The Mouse And His Child (1977)

Directed by: Charles Swenson/Fred Wolf
Written by: Carol Monpere
Based on book by: Russell Hoban

Since I managed to see The Secret World Of Og the other night, I figured I would go on with the bizarro films from my childhood and see this one. Like that film, I only remembered bits and paces of this one. In fact, I only remembered ONE bit of this one.

(This has some spoilers, so beware.)

Years ago (probably the early 80s), I was sitting at my aunt and uncle’s house watching cable. That was still a pretty novel thing for me back then. My family never had cable, so seeing it at their place was a real treat. And it was OLD cable, too. We’re talking back when the “cable box” was an actual box with a slider on it that clicked at every channel. (Old folks like myself know exactly what I’m talking about.) So, I slid it on over to where I knew HBO was…somewhere in the upper regions. Like 99 or something.

And there I saw a scene that would haunt me for the rest of my life. An animated movie so dark and twisted that it slightly scarred me. I don’t even know if I saw the whole thing, but I do remember this: a rat picking up a rock and smashing the shit out of a pair of cute little clockwork mice. Then, just before he brought it down one last time, he looked at what he had done and suddenly looked absolutely horrified. He ran away as if his conscience wouldn’t follow him.

That wasn’t much to go on to find this movie. As I said, I don’t even know if I saw the whole thing that day. But to a 7 or 8 year old, that’s pretty horrific.

Skip ahead a little over 20 years and I’m hanging out with some friends. One of them starts talking about this surreal, dark movie that absolutely stunned him as a kid. Something about clockwork mice and a dog food can with infinity on it. Could this be?!

I asked him about the rat smashing the mice and he said, “Yep. That’s the one. The Mouse And His Child. Scared the SHIT out of me as a kid.”

HOLY SHIT!!! THAT’S IT!!!

Unavailable in any way, shape or form. Released on VHS years and years ago and extremely hard to find these days. Never released on dvd.

Shit.

Not long ago, though, that same friend told me that someone had very nicely uploaded the entire movie onto YouTube.

And people say that YouTube is a BAD thing. Among all of the stupid, waste-of-time videos of kids knocking themselves on their heads or singing along to Avril Levigne, there is the occasional gem. And this is definitely one of those.

Based on a book by Russell Hoban (who also wrote Emmett Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas!) and directed by Fred Wolf and Charles Swenson, this is one of those kids’ movies of the 70s that tried to be too cerebral for grown-ups, and yet still appeal to children. It’s about growing up, making your own way in the world and, oh yeah, infinity, self-reliance/discovery and existentialism.

We start out in a toy shop where a pair of mice attached at the hands are being set out for display. It’s a wind up toy that dances around in a circle, lifting the Mouse Child up in the air as he dances. When all of the humans have gone away at midnight, all of the toys come to life. The Mouse and his Child decide that, instead of being sold, they want to stay at “home” with the other toys and be a family. Unfortunately, they fall off of the shelf and break. They no longer dance in a circle, they walk in a straight line.

The Mouse and his Child are thrown away and their adventure begins. They are just trying to get back to their home, but they are taken to the dump. That’s when they start their journey to become self-winding. They meet a rat (Peter Ustinov) who, of course, takes advantage of them. One of his servants, a frog (John Ford/John Wayne stalwart Andy Devine), befriends the mice and tries to help them. They also meet an acting troupe (including a bird voiced by Cloris Leachman) and an old muskrat who does some clockwork tinkering, all of whom try to help the mice in their own, eccentric ways. Usually, they get something out of them first.

(In addition to those celebrity voices, listen for Sally Kellerman as The Seal and John Carradine as The Tramp.)

This is definitely one of those movies that makes you feel a certain way. It’s not necessarily a good feeling, either, and that’s what’s so strange about it. It kind of made me feel small and insignificant. Like there’s so much bad out there that even the good people aren’t always good. And when we’re finally taken away from home (as we all are), we’re lost in the great big world.

What the fuck?!?! Is that really the kind of movie you want your kid to grow up on? Jesus! Around the time that they met the stoned turtle and had to look into infinity on the fucking dog food can I was ready for my brain to explode just a little bit.

Disney this ain’t. No way, no how.

And this, apparently, is a watered down version of Hoban’s book. It makes me kind of want to read the book. But it also scares me away from it.

The animation is pretty typical for the late 70s. It’s that really surreal animation where everything on a character moves at once, whether it needs to or not. The frog was full of flailing limbs and weird dances. I know the backgrounds weren’t always moving, but it felt like they were. I don’t know who started that kind of animation, but I’m kind of glad that it stopped. It’s not necessarily bad. Just unnerving.

And, of course there’s music. The theme song, while pretty catchy and (sigh) actually quite pretty, reminded me of something that would end up on “Fantasy Island.” I don’t know why that came to mind, but it did. And, really, it’s the only memorable song in the entire movie. Probably because it’s at the beginning and end in its entirety.

I do actually suggest seeing this movie. Not really because it’s a great piece of work, but because it’s such a strange piece of work. It’s a part of a lot of peoples’ childhoods that has been completely forgotten. And, maybe…just maybe…if it gets enough hits on freakin’ YouTube, it will end up getting a dvd release. And I think that will help a lot of people of my generation get over some of their latent phobias of moving on with their lives.

Or maybe it will make us just want to stay home with our mommies and daddies.