Redwall and Mouse Guard seem like obvious choices. I must admit I never read them and am not interested in ever going to, but following GoaT and these forums it is imposible not to know a thing or two about their lore and setting, which is apperently similar to GoaT.
Personally, I'm having a really hard time finding something comparable to GoaT in most respects. This is great and one of the reasons why I believe this game will be a huge success; especially when it comes to games, there is hardly anything to compare it to and I'm sure it scratches an itch of many gamers around the world.
Of course there are films like Ratatouille that feature small rodents and can both be cute as well as vaguely gritty, but overall, they feel far off from what GoaT seems to try to accomplish.
The only thing I can think of that really shares some of the main traits of GoaT (or what I think some of the main traits might be) are the
Little Big Adventure games from the mid 90's. I know, I might sound like a broken record, having mentioned them before in any thread that allowed it (greatest game, greates soundtrack, greates kitchens...), but I feel they are really based on similar overall design ideas. The whole world is very toy-like, with biped elephants, cleptomanic rabbits, wizards and dragons and all... but the underlying tone is grim, dark and menancing. An oppressive regime is seizing control of the planet, abducting citicens and as soon as you leave your home-world the setting becomes more serious too. You're faced with slavery, betrayal, greed, cooptation and apartheid (on a genus level). All these themes can be found in GoaT if I remember correctly.
Other things these games share are:
- both made by frenchmen (they seem to be the only nationality in the universe to nail the cute and dark theme. Asians just always overdo it in both direction [no offence meant])
- both have rodent skeletons that will hit you with a club
- both have amazing soundtracks
- made with love
Naturally, I could be direly mistaken and GoaT will be and feel completely different from LBA. Naturally, that is even highly probable. And desirable.