A Rat's Tale

A Rat's Tale
A Rat's Tale
	German theatrical release poster
Directed by	Michael F. Huse
Screenplay by	Werner Morgenrath; Peter Scheerbaum;
Based on	A Rat's Tale; by Tor Seidler
Produced by	Hans-Peter Clahsen
Starring	Beverly D'Angelo; Jerry Stiller; Josef Ostendorf; Lauren Hutton;
Cinematography	Piotr Lenar
Edited by	Timothy McLeish
Music by	Frédéric Talgorn
Production; companies	Monty Film; Warner Bros. Film Gmbh;
Distributed by	Warner Bros. (Germany); Legacy Releasing (United States);
Release dates	27 March 1997 (Germany); 20 March 1998 (United States);
Running time	89 minutes
Countries	Germany; United States;
Languages	German; English;
Box office	$33,768 (US)

A Rat's Tale (German: Die Story von Monty Spinnerratz) is a 1997 German-American fantasy film directed by Michael F. Huse, based on the 1985 children's book A Rat's Tale by Tor Seidler. The film features marionette work by German theater group Augsburger Puppenkiste,^[4]^[5] along with state-of-the-art visual effects, and the live action human cast include Beverly D'Angelo, Jerry Stiller, Lauren Hutton, and the German actor Josef Ostendorf.

The film was released in Germany on March 27, 1997, by Warner Bros. under their Family Entertainment label. It received a limited release in the United States on March 20, 1998, by Legacy Releasing.

Plot

Cast

Live-action cast

Josef Ostendorf as Mr. Lou Dollart
Beverly D'Angelo as Mrs. Dollart
Jerry Stiller as Prof. Plumpingham
Lauren Hutton as Evelyn Jellybelly
Jonathan Kinsler as Architect Stressback
Steffen Wink as Assistant Nick McRafferty
Andreas Herder as Assistant Tom O'Dooley
Jack Recknitz as Mr. Adams
Natja Brunckhorst as Mrs. Lucy
Yoshinori Yamamoto as Futon San

German voice cast

Philipp Moog as Monty Mad-Rat Jr. (Monty Spinnerratz)
Carmen Plate as Isabella Noble-Rat (Isabella Nobelratz)
Klaus Havenstein as Old Monty (Monty Senior)
Gudo Hoegel as Rudi Rake-Rat (Rudi Raffratz)
Donald Arthur as Jean-Paul Canalligator (Knaligator Charon)

English voice cast

Dee Bradley Baker as Monty Mad-Rat Jr.
Lynsey Bartilson as Isabella Noble-Rat
Raymond Guth as Old Monty
Scott MacDonald as Rudi Rake-Rat
Donald Arthur as Jean-Paul Canalligator
Danny Wells as Mr. Lou Dollart
Scott Weil as Assistant Nick McRafferty
Nicholas Benson as Assistant Tom O'Dooley

Release

Home media

The film was released in the United States and Canada on VHS by Warner Home Video on May 12, 1998.^[6]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "Die Story von Monty Spinnerratz". filmportal.de. Archived from the original on 7 October 2024. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
^ "A Rat's Tale (1998)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved 3 December 2024.
^ ^a ^b "A Rat's Tale". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved 3 December 2024.
^ Klady, Leonard (19 March 1998). "A Rat's Tale". Variety. Retrieved 3 December 2024.
^ "Helden der Unterwelt" [Heroes of the Underworld]. Der Spiegel (in German). 23 March 1997. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 3 December 2024.
^ A Rat's Tale [VHS]. ISBN 0790735059.