MouseHunt [1997 / 2021] [Blu-ray] [USA Release] Who’s Hunting Who! You Don’t Need To Be Big To Be A Hero!
Two brothers Ernie Smuntz [Nathan Lane] and Lars Smuntz [Lee Evans] inherit a string factory and a decaying country home after the death of their father the late William Hickey, in his last role. After moving in, they learn that the house has historical architectural importance and is valued in the millions. However, they are constantly tormented by a mouse within the walls. They engage in cartoon-like combat against the rodent, but it manages to outwit the brothers in successive situations. Both live and animatronic mice portray the title role, and some scenes assume the mouse's point of view.
“A World Without String Is Chaos” – R. Smuntz
FILM FACT: This was one of William Hickey as Rudolph Smuntz in his final roles before he died and the film is dedicated in memory of him. Mouse and Cat trained by Boone’s Animals for Hollywood.
Cast: Nathan Lane, Lee Evans, Vicki Lewis, Maury Chaykin, Eric Christmas, Michael Jeter, Debra Christofferson, Camilla Søeberg, Ian Abercrombie, Annabelle Gurwitch, Eric Poppick, Ernie Sabella, William Hickey, Christopher Walken, Cliff Emmich, Melanie MacQueen, Brianna Shebby, Danielle Shebby, Leslie Upson, Mario Cantone, Peter Anthony Rocca, Steve Bean, Suzanne Krull, William Frankfather, Patrick Thomas, Peter Gregory, E.J. Callahan, Susan Blommaert, Valorie Armstrong, Michael X. Sommers, Michael K. Ross, José Rey, Carmen Filpi, Harper Roisman, David Fresco, Scott Alan Smith, Sarah Dampf, Orville Stoeber, David Weisenberg, Fred Pierce, Clement E. Blake, Saverio Carubia, Pep Torres, Jack Angeles (uncredited), Greg Bronson (uncredited), Whit Hertford (uncredited) and Michael Laren (uncredited)
Director: Gore Verbinski
Producers: Alan Riche, Bart Brown, Bruce Cohen and Tony Ludwig
Screenplay: Adam Rifkin
Composer: Alan Silvestri
Cinematography: Phedon Papamichael, A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
German: 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio
French: 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French and German
Running Time: 97 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Paramount Pictures / DreamWorks Pictures
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘MouseHunt’ [1997] finds the smartest rodent on the block was the one that outsmarts Nathan Lane and Lee Evans that is full of mischief and culinary tricks in Gore Verbinski's ‘MouseHunt’ where a manic riff between Nathan Lane and Lee Evans and the smartest rodent pays homage to the classic slapstick of Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges, and the Marx Brothers.
Having inherited a dilapidated mansion, avaricious Ernie Smuntz [Nathan Lane] and his dim-witted brother Lars Smuntz [Lee Evans] (British comic genius) plan to spruce it up, sell it off, and use the proceeds to save their struggling string factory. But they've reckoned without the building's solitary sitting tenant: a pesky mouse that thwarts the siblings at every turn with an ingenuity that recalls cartoon critter Jerry in his heyday.
The house, the gloomy setting for an otherwise cheery film, is wreck enough to accommodate plenty of vermin. But apparently its only resident is a mouse with a mission: bedevilling the Smuntz brothers. Thanks to top-flight visual trickery from an effects team led by Oscar winners from the film ‘Babe’ and ‘Jurassic Park,’ and to the point where the mouse shows off loads of personality while driving the Smuntz brothers wild. Also as you will see as the film progresses, that the painting of Rudolph Smuntz facial expressions change with certain situations, especially with the dramatic mishaps of the Smuntz brothers, which is quite hilarious and very amusing.
Not even ace exterminator Caesar [Christopher Walken] in a brief but telling cameo, stands not a chance against this four-legged pest, brilliantly brought to life with a blend of animatronics, computer generated imagery, and a very trained vermin. Director Gore Verbinski is certainly no stranger to this kind of anthropomorphic trickery, having been the brains behind those Budweiser beer adverts that made stars of a kvetching iguana and a bunch of croaking frogs.
For children there are various Rube Goldberg-style contraptions, mousetrap and cheese sight gags and the lovable vision of the mouse climbing into his little sardine-can bed, looking dreamily at a postcard of Hawaii. For adults there are Ernie Smuntz's brief and disastrous restaurant career, that was actually filmed at the famous Chasen's and Ernie Smuntz's subsequent amazement at the mouse's culinary tricks. ''Toast a sandwich so the arugula won't wilt!'' Ernie exclaims in wonderment. ''How'd he know that?''
‘MouseHunt’ also brings on Maury Chaykin as a patron of the arts who wants to buy the house for its supposed architectural merits; Ernie Sabella doing a cameo at the dog pound, and Christopher Walken as the mouse's ultimate nemesis and makes himself funny here just by showing up.
The tale runs out of steam by the end, but the film remains watchable throughout thanks to Nathan Lane and Lee Evans's appealing double act and the inventive antics of their furry little nemesis. Incidentally ‘MouseHunt’ was one of the first features to emerge from DreamWorks SKG, the fledgling studio founded in 1996 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen.
MouseHunt MUSIC TRACK LIST
I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS (Written by Walter Kent, Kim Gannon and Buck Ram) (Arranged by Bruce L. Fowler) [Performed by the Los Angeles Children's Chorus Ensemble that includes Daryl Getman, Gavin Hale, Julia Long, Adrienne Pardee, Mark Perry, Amy Sargious, Jonathan Saul, Chai-Fu Wang, and Julia Wells]
THE GOLD DIGGER’S SONG (We're in the Money) (Written by Al Dubin and Harry Warren)
Artist's Life (Composed by Johann Strauss)
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Blu-ray Image Quality – Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures presents us the film ‘MouseHunt’ with a very good 1080p picture quality and looks really terrific, especially with the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Paramount Pictures is really bringing its A-game right now and ‘MouseHunt’ couldn't look more filmic, sharp, and practically perfect on Blu-ray. Not only is it finely grainy, preserving its natural film quality state, it's also replete with exceptionally well defined details throughout, and particularly in the old house the brothers inherit. All of the dust and wear around the house – worn woods, warped wallpaper, cobwebs hanging about, scuffs on the hardwood floors – looks totally marvellous. It's a target-rich environment, so to speak, for rugged and ragged and high yield textural delights. Of course faces and clothes look great, too, for sharp intimacy and picture-perfect detail, but it's the house that really looks striking. Of course faces and clothes look great, too, for sharp intimacy and picture-perfect detail, but it's the house that really looks striking. The colour looks slightly depressed by design to look with a weathered appearance right from the bleak, rainy, blue and black dominant funeral scene forward. Lighting is generally low and there's a slightly warm cast to the picture inside the old house where shades of brown, primarily, but also some blacks and greys and maybe very dark reds, live and thrive. It's not vibrant by any means, but it is extremely faithful to the intended aesthetics of the director. Add perfectly complimentary flesh tones, expert black levels, and no evidence of either print wear or encode problems and there's absolutely nothing to keep this transfer from five-star perfection.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures brings us the film ‘MouseHunt’ with a very well rounded 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio experience. The film opens with organ music and saturating rainfall, the former nicely spaced and airy in detail, the latter with fine immersive saturation all around the listener, soaking the scene with a good pelting of torrential rain. The various action scenes featuring the brothers (comically) attempting to capture the mouse are a delight, whether a series of traps cracking shut all over the stage or just simple things like swats with makeshift weapons. A nail gun fires its deadly daggers with depth in one mid film scene as the mouse scampers away from the darting projectiles which move and swoosh with great, thunderous depth from its perspective. The composed film score by Alan Silvestri is impressively large and healthy with fine fidelity through the range and both positive subwoofer and surround usage. Light atmospherics, perfectly positioned and at just the right volume, allow the audience to feel all the more immersed into the house. Finally, it is very lifelike centred positioned and organically prioritized dialogue round this excellent track into fine and finished form.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: From the Cutting Room Floor [Deleted Scenes] [1997] [480i] [1.37:1] [14:29] Here we get to view seven deleted scenes and they are as follows: Lee Evans: A Day at the Office; Christopher Walken: Tools of the Trade; Christopher Walken: Mouse Hunt; Christopher Walken: Quality Control; Ensemble: Hospital Scene; Ensemble: Doings at the Auction and Ensemble: Say Cheese. As usual, you can either play each delete scene separately or Play All.
Teaser Trailer [1997] [480i] [1.37:1] [1:26] This is the Original Teaser Trailer for the film ‘MouseHunt’ and it is a very clever and amusing teaser trailer.
Theatrical Trailer [1997] [480i] [1.37:1] [2:04] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘MouseHunt’ and here again we get to view another very clever and amusing theatrical trailer.
Finally, ‘MouseHunt’ is a vivacious 1997 film, where Nathan Lane and Lee Evans are hapless Smuntz brothers out to rid their house of a very shrewd mouse. Anyone who's dealt with mice on the loose in a home knows how pesky they can be. That's part of what makes ‘MouseHunt’ a great deal of fun; but you can't help pitying the poor Smuntz brothers, who go to wild extremes trying to rid themselves of an elusive sneaky rodent. Young children will definitely side with the mouse of course, because it's cute and furry and performs some spectacular stunts and thanks to some very convincing and sparingly used computer-generated effects. Casting Christopher Walken as an exterminator is just one of many inspired touches that gives this film its adult appeal. William Hickey is also fine in one of his last performances as frail old Rudolph Smuntz, whose sombre portrait keeps changing expression after he passes on. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
