Review of Mouse Hunt

Introduction

Mousehunt is one of those movies which appeal to the younger viewer, but try to keep any accompanying adults entertained at the same time. This holy grail of entertainment is a difficult achievement, successfully attained by the Simpsons, and few other productions. However, from a general perspective, Mousehunt provides enough chuckles for the more mature viewer to ensure that the time does not pass too slowly. Lee Evans is often referred to as the new Norman Wisdom, and in this role, he supplies many solo slapstick comedy moments. However, these do not make a movie, and Mousehunt may actually have been a better proposition as a highly edited 30 or 45 minute television short.

Video

Although the picture is a 16:9 anamorphic picture, and therefore ideally suited to a home cinema widescreen TV, the representation from this disc always fails to impress. Detail levels are often below par, and colours often seem a little muddy and washed out. A lot of the scenes take place in the house the two lead characters have inherited, which is dark and gothic in outlook. This leads to a number of scenes which are lacking in detail, which is a shame because the sets look like so much effort has gone into them. Any background information disappears into the shadows if it is not the central focus of the camera.

Audio

The audio track does little to redeem this disc. Portions of the sound track are okay, but never notable. Sometimes though, the track becomes muddled, and vocals are sometimes not as clear as they should be, or are drowned out by music or effects. This, combined with Nathan Lane`s broad accent, makes some of the muttered lines difficult to understand, more some for younger viewers. I found myself surfing the remote all too often to try to hear dialogue, without being deafened by effects or music.

The score is a good one, and has a nice theme running through it which suits the film very well. This comes across on the Dolby Digital mix very well, and the music urges the on-screen action along, subject to overwhelming the other sound elements at times.

Features

Despite a generous collection of subtitles and soundtracks (including, rather curiously, a 5.1 Swedish mix !) it is difficult to get excited about the extra material on this disc. There are some scenes from the cutting room floor, which include a number of additional scenes including Christopher Walken, which were criminally cut. The other scenes are uninspiring, and welcome cuts from the main presentation. The rest of the extra material are simply trailers for the main show.

The additional material generally adds little though, and I would have thought that a blooper reel would be more likely to reveal some of the humour of working with these two comedians. A making of documentary would also have been welcome for a film which utilises all sorts of animatronics, animation and computer trickery to bring the mouse and other creatures to life.

Conclusion

Basically, if you like the Aero chocolate commercial (with the hoola-hooping mouse) and you reckon you could stand an hour and a half of it, then you`ll like this movie. The mouse sequences are often highly entertaining and well pulled-off. If you`re a Lee Evans fan then you`ll probably also lap up this movie, and certainly you won`t receive any surprises if you`re expecting his usual slapstick fare. Mousehunt is even useful as a solid child entertainer on a wet afternoon. However, dig deeper, or expect more, and you will most likely be disappointed. The characterisations are weak, and it is difficult to suspend disbelief far enough to believe Evans and Lane with their different figures, faces and hopeless accents, are truly brothers. However the production team persuaded Christopher Walken to partake is beyond me, but it was truly a missed opportunity, as Caesar the Pest Man is given scant time to grace the screen.

This being a Dreamworks disc, I was surprised how uninspiring the quality was. Their first releases were benchmarks of quality, but as they begin to ship out lower volume mainstream titles, it appears each copy is receiving less attention. I`m not saying this is a bad film, or a bad disc. It was mildly entertaining, and gave a few really good laughs. The effects were also very interesting and convincing most of the time. However, it fell short of being really engaging and was ultimately predictable. The DVD is a thoroughly bland and unimpressive way of delivering the movie, and offers little in the way of production quality, or supporting material or information.