"Die Story von Monty Spinnerratz" is a German movie from 1997, so it has its 20th anniversary this year. And despite the age, it is one of the more recent film works involving the Augsburger Puppenkiste as you can clearly see the strings in here with the help of which the rat puppets are operated. Besides them, this is a film however that consists almost exclusively of "real" people. The movie runs for 90 minutes and has actually quite a handful known actors in its cast, for example Ben Stiller's dad or also Golden Globe nominees. You can check the cast list yourself to see who is on board. The writers and director are probably not too well-known, but they still did an okay job I guess. If you manage to embrace the fantasy aspect and don't take it too seriously, then you may be in for a rewarding watch. I personally quite liked the rat characters and this maybe made a difference for the positive side in my opinion. I also liked that the film was not scared of making crucial decisions, like a character's death. One weakness was perhaps that the film tried to be too emotional and too mind-provoking with its message, but it's all good. I still think this can be a film, especially for younger (not too young) audiences that can teach them an important lesson and entertain them too (the most important thing). I know I was entertained and it's also not a problem that the film is really all about the rats overall and that the other human characters (no matter if friend or foe) don't get that much screen time. Check it out.
Review of A Rat's Tale
