Charms in ‘Rat’s Tale’ Are Second-String

Kids today, so spoiled. Conditioned to special-effects-laden movies like “Mouse Hunt” and “The Borrowers,” they may have little use for such a shockingly low-tech movie like “A Rat’s Tale,” a marionette-driven story that will inspire cine-savvy children to demand, “Couldn’t they have optically erased those wires from the frame?”

Such an old-fashioned art form is seemingly outmatched on the big screen. Marveling to the wonders of puppetry is an entertainment best enjoyed in a live theatrical setting, with children close enough to the marionettes to touch them; a darkened movie house is a fairly unsatisfactory substitution.

This is particularly true in the case of “A Rat’s Tale,” in which all the film’s minor charms come from the puppets. Since it is a movie, storytelling prowess is required, and, alas, the script and human actors alike are perfunctory and stilted. Even rats can still be let down by the material.

Germany’s marionette troupe Augsburger Puppenkiste provides most of the characters. Live actors are mixed in, though there’s little interaction between the two.

Our hero is Monty Mad-Rat, a shy sewer rat in love with Isabella Noble-Rat, an “uptown” rat. (Yes, even rats have an unfair socioeconomic system, just another thing to dislike about them.) Except for Isabella’s yellow scarf, it’s a little hard to tell the two apart, and while they’re fuzzy and speak with kewpie voices, they’re still not what you would call “cute.”

A crass developer wants to eradicate the rats to erect an underground parking structure. The rats decide to raise $100,000 to buy the land back from the humans. “Money money money, we gotta find it fast,” they chirp tunelessly. “We’ll find the greedy human, we’ll pay him off with cash.” Monty chips in the lion’s share by selling some magical shells to an art gallery owner, Ms. Jellybelly (Lauren Hutton). Beverly D’Angelo plays one of Jellybelly’s fatuous patrons. “Oh, my God, there’s a rat!” she shrieks. Hutton protests: “That’s one of my artists!” D’Angelo regains her composure quickly, asking, “Is he established?”

That’s really about the only joke that parents will appreciate in the movie. Otherwise, there are many rat puns--”ratwash” replaces “hogwash,” rats are encouraged to show “rattitude,” and so on. Good-intentioned as it all is, it doesn’t quite enrapture children; it just aids them in killing some time. Patchy storytelling and too-broad human performances (the rats are more subtle than the established actors) don’t help.

And, as all children’s films must, “A Rat’s Tale” dutifully slips in some lip-service to the power of imagination, to having heart and helping your enemies and, yes, even to helping the environment. Rats, whose main job on this planet seems to be spreading filth and disease, seem unlikely ecological spokesvermin.

* MPAA rating: G. Times guidelines: One rat’s demise is played for pathos; the idea of rodents kissing (ick!) might gross out parents more than kids.

‘A Rat’s Tale’

Lauren Hutton: Evelyn Jellybelly

Beverly D’Angelo: Mrs. Dollart

A Monty Film Production, distributed through Legacy Releasing. Director Michael F. Huse. Producer Hans Peter Clahsen. Screenplay Werner Morgenrath, Peter Scheerbaum, based on the book by Tor Seidler. Cinematography Piotr Lenar. Production design Austen Spriggs. Music Frederic Talgorn. Editor Timothy McLeish. Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes.

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* In general release throughout Southern California.