The Mouse and His Child

I aquired my own copy of "the Mouse and His Child" from a video store that (go figure) was just going to throw it away. I hadn't seen it in many years but I did remember it as being good.

Well, memory served me well, but not in the way I'd expected!

I can see why the store was so desperate to get rid of this one. Aparently, these days, you aren't going to make it in the Family section (and this really belongs in with the anime and the Bakshi) if you're quiet and introspective. This is one of the heaviest animated films ever made, but I admire it for that. Check it out, if you're able to.

What, you've never seen a cartoon where the characters contemplate infinity?

This was one of the first movies I ever saw. I must have been a

toddler, barely able to form words when I first saw it. Up until this

past week, the last time I had seen this movie I was probably five

years old, but in spite of my young age I never forgot it.

Most of the comments I have seen made by others mention things

like, "this movie probably isn't suited for young children", however I

adored this movie as a very young child, and can honestly say that

I think this movie had a profound effect on who I am today.

Some things embed themselves in your memory in a lasting way

that others do not, this movie was one of those things. A simple

cartoon, but so much more. The memory of this movie has always

been with me, and it has always affected me more than many

memories I have of things that I actually experienced. I thought that

I would never see it again and it would remain a memory until I

managed to pick up a copy on ebay last week. When the movie

started after I pressed play on my VCR, it was like stepping back

into time and reconnecting with myself at age four.

I remembered every visual, every spoken word, my memory just

needed to be jogged. This film is amazingly poignant, deeply

thoughtful, and insightful. I feel lucky that I saw it at such a young

age and grew up with its message in my heart.

The movie opens up with a homeless man scrounging through

garbage cans, even though I was only a toddler when I first saw

this movie, I remember immediately feeling compassion for this

character, and for other characters throughout. The thing about this

movie that makes it great is not its ability to entertain, but its ability

to make you feel.

A toy wind-up mouse and his child awaken to consciousness in a

toy shop after hours. "Papa, where are we? What are we?" asks

the child mouse. "I don't know son," is all the father can offer. They

learn that they are toys, and must do what they are intended to do:

be wound up and walk in a circle. The child mouse is distraught;

he doesn't want to go out into the world, he wants to stay in the toy

shop and have a family with the other toys. They fall off of the shelf

and are broken and later taken out with the trash.

In one of the movie's more poignant moments, the mouse child

says, "Papa, is THIS the world?" while they are helplessly caught

in a pile of trash. "I hope not," answers the father.

They wind up being found by Manny the Rat, a wonderfully crafted

villain who enslaves toys to do his bidding until they are old and of

no use. In a particularly horrific scene, an old wind up donkey is

unhinged into spare parts after collapsing from exhaustion. The

mouse and his child spend the rest of the movie trying to escape

from Manny and become "self-winding" so that they no longer have

to depend on someone for their well-being.

The messages in this movie are deep and profound, but the more

general messages are not so symbolic that they are lost on a

child. This movie does so much more than the average "children's

movie", it does not set out to entertain, it sets out to tell a brilliant

story with morals and it succeeds beautifully.

In a time where cartoon villains are usually a mix of the comical,

ugly and detestable, Manny is a breath of fresh air and far more

"real" of a villain. A character driven by greed and power, he also

maintains a shred of humanity, enough that when he meets his

downfall at the movie's end, you still manage to feel compassion

for him. This is not a movie where the child roots for the good guys

and rejoices when the bad guy is defeated. This is a story where

the child sees that there is good in evil and evil in good, and that

love and compassion is the only power that truly matters.

If only more children's movies were like The Mouse and Child and

didn't fall prey to the "short attention span" myths. While I'll admit

that this movie probably isn't for some children, it is miles ahead of

any other children's movie that I've seen in terms of content. If you

want your child to sit still for 90 minutes and have mindless prattle,

catchy songs and potty humor sieved through their brain, then this

movie is not for you. But if you're looking for your child to actually

learn something about life and the world, then you have found

what you're looking for.

After 30 years of knowing about this non-Disney animated feature, I finally decided to watch The Mouse and His Child on YouTube. The animation is both haunting and beautiful in many places. The characters are appealing when they concern the "wind-ups" and some forest animals and suitably creepy when displaying most of the rats. The story seems simple but some characters go on tangents about life that threatens to become pretentious after a while though that happens only for a few minutes. Not much of humor happens here though it was amusing hearing Frank Nelson as a crow, Andy Devine (in his last role) as a frog, and Cloris Leachman as, I think, a bird. I was pleasantly surprised to see in the end credits that of Charles Schulz Creative Associates as one of the companies involved. Oh, and one of the wonderfully weirdest scenes involved seeing the Bosco can show the dog posed with a picture of him looking the same in position ad infinitum (to illustrate infinity). On that note, I guess that's a recommendation for The Mouse and His Child.

1977's "The Extraordinary Adventures of the Mouse and His Child" was coproduced in Hollywood by the Japanese greeting card company Sanrio, lasting a full year on a budget of $1.5 million. Russell Hoban's 1967 novel proved a difficult subject for what was advertised as a children's animated feature, confirmed by its dismal box office take as a perceived BOMB (as Leonard Maltin casually dismissed it). While the animation itself leaves much to be desired, the story remained faithful to its source and many viewers from a very young age could not forget the lessons gleaned from their long ago acquaintance. We open on a tramp with a barking dog looking through the window of McMacken's Toys to see a clockwork father mouse marching while holding his son in the air, their predetermined fate to repeat this same action every time their owner winds them up through the key in the father's back. The other toys scoff at the child mouse's wish for them all to remain a family unit, only for father and son to fall off the shelf and wind up at the dumpster, where the aforementioned tramp (the distinctive tones of venerable John Carradine) repairs the damage, winds them up, and watches them walk away to an uncertain future with but two words: "be tramps!" Top billed Peter Ustinov has a field day with Manny the Rat, putting toys like them to work as slave labor for his rodent army, not expecting these two mice to escape with the help of Andy Devine's psychic Frog (the final role for the rotund actor with the gravelly voice). The only way that the mouse and his child can be free is to become 'self winding,' thus self reliant and able to cope in a world of infinite dangers, rather than discarded when no longer needed like so many more deserving toys. The climax finds Manny earning his comeuppance and Carradine's tramp surveying things with the last two words: "be happy." The central characters are actually its weakest link, they move from one incident to the next without complaint and let others handle the rough stuff. The drab, cheerless colors are poorly realized, perhaps deliberately, ably invoking a gloomy atmosphere that still managed to sear itself into many childhood memories. Despite special billing and with only four words to speak, John Carradine fans may be forgiven to find their hero ill used, but another animated part loomed on the horizon conceived in his own arthritic image, 1982's "The Secret of NIMH," while his first such feature, "Shinbone Alley," was an adult item from 1969 that also suffered a similar disappointing fate in cinemas and still remains unappreciated. Other vocal talent on hand include Cloris Leachman, Sally Kellerman, Neville Brand, and Jack Benny sidekick Frank Nelson, all very impressive for a title that has only been issued on VHS in the US.

THE MOUSE AND HIS CHILD is a symbolic study of human suffering that apparently was palmed off as a kiddie cartoon feature because of it's characters(A clockwork toy mouse and his son).This film, however, has very little that recommends it as a typical children's cartoon--it's dark, with somber colors, no chirpy songs, no silly sidekicks or lame comedy. The mouse and his child fall from the safety of their toy store window and are cast out with the garbage, after which they roam around the outside world, looking to be "self-winding". Along the way they encounter various nefarious characters, including a rat who exploits worn-out toys by forcing them to labor for him hauling scavenged items from the garbage. See the symbolism yet? I didn't when I first saw this thing when I was six, but, in regard to the reviewer who wondered if children would "get" this movie, I can say that I felt sadness for these two little toy mice, struggling to find their way in a cruel world, and wondered if they would ever be safe. I knew that the rat was the bad guy, and that the mice would have to escape him if they were to find what they wanted. There's nothing here that I believe would disturb a child, it's grim tone won't endear the movie to most families. While children might not understand the symbolic signifigance of all they see, they can understand the mice's need to belong and be happy, which is what the film is about. Try this film if you sicken from the sugar supplied by the recent Disney offerings; this one offers substantial food for thought