The Amazing Maurice

It could be because of deviations from the source, the film's bland visual style that’s just unambitious enough to be annoying, or the unengaging story, but “The Amazing Maurice” is, well, less-than-amazing.

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.”

An entertaining way to convince kids to pick up the book.

It’s genuinely eccentric enough — with its sly talking cat, intrepid band of gold-hearted rats and chronic aversion to keeping the fourth wall intact — to come off as charming rather than smarmy.

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 overwritten script is laden with insider jokes for older viewers, but the film seems to fall between two stools – the animation isn’t ­especially distinguished and the screenplay is both derivative and overstated.

I’m convinced that Maurice is amazing, but less so for the movie he’s in.

A lovely animation that captures the heart and spirit of Pratchett’s prose, The Amazing Maurice is an entertaining adventure for all the family. 



"Maurice" really is amazing ... and a tribute to the wit of the late Sir Terry Pratchett.

With an oddly dark, macabre, and smug tone, the film is an eccentric and slightly off-putting adaptation of the classic Pied Piper story.