The Amazing Maurice (2022) -
Maybe my hopes were too high for this film, especially as I hadn't particularly enjoyed the other efforts made by Sky to bring Pratchett to the screen.*
Overall I felt that the production was cheap and trying too hard to replicate something akin to Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks, but without success.
And they almost seemed to be copying 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' (1993) with some of the human designs and costumes, as if the copyright checker hadn't bothered to do their job at all.
Although parody and copyright infringement were bound to be rife with the story itself obviously based on the Fairy Tale 'The Pied Piper Of Hamelin' and "Mr Bunnsy" a blatant rip off of Beatrix Potter. I'm not saying that it was wrong for that, because it WAS a parody and that was the whole point and what Terry Pratchett always did well in his writing.
However, this interpretation certainly didn't seem to be a Discworld story as it wasn't quite grimey enough.
I also felt that the production had adapted the story too much. It's been a very long time since I read the book, but I don't even remember the bookish narrator and later character of Malicia (Emilia Clarke) and I was pretty sure that even Keith, Maurice's piper (Himesh Patel), wasn't really aware of the scam that The Amazing Cat and the Rat's were actually pulling.
Originally the book was far more focussed on the animals and less on the humans, almost as a break from TP's other "Human" based stories set in Ankh Morpork and to lend a different perspective to the circular world.
I also found that there was none of the nuance, wit and subtlety of Terry's original work either. As if they had dumbed it down to make it for kids without caring too much about the adults, fans or the source material.
And at times it appeared obvious that some parts were done by artists that were more skilled than others. The human characters were very basically drawn, but some of the rats were quite detailed, the knitted texture of the rat guru, Dangerous Beans' (David Tennant) jumper was superbly rendered.
Some of the backgrounds were lush and verdant with texture, where others were bland and dull. According to the IMDB Trivia the film was made during lockdown and the various elements created separately at the artists homes. I felt it was clear that it hadn't been cared for in the normal way to sync the estranged teams together in a cohesive way, which was why it didn't feel as polished as a Pixar or Dreamworks production.
Upon entering a new town to ply their con trade, Maurice, his rats and Keith met Malicia who helped them to uncover what was really going on in her starving town and that was how the adventure continued, with fights against other rat catchers and another, more familiar pied piper too. I think the main problem was that they made the story in a very basic way, without elaborating on the characters enough, especially Maurice and the rats. The meeting between Keith and Malicia and they'd gradual involvement with each other was old hat and boring, whereas more depth to the characters of Sardines, Peaches (Gemma Arterton) or Darktan (Ariyon Bakare) would have made this much funnier in the same way that the Minions stole the show in 'Despicable Me' (2010).
I got really tired, really quickly of the breaking of the fourth wall thing too. The "Mr Bunnsy" excerpts were fine, but I could never tell if Malicia was acting in her narrator role or as her character in the middle of the story.
Most of the vocal performance was fine, but I really didn't think that Hugh Laurie's voice suited Maurice. It was a bit too similar to his vocal performance in 'Arthur Christmas' (2011) as the sarcastic and selfish Steve Christmas.
Funnily enough though I felt that internet star Joe Sugg in the role of Sardines did a great job, considering that he is usually more of a presenter or a 'Strictly Come Dancing' (2004-) contestant.
In the end I felt that it could have been done a lot better, but it was okay and would probably entertain a really young audience.
532.18/1000.
* Hogfather (2006), The Colour Of Magic (2008) and Going Postal (2010), which wasn't actually bad at all and the exception.
Maybe my hopes were too high for this film, especially as I hadn't particularly enjoyed the other efforts made by Sky to bring Pratchett to the screen.*
Overall I felt that the production was cheap and trying too hard to replicate something akin to Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks, but without success.
And they almost seemed to be copying 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' (1993) with some of the human designs and costumes, as if the copyright checker hadn't bothered to do their job at all.
Although parody and copyright infringement were bound to be rife with the story itself obviously based on the Fairy Tale 'The Pied Piper Of Hamelin' and "Mr Bunnsy" a blatant rip off of Beatrix Potter. I'm not saying that it was wrong for that, because it WAS a parody and that was the whole point and what Terry Pratchett always did well in his writing.
However, this interpretation certainly didn't seem to be a Discworld story as it wasn't quite grimey enough.
I also felt that the production had adapted the story too much. It's been a very long time since I read the book, but I don't even remember the bookish narrator and later character of Malicia (Emilia Clarke) and I was pretty sure that even Keith, Maurice's piper (Himesh Patel), wasn't really aware of the scam that The Amazing Cat and the Rat's were actually pulling.
Originally the book was far more focussed on the animals and less on the humans, almost as a break from TP's other "Human" based stories set in Ankh Morpork and to lend a different perspective to the circular world.
I also found that there was none of the nuance, wit and subtlety of Terry's original work either. As if they had dumbed it down to make it for kids without caring too much about the adults, fans or the source material.
And at times it appeared obvious that some parts were done by artists that were more skilled than others. The human characters were very basically drawn, but some of the rats were quite detailed, the knitted texture of the rat guru, Dangerous Beans' (David Tennant) jumper was superbly rendered.
Some of the backgrounds were lush and verdant with texture, where others were bland and dull. According to the IMDB Trivia the film was made during lockdown and the various elements created separately at the artists homes. I felt it was clear that it hadn't been cared for in the normal way to sync the estranged teams together in a cohesive way, which was why it didn't feel as polished as a Pixar or Dreamworks production.
Upon entering a new town to ply their con trade, Maurice, his rats and Keith met Malicia who helped them to uncover what was really going on in her starving town and that was how the adventure continued, with fights against other rat catchers and another, more familiar pied piper too. I think the main problem was that they made the story in a very basic way, without elaborating on the characters enough, especially Maurice and the rats. The meeting between Keith and Malicia and they'd gradual involvement with each other was old hat and boring, whereas more depth to the characters of Sardines, Peaches (Gemma Arterton) or Darktan (Ariyon Bakare) would have made this much funnier in the same way that the Minions stole the show in 'Despicable Me' (2010).
I got really tired, really quickly of the breaking of the fourth wall thing too. The "Mr Bunnsy" excerpts were fine, but I could never tell if Malicia was acting in her narrator role or as her character in the middle of the story.
Most of the vocal performance was fine, but I really didn't think that Hugh Laurie's voice suited Maurice. It was a bit too similar to his vocal performance in 'Arthur Christmas' (2011) as the sarcastic and selfish Steve Christmas.
Funnily enough though I felt that internet star Joe Sugg in the role of Sardines did a great job, considering that he is usually more of a presenter or a 'Strictly Come Dancing' (2004-) contestant.
In the end I felt that it could have been done a lot better, but it was okay and would probably entertain a really young audience.
532.18/1000.
* Hogfather (2006), The Colour Of Magic (2008) and Going Postal (2010), which wasn't actually bad at all and the exception.