Mäusejagd

A children's film with a moral. Unlike a certain purveyor of saccharine entertainment, however, this moral is political, even metaphysical - if you exploit your workers, if you pursue greed until it makes you mad, if you break the ties that bind; if, in short, you snap the string, a Pandora's Box of chaos will be your lot, until you become a latterday Roderick Usher, your crumbling mansion a metaphor for your disintegrating mind.

With its Gilliam-like recreation of a dank, Orwellian universe; with its Tim Burton pervading of Gothic atmosphere; with its twisted Coens' live-action cartoon sensibility (imagine Christopher Walken in a children's film? Even better than that), and you have fun for all the family.

'Mousehunt' was one of my favorites movies as a kid, thanks to its funny script, that held my attention, much more than I would've thought of. But even today, 'Mousehunt' remains as a fun fare, that hasn't lost its touch.

'Mousehunt' Synopsis: Two stumblebum inheritors are determined to rid their antique house of a mouse who is equally determined to stay where he is.

Don't ask questions & I can assure you 'Mousehunt' will prove to be nothing else but fun. Its twisty plot, coupled with the series of unfortunate events that happen to its protagonists, bring the house down on numerous occasions. Made with heart & joy, this 1997 box-office hit doesn't run out of gas, despite a few hiccups in its Screenplay.

Adam Rifkin's Screenplay, despite a few bumps, is a riot overall. Gore Verbinski's Direction is typically solid. Cinematography is grand. Editing is well-balanced. Art Design is comment-worthy.

Performance-Wise: Nathan Lane is stupendous, pitching in a genuine comedic performance from start to end. Lee Evans supports Lane, admirably. Christopher Walken is deliciously weird in a bit role. Vicki Lewis is first-rate.

On the whole, Wanna laugh & relax on a lazy weekend? Watch 'Mousehunt'. You won't be disappointed!

This movie is so funny. Nathan Lane and Lee Evans are the sons of a man that died that owned a string factory.

Right in the beginning the fun starts. The brothers argue about the color of Lee/Lars Smuntz's funeral clothes. As they walk down the stairs of the church the handle breaks off the casket, their father's body goes flying out of the casket, into the air and down a open manhole in the street.

The characters are all funny. The animation is amazing. Nathan/Ernie Smuntz has a restaurant and serves dinner to the Mayor who is very fat who is with his family. His daughters see a cockroach without a head running across the table. The Mayor realizes he has eaten the head. He falls back in the chair and passes out. The movement of this giant roach running on the table is so hysterical.

The sons inherit a house from their father who was kind of weird. No one lives in the house and when the men go there they find a mouse who is like the owner of the house. He crawls in all the spaces and takes what he wants and just takes over and causes problems for the sons. The animation of what the mouse does and what they do to catch it is so funny.

The sons end up hiring a man to trap the mouse. The exterminator is played by Christopher Walkens. He is really good in this movie. He has his own equipment and is experienced. He talks loud so the mouse will hear what he has to say because he believes the mouse understands him from his experience and he is trying to fool it. More laughter.

The mouse is smarter than everyone this is a great funny movie to see.

What a pleasant comedy! Here's a movie that brings back a subject which was specific to the cartoons from the forties and fifties: the game of the cat and the mouse. Here, there's a real mouse and the cat is epitomized by the Schmuntz brothers who wish to get rid of her in order to sell an old but expensive house. The more the film advances, the more the traps prepared by Lars and Ernie Schmuntz are worked out: it begins with the simple, trivial trap: the mousetrap and it ends with the appearance of the mouse-exterminator ( an unexpected and irresistible Christopher Walken). In short, what it seems to be a child's play at the beginning of the movie, ends up becoming a merciless fight in which there'll be no winner, no loser... Gore Verbinski adopted an inventive and clever making and he rightly choose his actors. Nathan Lane and Lee Evans form an ideal duo, not very far from the legendary Laurel and Hardy. They've got a different personality but are united to kill this mouse. Moreover, the movie doesn't only focus on this "mouse hunt" but also on the Schmuntz brothers' efforts to earn money in order to save their father's string factory ( a world without string is chaos...). Let's add some hilarious and efficient gags ; the movie pays a tribute to Tex Avery. Dialogs that kick the bull's eye and some cues are powerful such as: "in this mouse's mind, you are the intruders" says Walken to the Schmuntz brothers. At last, the real mouse is, of course, a little pest (she's even compared to Hitler with a tail) but in parallel, Verbinski attempts to make her touching. At the end, a comedy without too many claims but efficient enough to please to a large public.

Luna Macwilliams, age 6, Chicago, il.- 10 stars. "I love this movie because there are real people and a real mouse and it's real-ly funny! I also like the mouse's secret tricks that the viewer will wonder-how did he do that? Check out the mouse swinging across a chasm on a light bulb chain! It's amazing!" Kris- I give this movie 8 stars. Luna, age 6, gave it 10 stars and I thought since this is a family film, one I might not have seen without her, she deserved a voice. She gives a lot of kids flicks 10 stars, but not all. I thought the film captured the perfect feel of a cartoon, but done in live action. There are a few films that come to mind from the past that pulled off the cartoon feel, the Coen's Hudsucker Proxy, or more so even, Raising Arizona, Tim Burton's early films and a few others. None may be shot as perfectly in cartoon style as Mousehunt however, and none are as perfectly suited for kids age 3 to 10. Some of its visual delights could be called cinematic bliss, as great as anything procured by Welles or Lean. There is a fade from a white plastic home on a white cake that dissolves into a white home on a snowy white hill that should be shown in every film school. There is use of shadows and water that would make Ingmar Bergman proud. And of course, there is the mouse. The effects and photography are done so well that he convinced the kids he was real, and really smart and acrobatic. Lee Evans and Nathan Lane are perfectly cast as black and white characters. They don't look like they're related, Evan's too nice and Lane is too mean, but hey, it's a kids movie. Their characters work perfectly in the cartoon world they inhibit. They make you laugh, no matter how old you are. Christopher Walken plays an exterminator and it was right before he became overexposed in every other hip movie made. His best dialogue comes off-screen from a tape recorder. Walken could be just as funny on radio I guess, it's all in his verbiage. So rent or buy this for the family. It's one of those few gems that will have you all laughing at the same joke.