'The Amazing Maurice' arrives at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival

The Amazing Maurice , based on the Carnegie Award-winning novel by Terry Pratchett, has earned the rare distinction of animated film as a selection for the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where it will mark its US premiere. Established in 1978 by Robert Redford's Sundance Institute, the next edition of the prestigious event will be held January 19-29 in Park City, Utah.

“Adapting Pratchett is an honor and a challenge, one not to be taken lightly. His work carries a complexity of tragedy and humor,” said director Toby Genkel. “He tells stories that are about something and that resonates with me. We wanted to be faithful to the novel's themes and make it work as an animated family film. We go to some dark places and hopefully we will take the public with us as there is a lot of fun to be had along the way. And, of course, it ends with a big celebration.

The film tells the story of a talking cat who teams up with a clan of "educated rodents" to carry out Pied Piper scams in Discworld cities. All goes well until they arrive in Bad Blintz and encounter a mysterious enemy who has his own nefarious plans for the townspeople. Maurice and the mice team up with two humans, Malicia and Keith, to take on the enemy. But first they must recover the pipe of the real Pied Piper…

" The Amazing Maurice it has many main characters, including a crafty cat, two humans, five clever mice, Death, an insane Pied Piper, and a villain who is the embodiment of the collective fury of all mice. We sourced a top-notch cast and their voices, applied to our art director's colorful vision for the film, as well as the work of the animators, framed through director Toby's ability to portray the fun and depth of the story, have brought the film to life in an outstanding way. It's something unique,” ​​noted producer Robert Chandler.

A German-UK co-production, the film is produced by Emely Christians at Ulysses Filmproduktion and Andrew Baker and Robert Chandler at Cantilever Media, starring Hugh Laurie, Emilia Clarke, David Thewlis, Himesh Patel, David Tennant, Ariyon Bakare and Gemma Arterton, and was directed by Toby Genkel from a screenplay by Terry Rossio.

Producer Baker adds: “We have worked closely with Narrativia, the company that manages Terry Pratchett's literary estate, from the beginning. They were involved every step of the way and could see the pure passion and experience we brought to the film. I'm a huge Terry Pratchett fan myself - I've read everything - and that was important. The estate could see that we had assembled a team of producers, directors, artists and animators who cared very much about the responsibility of delivering something good and true to Terry's voice. I'm really proud of this film."

The animation studios of  The Amazing Maurice  they are Studio Rakete (Hamburg) and Red Star 3D (Sheffield).

“We made this film at the height of the pandemic lockdowns. We had to reconfigure our pipelines in Hamburg and Sheffield with teams working remotely, but we made it, we made it through and we stayed true to our budget and schedule,” said Christians, producer of Ulysses. “What was really important, however, was how well the teams worked together, especially with many artists and animators unable to meet beforehand. Our collective passion for the film and its characters helped. We think we have delivered something very special.”

The film's international sales agent is Global Screen. Viva Kids is handling US distribution and will release the film theatrically in the US and Canada on February 3. The film will make its UK debut on 16 December as a Sky Original from Sky Cinema and in independent cinemas nationwide.