The Highway Rat (2017 TV Movie) User Reviews

Rat on the run

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 27 May 2018]

The BBC's Christmas animation treat is The Highway Rat. Julia Donaldson's buck toothed rodent on a horse whose life is one long feast. Younger folks will certainly like it as it follows on the footsteps of other Donaldson books that have been adapted for animation during the festive period.

With his sword The Highway Rat steals sweets, chocolates, cakes and pastries. 'Give me your sweets and your lollies! Give me your toffees and chews!'

Life is good for The Highway Rat, he even steals hay from his horse but the other animals in the forest are suffering and getting thinner as the rat gets fat.

This is another sweet animated tale narrated by Rob Brydon with David Tennant voicing the Highway Rat. It has an anti obesity message, eat in moderation.

The Highway Rat always seems to be disappointed that food that looks like confectionary turns out to be vegetables, fruits or nuts. Food that is actually good for you is a no-no but he still steals it.

Stop Motion Style for All Ages

[westsideschl · 8/10 · 11 March 2019]

In the style of the old stop motion claymation animations we have the use of plasticine to build the main characters which are then digitized to produce the classic stop motion movement, and 3-D character style. Great texture, voicing, poetic dialogue & music. On top of that it's a moralistic tale that stealing is not good. Some of the backgrounds were 3-D, but not all and the lack of naturalistic movement in the background kept it from a nine star.

Captivating and educational

[stephen_costello · 10/10 · 6 December 2020]

Our boys love this story, they loved the book but the animation just adds so much!! Wonderful voice work and the tiny details are fantastic

Not enough oomph!

[adamjohns-42575 · 4/10 · 9 January 2023]

The Highway Rat (2017) -

I'm not sure that the punishment really fit the crime at the end of this one and I don't know if I really liked the story as a whole either. I felt that the mean little rat deserved more of a comeuppance and that the build up was too repetitive. I got the message, he stole from people, don't hammer it home so much!

Actually, I'd like the BBC to be more selective about the books that they turn in to films, because a lot of the ones that they have made lately seem to been a vague attempt to cash in on the success of 'The Gruffalo' (2009), with not many of them delivering that same great recipe that made 'The Gruffalo' and it's sequel 'The Gruffalo's Child' (2011) work so well.

So much so, there wasn't much to say about this one. The animation was good, David Tennant's voice was a bit annoying, but the story didn't really give anything new or exciting.

442.39/1000.