A Rat's Tale

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A Rat's Tale ★★ 1998 (G)

“Romeo & Juliet” for rats. A regular Joe, Manhattanite Monty MadRat meets Isabella NobleRat, the daughter of the rat President, and soon Monty is a goner for this outofreach rodent whose family disapproves of the common sewer creature. Adding to the intrigue, a land developer (Ostendorf) appears with a scheme to obliterate the rat population and build a parking garage. The rats band together to raise money to buy their land and prevent ratricide. Ad mirably lotech, kid pic nonetheless suffers from the cute but expressionless and very much wired marionettes playing the rats— they're no muppets—and the broadly characterized roles of the human actors (Hutton, Stiller and D'Angelo). Marionettes complements of Germany's Augsburger Puppet Theatre. Based on the book by Tor Seidler. 90m/C VHS . GE Lauren Hutton, Jerry Stiller, Beverly D'Angelo, Josef Ostendorf; D: Michael F. Huse; W: Werner Morganrath, Peter Scheerbaum; C: Piotr Lenar; M: Frederic Talgorn; V: Dee Bradley Baker, Lynsey Bartilson, Donald Arthur, Ray Guth, Scott MacDonald.