The Mouse and His Child (film)

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The Mouse and His Child
Directed by	Charles Swenson Fred Wolf
Produced by	Walt deFaria
Written by	Russell Hoban (novel) Carol Monpere
Starring	Peter Ustinov Neville Brand Andy Devine Sally Kellerman Cloris Leachman
Music by	Roger Kellaway
Release date(s)	1977
Running time	83 min.
Country	US / Japan
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Mouse and His Child is a 1977 animated film based on the 1967 Russell Hoban novel of the same name. In the United States the film is also known as The Extraordinary Adventures of the Mouse and His Child.

1 Cast and crew
2 Storyline
3 Criticism
4 DVD
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Cast and crew

Director - Charles Swenson and Fred Wolf

Screenplay - Russell Hoban and Carol Monpere

Peter Ustinov .... Manny the Rat (voice)
Cloris Leachman .... Euterpe (voice)
Sally Kellerman .... The Seal (voice)
Andy Devine .... The Frog (voice)
Alan Barzman .... The Mouse (voice)
Marcy Swenson .... The Mouse Child (voice)
Neville Brand .... Iggy (voice)
Regis Cordic .... The Clock (voice)
Joan Gerber .... The Elephant (voice)
Bob Holt .... Muskrat (voice)
Mel Leven .... Ralphie (voice)
Maitzi Morgan .... Teller/Starling (voice)
Frank Nelson .... Crow (voice)
Cliff Norton .... Crow (voice)
Cliff Osmond .... C. Serpentina (voice)
Iris Rainer .... Paper People/Starling (voice)
Robert Ridgely .... Jack in the Box (voice)
Charles Woolf .... Bluejay/Paper People (voice)
John Carradine .... The Tramp (voice)

[edit] Storyline

The Mouse and his son are the two parts of a single small wind-up toy, which must be wound up by means of a key in the father's back. After having been unboxed, they discover themselves in a toy shop where they befriend a toy elephant and toy seal. After falling from a counter and becoming broken, they are thrown in the trash. Outside, they become enslaved by Manny the Rat, who runs a casino in the city dump and uses broken wind-up toys as his slave labor force. With the aid of a psychic frog, the mice escape and meet various animal characters on a quest of becoming free and independent "self-winding" toys. They rediscover the elephant and seal, who are somewhat broken down, and manage to form a family and destroy the rat empire.

[edit] Criticism

Many Generation X Americans recall watching the animated film on television in the late 1970s or the early 1980s and being amazed. However, critics panned the film for watering down the philosophical themes in the novel.