AMAZING MAURICE
by Karen Pecota

Germany | UK | 2022

Based on the novel, "The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents" by renown English author Terry Pratchett, filmmaker Toby Genkel, screenwriter Terry Rossio, and character designer Carter Goodrich present on the silver screen their latest CGI Animation S3D collaboration in THE AMAZING MAURICE.

The performance of an all-star cast is delightfully engaging as they collaborate with a stellar production team to bring life with vigor in a fascinating Pratchett tale. Every designed frame of animation brings to the forefront Rossio's creative talent in scriptwriting, beholding to Pratchett's storytelling edge, fit for a family audience, although, questionable for the very young. A complicated storyline could lose their interest, but the beautiful animation just might hold them close to the feature film end.

Rossio says, "Writing a screenplay for any well-known book can be a challenging process, especially for someone as loved and passionately followed as Terry Pratchett." Genkel and the film's producers say, "Terry's adaptation is ingenious, and has created a screenplay that both retains the essential spirit and tone of the original book, but which is also a lively and entertaining adventure, keeping the high quality and humor of Pratchett's characters and dialogue."

Synopsis:

Maurice (Voice of Hugh Laurie) is a scam artist. He's a very large attractive cat with intelligence. His teenage sidekick, Keith (Himesh Patel) prepares the way for their scam to succeed. The two journeying partners go from town to town, spreading rumors their community has an infestation of rats. The two propose that they can save the town with the help of pied piper, Keith, to rid the rats for a handsome price. The town readily agrees, pays the money and watches the rats disappear. The third partner in the scam is the talking rats who shed their clothes, skirmish into each town and play havoc on the town's people just prior to the presence of Maurice and Keith. At the end of day, everybody wins--so to speak.

The rats decide it is time to leave their dishonest ways behind and head for "the holy land" as described in the sacred book, "Mr. Bunsby Has an Adventure"--a place where rats and humans lived together in peace. This puts an end to a lucrative which Maurice is very much against.

Maurice convinces the rats to carry out one last job to fund their journey. And, so it goes. The team comes to a small town named Bad Blintz in Überwald. They soon discover this job will be more difficult because two big rat catchers lord over every street and answer to the Rat King (David Thewlis) who holds the town captive. The Mayor (Hugh Bonneville) and his daughter Malicia Grim (Emilia Clarke) need help. Maurice and entourage must decide if they are up to a different task to save-the-day.