Maurice in 22

[Mixa]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1484445112193241092

I'm excited and scared at the same time about this. The Amazing Maurice has some poignant and shocking scenes that wouldn't fit in a general audiences movie... I only hope they are true to the book.

Mx

 

[=Tamar]

Okay, I finally found my copy of The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, and I was wrong about Malicia. She does have red hair (chapter 2).
But Maurice is not ginger. He is "a sort of mucky tabby" (chapter 10).
While the exact shade isn't given, i don't think I've ever heard anyone describe orange as "mucky".
The book would make close to a five hour movie at a page per minute of film, so obviously a lot will be shortened and left out.

 

[RathDarkblade]

Hmm, Maurice may be a sort of mucky tabby, but surely no-one would watch the show if Maurice looked like this ...

(And even so, that tabby isn't mucky. He's just feral) So how about this for Maurice?

 

[Tonyblack]

There are plenty of scruffy ginger tabbies out there.

 

[Molokov]

Andrew Baker, the producer of the film directly addresses why they had to change Maurice's appearances in the video interview I linked previously.

Here's a direct link to the part where he's describing the new design for Maurice:

And if you don't want to watch the video, here's what Andrew said (this is crimped and edited from the video subtitles - any errors are my own)

Andrew Baker
This is obviously Maurice, our hero, voiced by Hugh Laurie and you can see the amazing kind of texture that we have on his fur, how it moves, how fluffy his tail is. Erm, and there is obviously an issue which is in the original book, Maurice is an alleycat. His tail is big, it does say, you know that his tail is, is, you know almost as big as his body. But erm, but in the original text his ears are all hanging off, his face is all scratched, you know, he looks a complete mess. Er and er, you know, very much like you would imagine Greebo. Really a kind of proper alleycat.

This is a family film. Erm, and so there are limits to what we can do and still get this made. So what we wanted to do was to be able to create a character that had all the personality attributes of Maurice - so, he's cocky, he's arrogant, he's you know, scamming the rats as well as scamming humans and he's got that real sense of a cat personality, but also he's not too beat up. He has to be a character that people don't flinch away from. Otherwise we would just never get the project off the ground. It would just never happen.

So what we tried to do was always find a balance. You know, for Maurice, our lead character, he has to be a cat who is inspirational cat as well, and so we wanted something with real personality. And I think this, for me, is a fabulous design and works really well for what we needed it to be.
And again, as I say, we, we made sure we got sign off at every stage with Narrativia and so it's not always what they imagined or what you might imagine as a reader of the book but it's, that's why I'm saying
you can't do a direct translation from a book to a film. There always has to be a slight change,
and it's therefore a question of what can we change, what can we keep?

And so, er, anyway, we have our lovely Maurice here, and I have to say, he's a fabulous character. And obviously he's the hero of our movie.

 

[RathDarkblade]

Fair enough. Still, I'd love to see Maurice as he's supposed to be: a proper alley-cat, like Greebo.

If Maurice starts singing (like this guy, below) then I'm outta here.

 

[Molokov]

I guess you've not watched the interview then...

(Yes, there will be *one* song, at the start of the film, with Hugh Laurie singing - mostly to introduce the whole concept of the scam. Apparently Hugh had to sing it without proper backing music as it hadn't been fully written/recorded yet, so he was just singing along to a metronome tick...)

 

[RathDarkblade]

I hadn't had a chance yet. I had to go to work, first.

I'm OK with one song. I just don't like the full-orchestral-plus-birds-tweeting-everywhere stuff that you get with Disney. =P I especially didn't like the Robin Hood film.

And if (since) Hugh Laurie is already a good musician, hopefully the end result will be good. (I'm sure it will be).

I'm not sure about Malicia (just how Andrew pronounces her name). I thought Malicia's name would be pronounced "Malisha" (as in Malicia = 'Malicious'). That how her name always seemed to me. Am I wrong?

And now that I've seen the interview, I'm quite excited. Can'twaitcan'twaitcan'twait! =D I just hope they don't Muck It Up(TM).

 

[=Tamar]

I am somewhat peeved by the hint in the interview that they are going to screw up Maurice's pronunciation despite being told by both Rhianna and Rob how Terry pronounced it.
I also noticed that almost everyone mentioned has worked for Disney and still works for Disney. But they are also said to be fans of Discworld, so maybe it'll escape the worst elements.
Hugh Laurie played piano a time or two in the Wodehouse series with Jeeves and Wooster.

 

[RathDarkblade]

As in, "Morris" rather than "Maurice"? Yes, I noticed that too. It's a bit odd. Maybe they think that "Maurice" is a French name (as in Chevalier), so ...? But I don't see how that's relevant. *shrug*

Yes, I also hope there's no interference from the Big Mouse. Boo, Disney!

Now you mention it, =Tamar -- Yes! I seem to remember Hugh tinkling the ivories and singing "Minnie the Moocher", much to Stephen Fry's displeasure. IIRC, Jeeves wasn't sure what a "hoochie-coocher" was.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Maybe using American language, as their spelling in USA English differs from the UK.

 

[phalarope]

Possibly pronounced More-reese because in the USA Morris the Cat (also an orange tabby) has been a famous spokes-feline for 9Lives cat food for decades. Om only knows what legal/financial issues that might raise.

 

[Tonyblack]

I do know that Charlene used the American pronunciation - which always made for a fun discussion of Americanisms.

 

[=Tamar]

My father's best friend (born circa 1901) was named Maurice and he pronounced it Morris (northeastern US). It's not UK vs US, it's more UK vs France.
I have observed that the UK ends to aggressively pronounce adopted words in a very English-language manner, e.g. duh-vit for doovay (duvet),
I also recall Terry saying that Maurice was modeled on Morris from the advertisements (who was orange but Maurice is a mucky tabby, and it was a minor plot point which has probably been dropped). Maybe after they made him orange they realized that was a little too similar, but I think they just got the wrong pronunciation stuck in their heads and didn't want to change it

 

[Molokov]

Personally, I would have always read the written name 'Maurice' with the French pronunciation (possibly influenced by The Joker by the Steve Miller Band), and I only started using the 'Morris' pronunciation for the Discworld cat after hearing Terry/Rob/Stephen Briggs/etc using that version.

It turns out Andrew Baker was similar - in his head, it was More-ees, and he found out from the audiobook that it was Morris (which he confirmed with Rob) - but as a nod to the confusion over the pronunciation - Maurice himself uses the fancier French pronunciation, but all the rodents use the English one...

 

[RathDarkblade]

Possibly pronounced More-reese because in the USA Morris the Cat (also an orange tabby) has been a famous spokes-feline for 9Lives cat food for decades. Om only knows what legal/financial issues that might raise.

According to that website, Morris the Cat has been around since 1968. Presumably it's not the same cat.

I have observed that the UK ends to aggressively pronounce adopted words in a very English-language manner, e.g. duh-vit for doovay (duvet)

That sounds sad, hilarious and utterly moronic, all at the same time.

...as a nod to the confusion over the pronunciation - Maurice himself uses the fancier French pronunciation, but all the rodents use the English one...

Ah, yes! As in Mrs Bouquet vs Mrs Bucket?

 

[=Tamar]

Precisely. I'm sure that's what they are basing it on. But I always read the book-Maurice as being very proud of being the roughest, toughest Ankh-Morpork street cat around. He doesn't seem the type to think that a Quirmian pronunciation would add to his consequence.

 

[=Tamar]

Bokuwachikuwa posted this picture of a cat, and i Feegled it from someone's tumblr. It looks like Maurice being orange. If the one they drew looked like this I would be less piqued.

 

[RathDarkblade]

All that cat needs are a few scratches and a missing ear, and he could be Greebo (or Maurice...)

 

[Mixa]

I guess you've not watched the interview then...

(Yes, there will be *one* song, at the start of the film, with Hugh Laurie singing - mostly to introduce the whole concept of the scam. Apparently Hugh had to sing it without proper backing music as it hadn't been fully written/recorded yet, so he was just singing along to a metronome tick...)

Rath, I agree with you... I hope it's not a really fuffly song. My mother, who is a great Discworld fan can't stand musicals, I don't know if I'll convice her to watch the movie if there are many sung parts

Mx