El asombroso Mauricio

I was positively shocked from watching this. It feels that this is what Disney has forgotten how to be. It's an animation. It's a stellar animation. It's an animation with talking animals. It's a comedy. It's satirical. And it's just... so, sooooo attentive to detail. Tons of carefully crafted mimicry and gestures, faces, expressions, poses. I can't quite remember the last time I saw anything like it.

Sure, there is no wow effect. It might not look great on the big screen, where you are supposed to see clear blobs of image, while counting every rendered piece of air, and with no pause or rewind. In terms of cost - this is obviously no big production(though the animation is spectacularly clean). But that's what the big productions lack nowadays - soul. Making a single meme face is enough. Meanwhile this little gem is just filled with emotion in every scene.

On top of that - I have to give props to the voice cast. Whether it's the script, the audio engineer or the relatively stellar cast - it's a pleasure to hear virtually any character in this film. I can't say that there's any remarkable music, given the budget, but it's enough to serve the purpose.

Finally, and this is important - this film is clean. There is no agenda. It's an honest family-friendly picture. Funny, with careful moral of the story woven in, just enough for the kids to figure out, but without being preachy or propagandistic.

Maybe the 9\10 rating is a bit too much, given that this is something to reserve only for historical pictures, but this is a small, European production. When even the multi-hundred-million dollar Hollywood flops often can't convince you - how else to show appreciation for the underdog?

Story that has been told several hundred times in cartoons, feature and shortfilmlenght movies, theater, tv series and living very vividly in the folklore, namely the ratcatcher of hameln , germany, or the pied piper that stole all the children as ransom money for some ratpack work, so now you know...

but there are quite a few original digressions to the story, and maurice the cat is one of them, still not able to play the flute, he is the real mobster that steal from the poor and never gives it back...

production is pretty generic when it comes to advanced animation, and the first 30 minutes scriptwise isenglishenglish spoken uziwise at a heck of a speed without telling much actually, but after that it works, and they are able to draw you into the royamune of the ratking, an underground landscape so lavishly animated and coloured i just ended up fascinated.

So have a happy hour with maurice and his bunch, is a recommend from the grumpy old man.

A very underappreciated animation. It was buried under tons of Christmas movies and people haven't noticed it.

My family and I very enjoyed watching the film. We laughed more than a few times. Of course, it may be another re-telling of the Pied Piper tale. But touches of Terry Pratchett's humor and cameo of his other characters make it special. And, personally, I liked that atmosphere in the film is darker than in a regular animation films. In my opinion, it's an animation for 10 yo and older.

Important note: I didn't read this book, so I had no expectations of this adaptation.

It's a 10 for me.

Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

"The Amazing Maurice" is a story that follows Maurice, a goofy streetwise cat, who has the perfect money-making scam. He finds a dumb-looking kid who plays a pipe and has his very own horde of rats, who are strangely literate. I love animated films and I usually like to check out animated films from smaller studios to give them chances. As part of the Sundance Kids selection, while it's cheesy and unspecial, this is probably one of the better children films to show for kids. I have never read the book before but the film does offers some charm and has a decent personality.

The main story is pretty basic and predictable but even it's simple setting, the film does have some fun humor and the tone understands itself without taking itself fully seriously. The animation models and colors were simple but they were pretty good and had some cute looking characters. Most of the voice acting was pretty good especially actor David Thewlis who gives the best voice performance from the entire cast. For the most part, it was never boring despite it being pretty predictable and some of the characters could have been explored a little more.

Overall, it was alright but good for children to have a good time.

Rating: B-

This movie deserves a higher rating than 6.3. Come on. This is great for the kids and great for the adults. The animation is beautiful and story-like, and at the same time, the movie is very tongue-in-cheek with what 'we' expect fairy tales to be.

Maurice the cat, thinks he is the main character, obviously, but contrary to the title, the other characters are just as amazing. It's this silliness that makes you feel invested in the characters. Hugh Laurie does an amazing job as a prideful, yet sensitive Maurice. Himesh Patel is Keith, the boy with a low sense of confidence in himself, and Emilia Clarke is the colourful Malicia. The mice in the story also play a fun role, but I don't want to give the details or spoilers away.

Watch it - you'll love it. It's a great movie for kids and adults alike.