Blue Fox Entertainment and Shout! Studios
Oct 20 (USA) and Dec 5 (Canada on Digital/VOD)
Out of all the many adaptations of Oscar Wilde‘s humorous supernatural short story The Canterville Ghost that I’ve seen, I still can’t decide which version is best. Upon visiting the animated take, there are bits to really like. Here, Virginia (Emily Carey) is a very confident young lady whom I’ve seen before. That’s because I’ve seen it in The Amazing Maurice. Robert Chandler produced that film along with this latest, and I’m sure Malicia and Virginia come from the same mould. Both aren’t afraid of no ghosts.
In the credits, Kim Burdon is also the co-director, and it’s tough to say how much of a contribution he made. As a newcomer to the field, maybe he handled the additions to the story, namely the running gag with Algernean Van Finchley (Merinda Hart) a wannabe Ghostbuster, complete with a Victorian age proton pack and trap. Thankfully, that isn’t overplayed and I’m fairly sure she doesn’t exist in Wilde’s tale. I’ll have to reread it to verify. If I’m wrong, I’m going to behave like Sir Simon de Canterville (Stephen Fry), bemoaning this add.
The Amazing Maurice is not easy to catch because not many theatres are screening it. After running around Europe, this bad cat is ready to challenge other animated miscrent felines in “the New World.” Unlike Garfield, this streetwise tomcat has something up his paws! When people spot him, he’s running a racket with Keith the pied piper, and a specific family of rats! That’s not good. It’s a great premise for a movie to see how he redeems himself, but for part of the tale, what we see is just how much of a con artist that he is.