DAYTON—This story follows Maurice (voiced by Hugh Laurie), 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. Maurice’s approach provides the group’s livelihood from town to town, but one town is short of food and Maurice and his rats are enlisted to help discover the reason behind the city’s food shortage. This movie is based on the 2001 novel The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents.

Rotten Tomatoes rates this movie 74% (critics) and 68% (audience) favorable. IMDb has this rated as 6.3 out of 10. A critic said that “The Amazing Maurice is a solid book adaptation that makes for fun family viewing”. Another critic said that “there are also some scary scenes that might not play well with younger audiences.” An additional critic stated “the movie has a gloriously memorable villain, (and is) a surprisingly scary version of The Piped Piper…” Commonsense media says this movie is best for children aged 8+.

This movie is rated PG (for action/peril and some rude material.) Runtime: 93 min