The Mouse and His Child

A novel by Russell Hoban, The Mouse and His Child tells the story of a wind-up toy mouse-and-child pair and their friends the Tin Seal and the Elephant in a small-town toy shop. The central point of the novel is the nature of free will and self-determination; in the toy shop, the toys are told that they can only do what they're "wound" to do, but Mouse and Child want to be "self-winding" and determine their own future, and live with their friends as a "family" instead of being sold or disposed of.

After an accident in the toy shop, Mouse and Child are thrown out and sent to the town dump, where the story actually begins and we meet the Big Bad, Manny the Rat, who represents the dangers out in the world beyond the toy shop, enslaving wind-ups to plunder for him and his gang of rats. As Mouse and Child travel the countryside just outside the town, they discover several characters that help them on their quest, including a kindly Muskrat and a Frog who can see the future, but also encounter other dangers such as militant mice and hungry seabirds. Eventually, Mouse, Child, Elephant and the Tin Seal reunite and defeat Manny's gang, and Mouse and Child's dream of a family comes true.

The novel was adapted into an animated movie in 1977, bankrolled by Sanrio (the people behind Hello Kitty) and Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates, and animated by Murakami-Wolf (the same studio that made The Point and the 1980s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series), with a score by composer Roger Kellaway (probably best known for the closing theme of All in The Family; he had just been nominated for an Oscar for the 1976 version of A Star Is Born). It flopped at the box office, but was popular years later on cable and pay-TV services, especially HBO, and was released on VHS in the early 1980s. It hasn't been released on DVD, but the whole movie is available on YouTube.

Just like Watership Down, which was popular at the same time, it's proven to be a rich source of Nightmare Fuel; in fact, TV Guide listings in the late 1980s warned that it "may frighten younger children."

Tropes used in The Mouse and His Child include:

Child: Mr. Hawk, where are you taking us?
Hawk: Lunch!
Child: What's "lunch?"
Hawk: Watch!
(The hawk attempts to eat the father, but quickly discovers the true nature of the "mice". He squawks and drops them into a pond)
Hawk: You're not part of the balance of nature! (flies off)

  • Complete Monster: Somewhat avoided since after Manny smashes both the father and son, he starts looking fearful and scared, looking horrified on what he has done and continued to mope about what he did.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Manny, in the novel; this was glossed over in the movie.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending
  • Heel Face Revolving Door: Manny Rat, very much so in the novel, eventually landing on good and staying there at the end of the novel and presumably until the end of his days.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Peter Ustinov who voiced Prince John in Robin Hood voices Manny.
  • Nightmare Fuel: The scene where Manny's henchman Ralphie dismantles the donkey. The Shadow Discretion Shot doesn't make it any less traumatic.
    • When the title characters get smashed with a rock.
  • Parental Abandonment: Sort of. Child wants the Elephant to be his mom.
  • Trauma Conga Line: AND HOW. One particular sequence sees the mice grabbed by a hawk that tries to eat them, dumped into a pond, a catfish tries to eat them again, then they are forced to argue about recursive infinity with a snapping turtle at the bottom of the pond.
  • You Dirty Rat: Manny and his gang.
  • What Measure Is A Wind-Up?: The main point of the story.
  • What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: There are several "trippy" segments in the film, including a section where the Child sees the label on the Dog Food tin repeat inside itself numerous times (because the mascot depicted on the label holds an exact replica).
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Symbolic?: The Mouse and his Child both yearn for some personal independence from each other and their reliance on their wind-up key to move. In fact most of their problems stem from the fact that their wind-up key stops and they need someone to turn it for them, and many animals exploit this particular weakness.
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