The Rat Catcher

Another one of the four short stories written by roald dahl, and just recently released by netflix. Fast talking, as the narrator relates the tale of another adventure. Again, with ralph fiennes and rupert friend. This time, fiennes is the rat chatcher, showing us the best ways to eliminate rats. Richard ayoade is the narrator. This one has a bit of a dark side, but they only off the rats. A larger than life story, but it could all happen! Directed by wes anderson. This one is about eighteen minutes long. No oscar for this one, but it's still interesting as part of dahl's collection of work.

...and yeah, I'm glad I did. At 1.25x the speed, the experience was worth the 17 minutes. Happy customer here.

Sorry that I no longer buy Wes Anderson's seemingly-genuine tricks. Life Aquatic was great but anything other than that, I could live without.

As for this one: Yep, there's artistic value in his approach. But so what? Any film-tv student can do this much. Problem is, you need a pumped-up name in order have your simple solutions be valued. It takes Wes Anderson to propose such experimental shorts to whoever is gonna be in on them. And yeah, the result is satisfactory.

The cast works and I believe Roald Dahl would be happy with the outcome had he been around to see how miserably certain other adaptations do.

"The Rat Catcher" is the latest addition to Netflix's Roald Dahl collection, offering a delightful tribute to Dahl's peculiar storytelling. Narrated by Richard Ayoade and featuring performances by Ralph Fiennes and Rupert Friend, the story follows the enigmatic Rat Man's arrival in a quaint village to deal with a rat problem. Wes Anderson's distinctive style elevates the narrative, with the first half showcasing his signature filmmaking techniques. However, it's the second half where Anderson's creative use of lighting, shadows, and animation truly shines. Inspired by a Dahl short story, the film captures his unique storytelling style and concludes with an intriguingly ambiguous ending. "The Rat Catcher" is a captivating 15-minute short that keeps viewers engaged and offers a fresh perspective on liquorice. It's a must-watch for fans of Dahl's whimsical tales and Anderson's cinematic artistry.

Garage owner Claude has a rat problem. He hires an expert to deal with the problem. The Rat Man is truly an expert in his field to the point of resembling a rat himself. While Claude and his employee are fascinated by his methods they are also quite unsettled by him.

Another of Wes Anderson's four-episode short story-series, all adaptations of Roald Dahl stories. The others in the series are The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Swan and Poison.

Wes Anderson adapting a Roald Dahl story seems a perfect combination: the clever innocence of Dahl's writing, Anderson's whimsical, stylised direction. It's been done before, to great effect; 'Fantastic Mr Fox' (2009) was brilliant.

Having already watched two of Anderson's Roald Dahl-based short films, the style and presentation of the films are a given. A quirky, reasonably engaging story, narration with the narrator talking in short, bullet-point-like sentences, highly-stylised backdrops and props, great performances (in this case from Ralph Fiennes, Rupert Friend and Richard Ayoade).

A less positive aspect has been that while the story is engaging, it has no punchline. It simply fizzles out. The Rat Catcher is no exception.

Here it is a touch worse in that the story never really seems to fully get going anyway. At least the other two had a fair degree of momentum.

Still, it's interesting and watchable enough.

The local rat-catcher (Ralph Fiennes), who bears a disquieting resemblance to his prey, is engaged to extirpate a minor infestation of the creatures. Wes Anderson's spin on the eponymous Roald Dahl short story is quite fun (in a grim way) as the resourceful Rat Man explains his various highly unpleasant methods of dispatching his clever quarry. His final demonstration of Homo's sanguineous dominance over Rattus, although largely unseen, is brutally amusing (and sadly not unprecedented considering some of the revolting blood-sports to which animals have been sacrificed in the not-so-distant past). Attention to detail may make the final lines less cryptic. Of Wes Anderson's four recent Roald Dahl inspired short films, this was my favorite.