The Mouse and His Child

The Mouse and His Child (1977)
Directors: Charles Swenson & Fred Wolf
Writers: Russell Hoban (novel) & Carol Monpere (writer)
Release Date: 18 November 1977 (USA)-
Genre: Family - Animation-
Length: 1:17:05



The Mouse and His Child is a 1977 animated film based on the 1967 Russell Hoban novel The Mouse and His Child. In the United States the film is also known as The Extraordinary Adventures of the Mouse and His Child. Critics panned the film for watering down the philosophical themes in the novel.


* Plot :


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. The child mouse proposes staying at the shop to form a family, which the other toys ridicule. 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.