Reviewing Movies About Rats With My Rats

This winter season I’m trying to find ways to relax and decompress. So before extended family arrives and holiday festivities begin, I asked my rattie boys to do a movie marathon with me and help me review them.

To narrow down the colossal list of family-friendly movies available, I opted for movies based on rats and/or mice. And I landed on: The Secret of NIMH (1982), Stuart Little (1999), Ratatouille (2007), and The Amazing Maurice (2022).

Side note: These reviews are coming from an overly opinionated and totally obsessive rat lover/owner, who loathes anything negative about rats, and her two trusted rattie companion brothers Brinley and Moffett. We mainly focus on how rats are portrayed and treated in these stories. And because I’m also an artist, how well they are drawn or animated is also a factor.

Preparation

I got the couch set up with lots of blankets and Christmassy hiding huts. Then I plopped the boys down so we could start our first movie.

Me: Boys, our first movie is one I saw as a kid.

Brinley (snickering): That must be REALLY old then!

Me (glaring): Brinnels! Rude!

Moffett: Where’s the popcorn? You can’t seriously expect us to watch a movie without it.

Ten minutes later the boys had their popcorn demand met, and we finally started the movie. Note that popcorn given to rats must be butter-free, low-sodium, and given in sparing amounts.

Moffett: Hey, that mouse’s name is Mrs. Brisby like that other rat in our room!

Me: Yep, that’s where I got her name. But she’s called “Miss” Brisby since she never got married.

Fun Fact: I have a rescued, white-throated woodrat, aka a packrat, named Brisby that can’t be re-released into the wild. Her cage resides in the same room with the boys, but they don’t interact.

It took us a while to get through the entire film because of a few bathroom breaks and the boys running into their hut during “scary scenes,” but our take is below.

The Secret of NIMH (Rated G)

Synopsis: A widowed field mouse desperately needs to relocate her home before the farmer plows through it. However, her son Timothy has come down with pneumonia (probably from Mycoplasma), forcing Mrs. Brisby to seek the help of The Great Owl and a group of mysterious rats that live in a nearby rose bush.

My Review: I had forgotten what this movie was actually about, because I was not prepared to learn that the rats, along with Mrs. Brisby’s husband, were lab animals at the National Institute of Mental Health (N.I.M.H). The experiments done on them gave them longer life spans and greater intelligence, which ironically helped them escape. But animal testing in a kid’s film? That’s a huge NO for me!

I appreciate that rats in general weren’t portrayed as evil. Some were understandably angry with humans and had indeed become villains, but others were heroic and empathetic.

Despite being a cartoon, I found the scenes of rats screeching and being injected with needles to be rather upsetting. Especially because this movie is rated G (yet also has a few cuss words) and is marketed for kids. I’m also remembering that this movie frightened me as a child. Another thing I disliked was the appearance of the rats after the experiments took place. It’s like the art department had never seen a rat before. The rats resembled something more akin to a fox.

This movie is probably not for the very young or sensitive rat lover in your life. At least not until you feel they can handle the heavier topics and violence depicted. Even as an adult, having rats made this movie much less enjoyable than I expected. I’m not likely to ever view it again.

Brinley and Moffet’s Review: This movie was scary! There was a mean cat; a scary owl; a HUGE, YUCKY spider; and pointy, sharp things that made the rats cry. This made us very sad. We’re glad we took a nap through most of it.

Intermission

Me: Let’s move to the next movie. Sadly, there are no rats in this one, just a mouse named Stuart.

Moffett: I guess that’s OK.

Brinley: Is it scary?

Me: I think you’ll like this one. Stuart lives with humans who love him.

Stuart Little (Rated PG)

Synopsis: Wanting a brother for their son, the Littles visit an orphanage where they meet and adopt Stuart, a young boy who happens to also be a mouse. While Stuart is quickly welcomed by his new parents, it takes a little longer for his brother and the family cat to accept the newcomer.

Brinley and Moffett’s Review: Stuart was like an action hero and always found danger! We had to cover our eyes when he was in the washing machine and on the boat. We hate water! If Stuart had a cage, he could have probably avoided some of these problems. We felt bad for him that he had to brush his weird, white teeth and wear clothes. It’s bad enough when Mom puts hats on us for pictures. But Stuart got to drive his own car, so maybe clothes are worth it.

We didn’t like it when a kid in the boat race scene called Stuart “a stupid rat,” as if being a rat was bad. Other than that, we really liked this movie! It was super fun, and Stuart was VERY brave. The only thing that would have made it better was if he’d been a rat and not a mouse.

My Review: This movie held up to my memory of it. I still find it to be a cute, lighthearted flick, full of adventure. The actors were great, Stuart was as adorable as a mouse should be, and I thought the computer animation was integrated well into the live action.

I find it rather humorous that Stuart is an actual mouse (in the book he’s described as only looking like one). I mean, who among us hasn’t thought of our rats as children? What I particularly like is that no one but the pet cat seemed to really question this fact. Imagining my boys dressed in tiny clothes every day, brushing their teeth, and sitting with us at the kitchen table for dinner makes me wish this was possible (by the way, rat and mouse teeth are yellowish-brown not white like Stuart’s). I have to agree with the boys though — the movie would have been MUCH better if Stuart had been a rat instead!

Intermission

Brinley: Let’s watch a movie about rats now!

Moffett: Yeah, no more mice.

Me: You got it boys! Up next is one of my favorite Pixar films called Ratatouille!

Brinley: Rata-a-what?

Me: Ratatouille. It’s the name of a French dish!

Moffett (with a look of horror): Is it made out of … rats?

Me (laughing): No! It’s vegetarian and made completely out of vegetables. And in this movie, it’s being made by a rat!

Brinley and Moffett (in unison): He can cook?

Me: Like a chef!

Ratatouille (Rated G)

Synopsis: A city rat has bigger dreams than just living on the streets of Paris and in sewers and wants nothing more than to create masterful works of tasty art out of food. Knowing how humans would react to him being in the kitchen of a fancy French restaurant, he convinces a young and inept garbage boy named Linguini to pose as the culinary wizard instead. Through Linguine, Remy is able to dazzle the customers’ taste buds before everything goes inevitably awry.

My Review: If you haven’t seen this movie already what are you waiting for? Any self-respecting rat lover not only owns this movie but has probably seen it at least 10 times! But … if you haven’t seen it yet, just go do that now. I’ll wait.

Now that you’re all caught up, I think what ultimately made this movie so special was that it FINALLY made people care about a rat. Not a mouse — a rat! Not only was a rat the main character, but he was also the protagonist. Ratatouille did away with the tired trope of villain rats. Frankly, that’s a stereotype I’m tired of seeing. Instead, this movie gave the world a rat everyone wanted to root for and turned Remy into an underdog, pop culture icon.

It’s also clear that the artists involved spent time observing real rats while creating Remy and his rattie brethren. Of course, real rats don’t actually have thumbs the way Remy does (a nitpicky, pet peeve of mine), but I’ve yet to see any animated or illustrated rat (or mouse for that matter) depicted as thumbless. Except mine, I NEVER draw them on my rat characters! But thumbs aside, I’m a big fan of Pixar’s art style and am thrilled Ratatouille provided some much-needed adorable rat merch for us obsessed owners to collect.

I absolutely love Remy and this movie despite that I find the concept of a human being controlled like a marionette — by his hair of all things — to be far more implausible than, say, a rat becoming a chef, or that humans would ever accept said rat making their meals. Also, I would really love to try some ratatouille.

Brinley and Moffett’s Review: Yay, finally a movie about rats and FOOD! They showed so many yummy looking things that it made our tummies growl and our mouths water. Mom’s cooking is good, but we doubt she spends as much time and attention to detail on the food she gives us like Remy would. We were also surprised that the Linguini guy let Remy control him, because Mom would never let us pull her hair like that.
Our only complaint was how mean some of the humans were. One lady was trying to shoot Remy and Emile, and she chased them until Remy fell in water! Poor Remy got all wet. Mom had to promise we wouldn’t get wet like that or be chased. Mom was right though, we really liked this movie! It shows how misunderstood and underestimated we rats are.

Intermission

Moffett: That movie was great!

Brinley: Remy is our new hero!

Me: I knew you’d like it. Now, our last movie is one I’ve never seen before, but it looks like it’s all about rats, too.

The Amazing Maurice (Rated PG)

Synopsis: A clever, talking cat travels around with a band of self-aware rats and their pied-piper friend, conning villagers into thinking there’s a rat plague they need to be saved from. Things are going well until they meet the precocious Malicia, who discovers their scheme and convinces them to help solve a mystery unfolding in her town.

Brinley and Moffett’s Review: We weren’t sure about this movie at first because it’s named after a stinky cat, but that same cat looked straight at us through the TV, which Mom calls “breaking the fourth wall” and said that this story was all about “RATS!” And then he sang a song about us! Thankfully that was the only song, because we don’t like musicals. But one song is OK if it’s about rats. Also some of the rats even looked like old friends we used to have, so there was lots of good representation of our kind. Not sure why this movie was named after a cat though, because rats are the stars of it!

Mom did have to cover our eyes during a dog and rat fight scene, which we didn’t like, but we tried to stay brave. And we were on the edge of our hut during the epic battle with the giant Rat King. We won’t tell you how it ended, but if you want an action story about some good-looking, heroic rats, then this is the movie for you!

My Review: I accidentally stumbled upon this movie and figured, “Why not.” And I’m so glad I did! What a delightful little film it turned out to be. It’s an adaptation of The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, the 28th novel in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, and the first to be written for children. I’ve never actually read the series, so I went in totally blind. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that, like Ratatouille, the characters are not cliché rats. They are similar to the rats in The Secret of NIMH, in that they (and Maurice the cat) develop their intelligence and ability to talk by an outside source. In this case, from eating magic waste that is being dumped by the Unseen University where all things wizardry happen. I found this to be a clever storytelling device, making the rats themselves responsible for all the plague rumors and providing them a way to profit from it. Sure, they used the plague to grift naive villagers, but sometimes life is about survival, right? Mostly, I thought it was a funny spin on an obvious trope. However, I could have done without the unrealistic and overused squeaky sounds movie makers seem to think rats make.

One thing that I really loved, but also found confusing, was the coloring of the rats. They each differed in color and markings like domestic rats, which you NEVER see in an animation. But also, why were they like this when they were technically wild? Wild Rattus norvegicus are agouti in color with a silvery gray stomach and no markings. Strange choice, but from an artistic point of view it was a good one. And like Ratatouille, it’s obvious that time was spent observing rats and their movements, while also taking creative license in their stylized approach. This rat-loving and rat-art-loving artist approves!

I could honestly break down so much more about this movie and what I liked about it in respect to the rats, but I’ll sum things up. This movie was an enchanting surprise, filled with breaking of the fourth wall hilarity that I think adults will enjoy, while also being an entertaining film for kids. It does have a few scenes that might be a bit scary for very young children, and sensitive rat lovers may squirm during some suggested rat deaths, but, overall, I think this is a great family film.

The End

Me: Thanks so much boys for the cuddles and watching movies with me! I feel so much more relaxed now.

Brinley (through yawns): Me, too. So, I’m going to close my eyes just for a moment.

Moffett: Yeah, me…. (snoring)

Me: Well, that’s a wrap!