The Amazing Maurice (2022)

I quite liked the premiss of this animated comedy. The eponymous orange cat travels from town to town promising to help the citizens eliminate their perennial rat problems. Raising all the cash they can, they pay him and out of the blue a young lad appears and Hamelin-style, pipes all the offending rodents out of the town. Shortly afterwards, though, we realise that this is all a scam. "Maurice" is in league with his team of rats, and with the piper, and the money is to be used to enable them all to travel to a magical land mentioned in their sacred text (a comic book!). It's when they arrive in a town where they face a much greater danger, that "Maurice" has to raise his game and find the real "Pied Piper" and his pipe, if he is to save all his brethren from doom! It's a simple story with some fun characterisations - I liked "Dangerous Beans" and "Sardines" and the action flows along pleasingly for just ninety minutes. Certainly, it's a derivative hybrid of stories, and I found the narration really quite annoying after a while, but as a charming family adventure film that illustrates the values of teamwork, loyalty whilst still being peppered with some fun dialogue and scenarios, I quite enjoyed it.